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What is the Google PageRank?

Google runs on a unique combination of advanced hardware and software.

You can see the pagerank of a site you are visiting by installing the google toolbar -

 

The heart of our software is PageRank™, a system for ranking web pages developed at Stanford University. PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of Google web search tools.

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

An observation that I have made is that a inner page on a website can at best achieve a PageRank of one less than the index (home) page of that website. For example, if a the index page of a website is "3" then the best PageRank for any other page on that website is "2".

Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Important pages mean nothing if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.  

Google's complex, automated methods make human tampering with results extremely difficult. Though Google runs relevant ads above and next to your results, Google does not sell placement within the results themselves (i.e., no one can buy a higher PageRank). A Google search is an easy, honest and objective way to find high-quality Web sites with information relevant to your search.

It should be emphasised that Google PageRank is a guide to the number of hyperlinks to a Web site and plays only a small part in the algorithm for ranking position for a given keyword. It is possible for top ranked pages for a keyword to have low Google PageRank and for high Google Ranked pages to be in low position for a given search.

Google PageRank - It is calculated by an exponential calculation?

PageRank is represented numerically from a low of PR0 to a rarely achieved high of PR10.  It is logarithmic in its calculation.  It takes one step to move from a PR0 to a PR1, it takes a few more steps to PR2, it takes even more steps to PR3, and many more steps again to PR5, and so on. Each level is progressively harder to reach.

Rank 

Number of Sites

10

1

9

10

8

100

7

1000

6

10,000

5

100,000

4

1,000,000

3

10,000,000

2

1000,000,00

1

1,000,000,000

0

10,000,000,000

 

The above table demonstrates that for every ten billion websites with PageRank "0" there will be just one with PageRank "10".

  • PageRank is only one of numerous methods Google uses to determine a page’s relevance or importance.

  • Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.

  • PageRank is based on incoming links, but not just on the number of them - relevance and quality are important (in terms of the PageRank of sites, which link to a given site).

  • Bad incoming links don’t have impact on Page Rank.

  • Content is not taken into account when PageRank is calculated.

  • PageRank does not rank web sites as a whole, but is determined for each page individually.

  • Each inbound link is important to the overall total. Except banned sites, which do not count.

  • PageRank values don’t range from 0 to 10. PageRank is a floating-point number.

  • Each Page Rank level is progressively harder to reach. PageRank is believed to be calculated on a logarithmic scale.

 

Many people believe that the values between PR1 and PR10 (the maximum) are set on a logarithmic scale, and there is very good reason for believing it. Nobody outside Google knows one way or the other, but the chances are high that the scale is logarithmic, or similar. If so, it means that it takes a lot more additional PageRank for a page to move up to the next PageRank level that it did to move up from the previous PageRank level.

How Important is Google PageRank for search engine results page positioning?

Table showing Google PageRank for position 1 and 30 for various keyword searches:

At times, a ranked page may appear to have a low pagerank and yet have high page positioning. For example a book may appear with pagerank "0" but the index page for the site will have a very high pagerank - perhaps 6-8.

 

Keyword Position 1 Position 30 Searches
Lawyer 6 5 111,000,000
Solicitor 6 4 10,700,000
Accountant 6 4 43,600,000
Doctor 6 6 289,000,000
Electrician 5 3 14,300,000
Employment Advice 6 5 9,790,000
Counsellor 3 4 5,100,000
Psychotherapist 6 1 3,280,000
Psychotherapist London 2 3 2,230,000
Psychotherapist Essex 2 2 383,000
Clock Repairs 4 2 326,000
Clock Repairs London 3 2 265,000
Clock Repairs Essex 3 4 546,000
Clock Repairs Loughton 0 4 66,800
Hysterectomy 5 4 4,560,000
Couple Counselling 5 3 249,000
Bereavement Counselling 6 3 185,000
Gynaecologist 6 5 495,000
       
       
       
       

It is possible to find the number of pages on a website by using site:www.sitename.com

The following table looks at "psychotherapy" for various ranked pages on Google. In general, pages rank high if they have a high PageRank and this is generally associated with a relatively large number of web pages on the website.

Position Website PageRank Number of Pages Links - Google Links -Yahoo AltaVista Alexa Traffic Rank
1 www.wikipedia.org 8 4,120,000 187,000 397,000,000  1,070,000 8
2 www.prospects.ac.uk 7 82,500 2,110 1,300,000 20,200 18,730
10 www.apahelpcenter.org 6 999 323 8,960 3,340 456,899
20 www.tinatessina.com 4 88 25 223 652 1,899,145
30 www.derekdraper.net 4 11 1 5 28 13,033,273
50 www.findcounseling.com 5 2,620 271 1,500 5,750 321,118

It is noticeable that www.derekdraper.net has a relatively high position although it is not at first obvious why this should be. It has a high PageRank although very few pages and very few links. It would seem that PageRank does not seem to drop even when favourable factors such as inbound links are lost. This site is receiving little traffic as indicated by its Alexa Traffic Ranking. It is possible that little work has been done on the site since its early days of development in 2002 and it has a high position due to its high PageRank achieved in earlier days.

Note that by optimizing for a keyword by locality, there is less opposition and the top ranked pages have lower pagerank making it easier to achieve high rankings. The number of searches is reduced. However if you are only interested in targeting the local community, this is all to your advantage.