What's the Story
on PageRank?
By Donald Nelson (c) 2007
A lot of website owners are upset or puzzled when their website's Google PageRank
goes down or
does not rise. Is it worth losing any sleep over changes in that green line and
number that appear
in a Google tool bar at the top of your browser? I think that excessive worry or
thought about PageRank
is not constructive, and it is better to put it all in perspective by taking a
rational look at what
PageRank is and what it is not.
First of all the concept behind PageRank is indeed at the heart of Google's ranking
process. The Google
founders came from academia and they noticed that in many academic documents some
sources were continually
cited. They reasoned that if a particular document such as a book or research paper
was mentioned in many
places then it must be important. They applied this to the web and assumed that if
one website links to
another it is in fact, giving a "vote" for that site. A website that has many
incoming links must have a
certain degree of importance. In the current Google algorithm the quantity and
quality of incoming links
is certainly a factor in deciding the ranking of a particular website for any given
search-query.
Think about it. In the early days of the web people would build websites and then
they would tell their
visitors to chëck out other "cool" sites and they would link to these sites.
This is the process of natural
linking and it still goes on. If you really have good content, people will link to
you without letting you
know. Similarly, if your name is Bob Dylan and your website is www.bobdylan.com,
thousands of people will
link to you without you having to send a cheesy email begging for a link.
Various government agencies, educational institutions, established companies and
anyone else who is "big"
in the "real world" is likely to also be big on the Internet simply by virtue of
their previous fame and
accomplishment. Google's ranking system took this into consideration and this is one
of the reasons why
Google is currently the number one search engine. It gives better results and that
is why people use it.
But, does that mean that only the big players can be seen on the net? Far from it.
While there is a
difference between one guy working in his house with one computer and a corporate
giant with a whole staff,
and this is indeed reflected in rankings, the Internet provides a much leveler
playing field than in yesteryear.
Prior to 1995, it would have been very hard for someone to spread their news and
views far and wide as bloggers
do today. It costs millíons of dollars to publish a daily newspaper or to
print and circulate a magazine, but it
costs far less to publish a website or a blog, and lots of "little guys" have taken
advantage of the power of
the Internet.
But what about PageRank, how much of it do I really need to get my site noticed? For
those who are not familiar
with the PageRank system. Google supplies a tool bar which you can download and
install on your browser. If you
make a complete installation with all the advanced features, then every time you
open a new website you will see
a green and white bar with the label PageRank. Put your mouse on the bar and you
will see a number from 0 to 10.
If a website is not indexed by Google or banned by Google, the bar may be grey or
all white.
But what do the numbers mean? I had a client who was worried about his number 3
PageRank figure and based on my
observation I answered him with my unofficial view on the rankings. Here is how I
currently see it:
PageRank 0-2 shows that a site does not have many links and needs work, However, and
this a big "however," it
may not really affect your search engine rankings. I have a client with a page rank
of 2 and his site ranks
well, even number one, for several search terms in a fairly competitive industrial
category. So PageRank is
not everything; it may have an impact on your rankings and traffíc, but in
some cases it may not matter. In
any case if you have a PageRank of 0-2, you can work on it through proper link
building activity which I will
explain at the end of the article.
PageRank 3 can be OK in some cases but in highly competitive industries you should
work to improve it.
PageRank 4 is quite a normal number and indicates that you have enough links in
either quantity or quality to
make your site competitive.
PageRank 5 indicates that a site has many links or links from authoritative sites,
and that Google has good
"trust" in the site. It is a respectable and attainable PageRank.
PageRank 6 is very difficult to attain. This rank indicates that the site has many
links and links from
respected places. Remember the example of www.bobdylan.com, which I mentioned above;
it has a PageRank 6,
so you can get an idea of the difficulty involved.
PageRank 7-10 is usually earned by large and established institutions or websites
which have tremendous
authority, due to the quantity and quality of the incoming links. It is extremely
difficult to attain this
ranking. You really have to be special to get it.
So, don't worry excessively about PageRank. First look at your traffíc, then
look at your salës and finally
at your bottom line. They are the important numbers to watch. If you want to
íncrease your traffíc and also
PageRank, then here are a few steps that you can take:
1. Add content to your website. Make your website so good and so useful that people
will link to you
without you asking for a link.
2. Write articles and get them published on other websites and blogs with a link
back to your site.
3. Distribute online press releases
4. Judiciously exchange links, or even better, exchange content (containing links
back to your site)
with other websites.
5. Get your site listed in online directories.
These efforts will certainly help you to build targeted traffíc, and they
most probably will also help you
to íncrease your PageRank as well.
About The Author
Donald Nelson is a search engine optimization specialist and the
publisher of the A1-Article Directory, a source of content for
website owners and blog publishers.
