Hello, I've been noticing that websites that display higher in search results appear higher and in some cases much higher in key word searches than my site yet some on the higher placed sites have lower page rankings. Can anyone explain this? Thanks, Harry PatriotsFanShop.com
If the entire algorithm was based only PageRank then all searches would always return the same results. PageRank is a "General" importance indicator. PageRank and SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) might not exactly be in synch also.
You need to look at allinanchor and the others by using mcdars tools as PR does not influence the SERP as much these days as it did.
Page Rank is ONLY related to volume of incoming links, and the Page rank associated with those pages. It is a straight maths value, and has nothing to do with relevance (other than it being perceived as a vote for relevance if someone is linking to you). Pages get to the top by being perceived by the algo as being the most relevant for the phrase being searched for. You can become the most relevant by having relevant content and relevant links. Nothing to do with PR, although as your incoming links get higher so will your pr rise.
Thanks to everyone who replied. Cab Z + 2 explain what you mean by "allinanchor and the others by using mcdars tools"? Thanks again to everyone. Harry
Page Rank gets easily confused with search placement because they are both effects with some material coincidence in their causes--but they are not cause and effect, any more than the Nile overflows because certain stars have achieved a certain pattern in the sky. A page's "Page Rank" (PR) is a calculation based, in a somewhat complex way, on the number of links to that page from other pages (whether within the same site or external), weighted to some degree by the PR of those linking pages. Any one web page's PR thus depends to some extent on the PR of every page on the web (that Google knows about). If that seems like pulling yourself up by your bootstraps (how does one know any page's PR if no page's PR is initially known?), to a degree it is, but, by a series of successive approximations, a satisfactory exactness can be reached within practical limits of calculation. Search placement is determined by a distinctly different calculation. In it, inbound links play a material part--a dominant, part, many argue--but they are not quite the whole story. In some cases, depending on a multitude of factors, a page with quite low PR can be determined to be highly relevant to a given search. (I long had the #1 page on a keyword--an author's name--that was mildly but by no means wholly obscure, even though the page had, wait for it, wait for it, zero backlinks and PR0; the page is now a PR4, and has two baclinks from outside my site, one of PR4 or over, yet has slipped to #2 rank.) In any event, while backlinks have a large effect on PR and normally a large effect on SERP, they do not necessarily dominate SERP, and in some niches on-page content may trump a pitiful PR.
Here is the address [you need to click on the allin radio button] http://www.mcdar.net/dance/index.php here is another http://www.mcdar.net/KeywordTool/keywordtool.asp and another for Yahoo/Google http://www.mcdar.net/Q-Check/QuickCheck.asp and to top it all off Shawn has some of these in tools in the menu bar above