What is the Google Pagerank?

The Google Pagerank system is integral to the operation of the world’s favourite search engine. It is a system for ranking all web pages indexed by Google.

So important is the pagerank system to the performance of web pages that there are hundreds of sites dedicated to analysing it!

According to Google itself in its Technology section:

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyses the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.

To get started, and to see where your site (and others) rank according to Google, you will need to download the Google Toolbar. Whenever you visit a site on the web, the toolbar will show how “relevant” that particular page is – anywhere between 0 and 10. Chances are, if you have just uploaded a site for the first time, your site will be ranked “0”. Of course, Google is ranked “10”, and major traffic sites won’t be far off.

Pagerank (PR) is related to link popularity (i.e. other sites linking to yours), however it is more dependent on the quality of these links than merely the number. Google looks at the popularity and relevance of inward links in determining their importance.

As well as the external links, it is important firstly to look at the way your own pages link internally. When you look at most sites, you’ll find their main index page has the highest rank out of all indexed pages for that site. As you step down the directory structure to secondary links and below, the page rank will usually decrease. So, you could have a PR of 6 on your main page, 5 on your secondary pages, and so on.

Therefore, to increase the chances of getting healthy page ranks for pages beneath the home page, make sure your site is linked together healthily. Link all secondary pages to the home page, and to each other. If you have several articles, in different directories on a similar subject, link these together too – Google will see them as relevant and rank accordingly. The key is to make life as easy as possible for the Googlebot (which crawls your site to find pages for the Google engine) – make life easy for yourself and link your pages together.

The external links your site has is the most important determining factor in establishing your page rank. Not only are external links a good source of traffic in their own right, but good quality links from relevant sites will boost your site’s Page ranking.

It is essential to exchange links with sites with a PR of 4 or more. Sites of all PR’s are worthwhile and should be contacted, but those with 4+ have a direct impact on your page ranking. If these sites have a subject relevant to your own, even better.

As is the theme of our site as a whole, good sites have a better chance of exchanging links than sites put up purely to generate traffic and sell products. If you have good quality content, good layout and design, you have a far better chance of building reciprocal links to sites in the subject area as yours. Google knows there is no way around this fundamental fact, and will rank accordingly. You will very rarely find rubbish or low quality content sites with a PR over 4 or 5. With a PR of 6 and over and you’re doing well. The content-rich sites we have overseen over the past few years are all 6 or more, due to their quality content and good links with other companies in a similar area of business.