(named for Google inventor Larry Page) is a measure of Web site Authority used by the Google search engine. It should not be confused with the position or ranking of a page for a particular keyword in a list of pages returned by Google. Pagerank seems to
apply more to Web sites than to Web pages. A new page in yahoo.com is much more important and authoritative for Web
search engines than a new page in an obscure little Web site, even though neither page may yet have a pagerank. The
Yahoo.com page, all other things being equal, has a better chance of being listed at the top of the pages returned for a
key word than does the page in the obscure Web site.
The Google Pagerank algorithm was explained in principle in this article -
The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web.
It is patented and public, but it only constitutes a part of the factors that
really determine page rank. The algorithm itself refers only to the number of pages that link to a particular page,
their pagerank and the number of links on the page that is linking to the target page. A page supposedly has a certain
amount of "authority power" that can be put behind a single link or divided among many links to support many pages. This
may apply only to conferring page ranking on another page, not necessarily to determining the rank (placement) of the
target page in results for a given key word.
The Pagerank is a logarithmic decimal real number scale number from 1-10. Google publishes only whole number values.
It is fairly easy to get to rank 5 or 6 after a few years, but only really large, established Web sites get above page
rank 6. The Pagerank may depend on:
How large the site is (in pages).
The age of the site/page.
Whether it is a main domain or a subsidiary domain.
Whether it is a "free Web site" subdomain - ranked lower.
Commercial or not - *.org *.info and *.edu may have more authority than *.com or *.biz.
How many pages link to that page within the site. This may or may not be the same as the number of pages in the site.
The number and importance of the pages/sites linking to that page. If BBC, Wikipedia and Fordham University link to
your Web site, it will have a higher Google Page rank than if it only has spam links put in comments in people's Web
logs or in commercial link exchanges and link farms.
"Demerits" or penalties that the site incurred for promoting itself in ways that that the search engine considers to
be "underhanded" - "Black Hat" SEO (see below).
The Pagerank is one factor that determines the "rank" (retrieval order in the Search Engine Results Page) of a page
for a particular keyword. If all other things are equal, a page with pagerank 6 should be ranked ahead of a page with
pagerank 5 in search engine results retrieved for a keyword.
You can see the Google page rank, rounded to the nearest whole number, using any number of free tools including the
Google toolbar.
As a general rule, if you have designed your site properly, the main page may have page rank 5 or 6 after a few
years, pages that link from the main page may have page rank 5 and third level links may have page rank 4. This depends
on other factors such as age of the page and how many other pages link to it. New pages and especially new domains are
put in a "sandbox" and ignored by Google for the first few months. If your site or page remains without a rank for a
very long period, you had better check the code for errors.
Google occasionally revises all page ranks for unknown reasons. Your site may have page rank 6 one day, page rank 5
the next and two weeks later be restored to page rank 6.
