November 13th, 2009 by Joe Majewski
[ Part One ] [ Part Two ]
Now that we have a general understanding of Google PageRank, we can step it up a notch and begin getting into some of it’s more complex and important aspects. So how exactly does Google determine the PageRank value of a given page? The answer isn’t simple.
About the Google PageRank Algorithm
The exact algorithm that Google uses to calculate PR is constantly being enhanced, and it will more than likely forever remain a mystery. To put it simply, Google is playing their safe card; they don’t want people abusing their search engine to gain top results for irrelevant keywords. Do you remember the famous “French Military Victories” bomb, where Google’s engine would respond with “Did you mean French Military Defeats“? Many people believed that it was Google themselves that had created the prank, but that’s not the case at all.
Searching for this term now produces results regarding this historic prank.
In fact, Google is always updating their search algorithm with the attempt to create a more perfect, fool-proof system. Their technologies can detect these bombings, placing such websites into a virtual sandbox, removing their PageRank value entirely. Interestingly enough, Google has refused to manually alter these malicious results in order to honor their search engine, which gives every website an equal opportunity.
The Algorithm Defined
Every page on the Internet that is known to Google begins with just a single PageRank point. Upon achieving a certain number of these points, the PageRank of that given page will escalate to the next level. The scaling is logarithmic, meaning that the number of points needed to rise from PR1 to PR2 is much less than the amount needed to get from PR2 to PR3. With that said, please keep in mind that the Internet is always growing, meaning that the number of points needed is always on the rise.
While it may appear that I am stating the obvious, please consider this statement: The cumulative amount of points that span the entire Internet is equal to the number of pages on the Internet. Thus, PageRank is essentially constant, only increasing with the addition of new pages to Google’s index.
So how does a page gain more of these points? [ Part three is coming soon. ]
[ Part One ] [ Part Two ]
November 9th, 2009 by Joe Majewski
[ Part One ] [ Part Two ]
Google’s PageRank algorithm is one of the most sought after formulas on the Internet. It should be your top priority as a webmaster to maximize the PageRank of your pages to the best of your ability. But how can you increase your PageRank if you aren’t even sure how it’s calculated? In this article I will discuss the aspects of Google PageRank that I find to be most vital to webmasters; the information that will ultimately help drive more traffic to your website. That is what you want, is it not?
For obvious reasons, I may occasionally refer to Google PageRank as PR for the remainder of this article. Please keep in mind that PageRank is not something that can be gained overnight; you must earn it, and cherish it. PR is like Internet gold, so do what you can to get as much of it as possible. I guarantee that you won’t regret the positive outcome that couples a solid PR.
Where Can I Locate My PageRank?
If you have Google’s Toolbar installed on your Internet browser, there will be a green bar (or lack, thereof) that will tell you the PageRank of the page that you are currently visiting. Remember, PR is not assigned to your website as a whole, but rather to each individual page within it. A PR of N/A designates a page that is either too new, or is not relevant enough according to Google to be given a real value. Do not confuse PR N/A with PR0, as they are entirely separate ranks. In fact, a page with a ranking of PR0 is a great start if you are new to the practice of Search Engine Optimization, and may be ten times more important (give or take) to Google than a page that is not yet ranked. That’s just a rough estimate that I’m throwing out, but you will certainly find that pages on your website with a valid PageRank will be updated more frequently and drive more traffic.
If your website is relatively new, it may take several months for your PR to update. Google performs rolling crawls across the Internet, meaning that it constantly finds new pages and updates old pages. Google determines the rate at which it crawls each website, and in general, the more important that Google believes a page to be, the more often it will get crawled. These web crawls do not immediately affect the PageRank visible to you. PageRank updates are performed every few months and may take a few days to process. There is no exact date that is revealed for when these updates occur, and they don’t always happen at regular intervals. Do not be discouraged if your pages are still not ranked by Google, as there are many things you can do to help improve them.
Now that you understand why it’s so important to have pages with a high PageRank, let’s proceed to discuss how it’s calculated and ways in which you, as a webmaster, can help improve your score.
[ Part One ] [ Part Two ]
November 1st, 2009 by Joe Majewski
Dedicated webmasters place Google PageRank at a higher value than money itself. In order for a website to appear at the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), their page must be considered to be the most relevant for that specific set of keywords.
PageRank is just one variable — among hundreds — that Google considers when forming the top results for a given search query. So then why is PageRank put on the pedestal? The fact that Google makes it’s PageRank information publicly available is one reason. But more importantly than that, it has become abundantly clear that pages with a higher PageRank get more traffic, and this has been shown time and time again.
According to Google:
PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.
Every page on the Internet has it’s own unique PageRank value, which is a number between zero and ten. Many pages are labeled with PR (PageRank) N/A, which means that Google has not placed the page at a high enough value to reward it with a rank. The structure is logarithmic, meaning that the amount of PR needed to increase from PR3 to PR4 is much less than that of making the jump from PR4 to PR5.
Ultimately, PageRank is a measure of how popular Google believes a page to be. Higher PageRank will result in more traffic through Google.