Google PageRank Explained
by: Tony
Zhu
Google PageRank has always
been a controvertial issue among us webmasters. There seems to be many
questions floating around with suggests that many people are not familier
with how PageRank works. Here, I will attempt to answer some of the common
questions and discard the rumors.
1. What is PageRank?
Here is what Google says:
"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 analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are
themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages
"important."
Click here for more...
In other words, PageRank is
simply a mechanical algorithm by Google that attempts to evaluate the
importance of your website larged based on the amount and quality of
backlinks your website have. For the more intellectual crowds out there,
check out The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web .
2. How do I check the PR of
a webpage?
If you use Internet
Explorer, download and install the Google Toolbar. There will be a green
indicator on the toolbar that tells the PR of a particular page. Hovering
your mouse over the ind icator will give you a numeric value of the PR. In
addition, there are numerous tools out there that will check the PR of a
page without the toolbar. If you use Mozilla Firefox, you can install the
PageRank Checker extention.
3. Why do I want a higher
PR?
It used to be believed that
a higher PR value will give you a higher position in SERPs (Search Engine
Results Pages). However, this is no longer the case. As any experienced
webmaster, and even Google themselves, would tell you, there are hundreds
of factors that determine where your page is displayed in the results.
Google states that they do
not recommend webmasters exchange links to increase their PR. They see it
as trying to "game" their search engine. Lastly, many people believe that
a higher PR causes Googlebot to crawl through a page more often.
4. Is it a good idea to buy
links for a higher PR?
Websites with higher PR (6,
7, 8) often make money by selling links to sites with lower PR. As Google
states, if they are aware that sites are selling PR instead of just
advertising space (how they can differ the two I can't say or if, ind eed,
they can), both the buyer and seller may be penalized. The penalty may
take the form of a lower position in SERPs and/or a downgrade of PR. Thus,
we recommend that you do not buy links simply for a higher PR.
5. But I still would like
to improve the PR of my site. What should I do?
First of all, sites don't
have PR, pages do. (hence the name Page Rank) Therefore, it is possible
for an internal page to have a higher PR than the homepage. In order to
get PR, the only way is to get links to it. Incoming backlink from a page
with a higher PR is more valuable than incoming a backlink from a page
with a lower PR. In addition, the PageRank that a link "gives" is spread
out between the number of links on the page. For example, a backlink from
a PR4 page with only two links on the page can be more valuable than a
backlink from a PR7 page with fifty links on the page.
6. How many links would I
need to get my homepage to PR7?
The answer to this question
varies greatly between different sites. Sometimes a couple links from
other PR7 or PR8 pages will do. On the other hand, you may need hundreds
of backlinks from PR3 or PR4 pages.
7. I've acquired many
backlinks to my site. Why isn't my PR improving?
There are many reasons why
you may not be seeing the results. First of all, if you see PR5 for a
page, the real PR may be PR5.0000 to PR5.9999. You have no way of knowing
the exact PR of your site. Thus, you are simply not seeing the results.
Secondly, Google might have done a PR algorithm update. Lastly, the PR of
the pages that are giving you incoming backlinks might have changes, thus
changing your PR as well.
8. How often do PR change?
Results may vary (a week to
six mont hs).
9. Why is my PR in the
Google Directory different than my toolbar PR?
Google uses a different
scale for measuring PageRank in the Google Directory.
10. Why is it so much
harder to go from PR6 to PR7 than from PR5 to PR6?
Google Pa geRank value goes
up logarithmically. (i.e. going from PR9 to PR10 may look like the same as
going from PR1 to PR2, but is actually 1000 times more difficult). The
exact logarithmic scale is unknown, but there has been speculation that it
may be around 5. (i.e. going from PR2 to PR3 is 5 times more difficult
than going from PR1 to PR2)
11. I just lost all my PR!
Don't panic just yet! Check
to see if your PR is white-barred or grey-barred (white or grey in the PR
ind icator). If it is white barred, then your PR will probably come back.
However, if your PR is greyed, then it means that Google saw your site as
having used unethical SEO techniques (e.g. selling/buying PR, keyword
stuffing). Also, Google sees
http://example.com/abc.htm and
http://www.example.com/abc.htm as two
different pages. In this case, the PR of the page is spread between these
two UR Ls.
12. If PR is virtually
useless, then why is it so expensive to "buy"?
Over the years there has
been many misconcepts about PR. Sites with higher PR claim that PR is
valueable so that they can make more money selling links. Gradually, the
misconceptions quietly built up.
13. What's up with the
PageRank formula I see on the Net?
You may have seen a formula
to determine PR. I cannot say that the formula is untrue, but it's the
implementation of the formula that is in question. Just remember, the
Internet is NOT all about Pagerank!
by-InaWhim.com, |
