What is Google pagerank?

What is Google PageRank

PageRank is a patented search algorithm, used by Google, owned by Stanford University, and developed by Larry Page, and Sergey Brin.  It is one of many factors used in Google ranking, and is perhaps the most adhered to set of hypothetical rules for designing SEO, and implementing SEM procedures.  PageRank determines the importance of the pages associated with each within a given set of documents, or other defined parameters.

Google has this to say about PageRank:
“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”.

Essentially, every incoming link on a site is a rated vote for that site, and each vote is given more or less importance according to the current rank of the page casting the vote.  Many people assume that PageRank is the same as a top-rated page, and while this may be the case in many cases, such a top rating has also been achieved via numerous other calculations as well.  As an analysis tool, PageRank is indispensable in determining SEO guidelines and the design of search engine friendly pages.

PageRank uses a hierarchal system similar to the Richter Scale, where PR0 is the lowest rank, and PR10 is the highest.  Many people confuse PageRank with a search rank, but the two are only mildly related.  If SEO is broken into a set of categories which are ranked and then averaged together, PageRank would constitute the “popularity” factor; it is based on how many other sites in the Google database send traffic to you.

Being referenced by a higher ranking site will increase the approval rating of your own, with some exceptions.  Sites that are banned by Google, for instance, have no votes to cast, since those sites are not crawled for outbound links.  Sites that are not banned, but have a low favorably rating themselves, may actually reduce the PageRank for your site.

PageRank (”Page” part stands for the author’s name) is then used as part of the Google rating system to determine the overall value of the page to it’s visitors.  Keyword usage, in all parts of a page (including title, meta-tags, and document body, among others),  is another important factor, as well as domain names,  top level domain used (”.edu” is reported to be among the highest ranked), and even number of visitors to the site.

PageRank is vulnerable to intentional misuse, and Google is constantly looking for ways to balance the reliability of PageRank against new methods of playing the system to achieve artificial ranking.  Known directories and sites that claim to boost your inbound links are either unfavorable to a PageRank, or have no influence at all, as they are considered a biased rating indicator.  Other directories, such as DMOZ, as well as institutions such as Wikipedia, are considered to be excellent references to include PageRank, as they carry a certain degree of authority in a site’s quality.

Article written by SEOnotepad.com