In light of last weeks PageRank update we thought we would go into more detail about the ins and outs and its relevance in Search Engine Optimisation. Googles PageRanking uses a link analysis algorithm which gives numerically based weighting to each piece of content or a linked set of documents. Its purpose is to measure the relevancy of its importance within this set.

Page Rank is actually a trademark of Google and has been patented, however the patent has been assinged to Standford University, not Google, but they have exlcusive rights and exchanged 1.8 million shares with Standford for this. Standford sold these shares four years ago for over 330 million dollars!

How PageRank works

PageRank is democratic and uses its vast link structure to indicate how valuable a page is on a particular website. It works on a voting system which looks at the volume of votes each Link on a pages receives while analyzing the actual page which casts the vote too. If a vote was cast by a page that is considered important, then the vote carries more weight. The reason for this voting system is to help make pages on website become important, helping increase their popularity resulting in more traffic and hopefully more business.

PageRank is the result of a ballot which has been cast among other pages on the web. A hyperlink also counts as a vote. If a page is linked to by many other pages who themselves have a high ranking, then the page is given a high rank. If a page has no links, then no vote is given to that page.

Numeric weightings are afforded each page which tells us how important that page is in the eyes of the seach engine. PageRank is also influenced by other factors such as the relevance of the search words used and how many visits a page gets.
PageRank is the probability that represents the liklihood that someone who randomly clicking on a link will land on a particular website. This probability is expressed in numeric terms with a value between zero and one which are in turn expressed as percentages. In other words a 0.5 chance would be expressed as 50%.

PageRank is not above manipulation though and extensive research is being done in order to identify ways that it which links from inflated PageRank can be ignored. Falesly inflated PageRank is also being investigated.

Ways to improve PageRank

You can start by submitting your website to the Top Directories, especially those who are related to your product or industry. This includes exclusive, membership directories as well

Study your competitor; see who links into their site. Get your clients, sub contractors and partners to link their websites into your site.

Do not get involved in Free for All links, even though they advertise themselves as a popular means of link building, stay away from them if you want to avoid spam. On this note, stay away from building farms too. They exist solely for the purpose of increasing their own link popularity and will most likely consist of links which are not related to your site.

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