Set by Google, PageRank is one of many indicators that allow the search engine to rank sites for presentation on results pages.
On the web and in the digital world, a website must be relevant to have a privileged place in search engines.
Therefore, through PageRank, a search mechanism determines the popularity of a page.
Do you want to better understand how important it is for SEO?
Check it out in this article!
What is PageRank (PR)?
The Google search engine has developed the PageRank algorithm (registered trademark) to classify the popularity of each web page based on the links it receives and the popularity of the sites linked to it.
Each page and each site is indexed by the search engine, among other criteria, according to your PageRank score.
Popularity is still one of the most important criteria in SEO, it’s worth remembering.
The higher a website is in PageRank, the more valuable it is in the eyes of search engine crawlers.
But it is not possible to know the exact value of a site’s PageRank.
Google does not communicate this!
For a long time, the Google toolbar gave a rough idea of the PageRank of web pages: it had a score from 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest.
But, this public indicator ended up not being updated and was abandoned entirely in 2016.
Google, therefore, made it clear that its mechanism continued to use the confidential algorithm internally, but the figure that appeared on its toolbar was definitely buried.
How does PageRank Work?
In short, PageRank measures the quality and quantity of links received by a page on a website, in order to refine its ranking.
The name “Page” comes from Larry Page, co-founder of Google and the figure who developed it.
Therefore, it has nothing to do with a web “page”.
It is one of the elements that dominate the relationship between websites.
But it is far from the only one since there are several dozens or even hundreds of other factors to improve your positioning in the Google result pages.
Why is PageRank Important?
As we said, this mechanism is always a positioning criterion that is taken into account in the search engine algorithm.
Google hasn’t communicated its exact influence but regularly confirms its importance.
With the incorporation of new criteria (there are already more than 200), its impact must have diminished a bit.
But the popularity of a site or web page continues to be one of the pillars of SEO in the eyes of the search engine.
The popularity of a site or web page depends on the quantity and quality of the links it receives.
Therefore, it is directly related to link building, a metaphor used in SEO to refer to the power that is transmitted from one page to another through a hyperlink, which continues to be one of the priorities of the natural reference.
What is Taken into Account in the Google PageRank Algorithm?
To assess the popularity of a website or web page, the PageRank algorithm has long taken into account the number of links received and the popularity of the sites that send those links.
More recently, the theme of the pages has also become an integrated criterion in the calculation of the score.
In other words, for a link to have a positive influence on the PageRank of a page, it must link two neighboring thematic pages.
For example, in a paragraph that talks about brake pads, a link that points to a page “how to choose brake pads” or “how to check that the brake pads are in good condition”.
While Google is unlikely to consider a link pointing to a page that deals with animal health.
How is the PageRank of a Website Calculated?
To calculate the PageRank of a web page, Google’s formula is, at the same time, very simple because it takes into account a few variables.
And very complicated because it is recursive, that is, it assumes that all other sites already have a PageRank established.
In the calculation, the main variable taken into account is the PageRank of the original pages.
The more inbound links there are, the more likely one of them will rank well.
Link building is less powerful if it is diluted, that is if the original page sends more links to other pages.
Obviously, it is better to get a single link from a page with a similar theme, and a very good score, and not provide other links to other pages that contain several bad links.
Therefore, the goal of increasing your website’s PageRank score is still to get multiple external links pointing to your page.
How to Have a Good Score in PageRank?
A good score in PageRank is the result of well-oriented work with the links.
You should always take into account three criteria:
- The number of links pointing from Page A to Page B.
- The PageRank of each of those pages A.
- The number of external links present on each page A.
It is also increasingly important to pay attention to the theme that links two pages and to the optimization of the anchor point of the hyperlink from page A to page B.
Google’s algorithm is perfectly capable of judging the semantic proximity between two contents.
Good Practices to Increase the Score
You can increase your score by making the most of the PR you receive from external sites.
The free LinkSpirit utility allows you to make excellent use of this algorithm, optimizing internal links.
In addition, you must multiply the number of links pointing to your website.
There are at least three very simple methods to do this:
- Find all the directories that deal with the same topic as your site.
It also looks for all general directories that list sites without distinction.
Join as many as possible.
In this way (and with a lot of time), you can get several hundred links that will direct you to your website.
Each link will yield little PageRank since it will be placed on a page that has hundreds of links, but little by little you will build a digital authority!
- Exchange links with sites that talk about similar topics (unity is strength!).
The better the sites, the better the links.
In this way, you will gain PageRank and relevance in the issues that you discuss together.
But be careful: if your site points to a site that Google rates as bad, link exchanges may do more harm than good.
Choose your partners carefully!
- Speak up, or better yet, get your site mentioned on the forums (whatever means you invent for that!).
As we noted earlier, this sword can be a double-edged sword, it only really works if your site is quality and forum members say good things about it.
The better your site is, the more “spontaneous” links it will receive.
That is, other website builders will decide, for themselves, to link to your website because they find it interesting and worth visiting.
If you achieve this, you are definitely on the right track!
In Summary…
Search engines consider that the interest of your site is directly proportional to its popularity, that is, the number of links that point to it.
The more people talk about you, the more interesting you are and you deserve a high ranking, but that’s not all!
The interest of the sites that talk about you is also taken into account: the more interesting people talk about you, the more interesting you will be considered.
That “interest” is expressed in a note format (a number) that has the name PageRank (PR).
The rest is just an endless, fluctuating calculation, trying to take into account all the sites on the planet and distribute scores among themselves, taking into account the scores of others.
PageRank’s importance in rankings is diminishing by the day in favor of other factors that are less easy for savvy webmasters to manipulate.
It’s also worth remembering that it all depends on the industry you’re in.
In some niches, a PR of 2 or 3 will be enough to get the best results.
So for other very competitive requests, a PR of 4 may only appear on the first page.
Also, the PR is not fixed:
Google updates it regularly!
Despite being very important, this mechanism is far from being the only factor that influences the positioning of the site.
So don’t replace and make the mistake of focusing on it as the only net linking strategy.
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