Google Page Rank
What is this PageRank all about?
PageRank - or PR - is a system that Google implemented a couple of years ago, and can best be described as a rating system they give to webpages.
To look at some more professional definitions :-
PageRank (PR) is Google's method of calculating a web page's relevance and importance through the quality of sites linking to it. (www.leapinghare.co.uk/help/glossary.html )
or
PageRank is a link analysis algorithm which assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google PageRank)
What are the PR ranks?
To simplify - PR is a score given to a webpage - form 0 - 10 out of a possible 10, where 0 is worst and 10 is best. To define better :
0-3 :- lowest rating - can be because a site is new on the net or because it is not properly optimized
4-6 :- regarded as a rather good rating - these sites have been going for some time now, and are usually ranking rather well.
7-8 :- very good
9 :- excellent - and rather impossible to achieve - a site such as Microsoft's has a 9 PR
10 :- the best but also rather impossible to achieve - Google has a PR 10 and almost no one else, except if closely related to the Google guys.
How is PR then looked at out of an SEO viewpoint?
Put as simply as possible - a link from a higher PR website, means a better referral to your site as seen by Google. For example - if a site with a PR5 has a link back to yours, Google then basically says "if this site, with such a good rating, refers your site, then your site must have value". This should then increase your own PR to about 2 or 3 and subsequently increase rankings.
Therefore, if someone with a PR0 wants to exchange links with your site with its own PR3, then its better not to do so, as this might influence your rankings negatively. It is better to try and get links from sites with higher PR's than your own, than vice versa.
How do I increase my own site's PR?
By following our guidelines on linking and a solid linking strategy - as can be seen here.
How can I see a site's PR?
You need to download the Google Toolbar - don't worry - it's spam free and will not harm your pc - Firefox has its own PR tool built in.
It takes a couple of seconds to download and make sure when you install, to select not to send info from your pc back to google.
To download and install Google Toolbar - click here.
Once you have installed Google Toolbar - you will be able to see a site's PR - as below:-
Links and PR ?
As you can see out of these 2 articles, the more and better links you have, the higher your PR - eg - the site
http://www.statcounter.com/ has 152 million links as listed in Yahoo - click on the link below :-
and thus a subsequent PR of 9/10. Need we say more? Are links important? Read more about links - click here
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