PageRank Made Simple

I've was inspired to create this thread to address one of the most popular topics in this section.

PageRank: What is it?

The PageRank algorithm (commonly referred to as PR) is a technology developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford that uses more than 200 signals to measure the importance and query-specific relevance of a webpage.

Google states that pages they deem important will receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.

How is PageRank acquired?

When a page is linked to another, that is considered a "vote" cast toward the importance of the linked page. Think of this "vote" as a recommendation or a thumbs up. Therefore it is of great importance to you to have relevant pages of higher PageRank to link back to your site. This makes sense, because people do tend to link to relevant content, and pages that are of lesser importance will most likely not be linked to.

Here's an analogy.

In regards to doing business, would you rather receive a recommendation from Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey....or would you rather receive a vote from Britney Spears and Kevin Federline? Obviously a thumbs up from an authoritative source holds more weight, thus you should focus your backlinking strategies toward links coming from relevant (of the same topic) and authoritative sources.

How Can I See My PageRank?

To see the PageRank of any page download the Google Toolbar. A PageRank of NoPageRank to Ten are assigned to individual pages within a website, not the entire website.

If your PageRank is displayed as a solid gray bar then it can mean any of several things including that your site is too new to be measured, not indexed or even de-indexed.


Is PageRank the most important factor in ranking?

Certainly not the most important, but it does play an important role. However, often you will find sites that are ranked at #1 for specific keywords that are lower in PageRank than those below it. So while it is something you should not ignore there are several other factors that come into play within the SERP's and this is certainly not a SEO tutorial.

There are also many flaws with PageRank and just as it is calculated with data, that data can also be manipulated.

How Can I Increase My PageRank?

Ah, we've arrived at the golden question. There are several methods to achieve this, some are free and some aren't. Notably, those that are free are arguably the most effective. Here is a comprehensive listing of those many successful webmasters and SEO's have found most effective.

To Increase PageRank: Your main goal is to build relevant and highly authoritative backlinks.

This can be done most efficiently by:

• Link exchange with similar/relevant, higher PR websites.
We have an entire section devoted to this on DP.

• Link purchase with similar/relevant, higher PR websites.

• Passively, through a blog article written about your product/service and linked back to your website or a well-written syndicated article you've submitted through an article directory. Ezinearticles.com is one my favorite article sites for both building authority and traffic.

• A well-written Link Request informing a prominent website of your service/product thus inspiring a write-up.

• Directory submission to authoritative directories such as Dmoz (free but difficult to acquire), Yahoo! Directory (paid), etc. For more information read the DigitalPoint thread Directory 101

• Blog commenting on highly relevant, high PR blogsites. If PR is passed through proper keyword text this can be of significant value. Blogs are extremely easy to come across, however I place an emphasis on those that hold the most weight which are arguably .edu. Many have found success with relevant edu blogs using the Edu blog finder.

• Creating hubpages on sites such as Squidoo and performing similar tasks with that "hub" as those described above. You generally will benefit from the authoritative nature of the site you create the hub with. Read more about the most effective way to create a Squidoo Lens.

Use your own discretion with your efforts to build PageRank for Search Engine Ranking purposes. I hope this thread has given value to the forum and answered alot of unanswered questions.

-openmindz

 

I was referred to Digital Point as "the" place to be - and I see that referral was correct. I've learned so much in the short time I've been here - and this is one great example! Thanks for the excellent explanation (and ideas), esp. on the .edu blogs.

I do have a question, however. How does the recent uproar about Squidoo "spamming" affect what we do now, and do we need to change approach in setting up a Squidoo hub?

 

Thank you DartLady, I really appreciate your comments.

Squidoo has made recent efforts to do housecleaning on those spammy hubs that don't add value to the site. There is a way to promote your products and blatant spamming is not the proper way to go about it.

Create a lens based on the subject of your website and where relevant make a very simple reference to the site. That's all, no selling involved. If your lens is written well enough and your site is that good it will self itself.

 

Nice effort. Keep up the good work.

 

i agree with you... most important buying text links and dmoz.. thanx for post

 

edu blog finder nice tool thanks

 

Why you encourage people to purchase links, google is not allowed and you have the chance to be deindexed.

 

Buying textlinks is not the most important thing. Watch out you dont want to get google banned. Make something useful on your site that is a reason for people to naturally link to you.

 

I guess this info can help out all the newbies.

You guys should know this all by now!

 

you did not mention having relevant content on your site, alt tags, page headers, h1 tags, keyword usage...only backlinks.

hardly Page Rank Made Simple like your title suggests.

 

I think you are confusing on page SEO with PR.

Cheers
James

 

doesn't SEO = PR when done right?

ox

 

Backlink weight is in no way related to the domain name. It depends on the relevancy, anchor text and PR of linking page.

 

PR can help your SERP but not absolute

 

i bought some links of higher PR website for my site.i hope it can be most efficiently.

 

nice information for page rank, mainly page rank depends on back links of website

 

On page SEO can affect where your pages rank in the SERP, but adding alt tags, page headers, h1 tags etc does not affect PR.

Having a high PR does not automatically mean high rankings in the SERP if your on page SEO sucks.

Excellent on page SEO and high PR is where its at. (basically)

Cheers
James

 

buying links is pretty expensive. i rather get links my own way

 

Nice contribution, SEO is not a one day job, you have to work in a balanced way to build up your links from different techniques.

 

thanks for the effort.great post