Google PageRank Simplified
By Bryan Clark on Jul 25, 2007 in Uncategorized
The blog-o-sphere is buzzing with news that we are just weeks (if not days) away from the next Google PageRank update. But what is Google Pagerank?
It gets complicated. And when I say complicated I mean Einstein-esque complicated. The Google PageRank explanation isn’t for the faint of heart. So… if you have heart conditions, blod clots, emphysema, are pregnant, nursing or could become pregnant… Look the other way… NOW!
Google PageRank History
Google PageRank was developed in the mid 90’s by Larry Page and Sergey Brin (pictured left) at Stanford University. The two worked tirelessly for 3 years on an algorithm that could produce a numerical ranking of webpages based on a number of factors (we’ll get to those in a second).
After a successful prototype was created in 1998, the two went on to found Google shortly after. The Google PageRank became the standard by which Google now ranks webpages.
The PageRank Algorithm
I’m going to zoom right through this part because this is where it gets complicated. I just want to show you the world famous algorithm.
PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + … + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))
where
 |
PR(A) is the PageRank of page A, |
|
PR(Ti) is the PageRank of pages Ti which link to page A, |
|
C(Ti) is the number of outbound links on page Ti and |
|
d is a damping factor |
This is the original Google PageRank algorithm as discovered by Page, and Brin. It has undergone a lot of changes since then, and the ACTUAL algorithm that is used now remains somewhat mysterious.
So What Exactly Is A PageRank?
Google PageRank is defined by a number from 0-10 (10 being the highest). It is, essentially, a vote of confidence from the community. The higher the PageRank, the more “trusted” your site is by Google. That said, the links from these sites are also highly trusted (more on that later).
What Does Google PageRank Mean To Me?
PageRank or PR, in short, means EVERYTHING! If you are aspiring to build a great site that generates tons of revenue and loads of daily visitors, PageRank is very important. There is a huge misconception floating around that Google PageRank also determines your search engine results placement (or SERP). This is not, and has never been true. On Google alone, it is a SMALL factor. When I say a small factor, I mean it is only one of a couple dozen factors. None of the other search engines use PageRank to determine their results.
That said, Google PageRank IS a very important statistic for a monetized blog or site. It is one of the deciding factors when determining everything from how much you charge advertisers, to the overall value of your site if you should go to sell it. Some sites even charge other sites for a link if their page has a high enough PageRank. I’ll get into this in a minute.
How Do I Get A High Google PageRank?
Pray! Actually the single most effective way to build a PageRank all has to do with a very basic blog principle. Write quality content! It’s that simple…. kinda.
Google PageRank is a system that relies heavily on links. Incoming and outgoing links are the biggest factor in your PageRank. You know how I’m always preaching “link love”? This is one of the reasons (besides my strong desire to better the community). Every link that comes into your site (linkback, trackback, backlink) is given a value. The overall value of your incoming links weighs heavily on your Google PageRank. 
Every link is assigned a value based on how high the site that linked to you is rated. For example… if you had 1,000 incoming links from websites that don’t have a PageRank, it might not weigh as heavily as having 100 incoming links from a site with a PR 5. As I mentioned above, the higher the PageRank, the more trusted the site is. Therefore, when it comes to incoming links, the higher the PageRank of the links, the better your chances of increasing your PageRank. That is another reason why the linkback from Darren @ ProBlogger.Net was such a big deal (besides it being flat out sweet), he has a PageRank 6 which means his is a trusted site, and the incoming link was valuable. The higher your PageRank, the more leverage you have as a blogger.
There are also factors that you can’t control when it comes to PR. The older your site is, the more trusted it becomes and therefore, it is looked upon in a favorable way by Google. Google wants lots of pages, lots of incoming links to said pages, and lots of internal links to your pages. That means that you should try to link to as many pages inside your site as possible. This shouldn’t be hard, because it only helps your cause. A “recent post” category in your sidebar is an example of an internal link.
Some people even BUY incoming links from sites with a high Google PageRank. I don’t condone this on either end though. For one it costs money and it isn’t really cost effective for a new blogger. And secondly, the sites that do this are usually punished when Google finds out.
Some may not know this, but it is even possible to leak GooglePageRank to other sites. Click on the link to find out about this. Ryan Shamus posted the article over at his blog, and it’s really worth the read.
Conclusion
This was just the basics of how Google PageRank works. I’m no expert, but it should help you out as you are getting started. I hope this helps un-mystify PR a little bit.
In closing, I’ll tell you this… The fastest way to build Google PageRank is to get linked to, A LOT! Also, I mentioned that writing quality content was the way to build Google PageRank, and here is how. The more quality content you put into your blog, the more pages you accumulate. Google likes sites with a lot of pages. Also, the more quality content you write, the more you get linked to. Incoming links mean sweet PageRank improvement, and gaining a few awesome readers!
Want to check your predicted Google PageRank before the next update?
I’m predicted to be a PR 4 after the next update. That would be sweet! Leave me a comment and tell me what your predicted PageRank is.
Popularity: 6% [?]
35 Comment(s)
By Bryan on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
Sorry to everyone that left comments on this post. I was trying out a new plug-in and for some reason it deleted this post along with all of the comments.
I’m working right now to put them back up!
I’ll repost your link if i know what it is
By hem on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
how long it must take google PR to be updated for a new domain… any idea
By B. Durant on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
Good info. I would just add that people need to make certain they are avoiding link farms as those are heavily penalized by Google. To such an extent that getting on one or two link farms can potentially destroy all the effects of the good links you have.
By Scott on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
How long it takes to get your PR updated on a new domain depends how close you are to a PR “exportâ€Â. Google exports fresh PR to the Google toolbar about every 3 months, give or take a few weeks.
They take a “snapshot†of the links into your site a week or two before the export date, and they use this snapshot to calculate your PR for the next 3 or so months. Therefore, Googlebot needs to have indexed the links into your site before the date of this PR snapshot.
So if Google were planning the toolbar PR export for 2 weeks from now (one is currently due any day now), the links would have had to have been spydered by now to help your toolbar PR improve in the upcoming export.
By A.J. - IAmFacingMillions.com on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
This article provides a decent overview. The page rank predictors are guesses at best and my experience is that ALL of them are terrible at predicting page rank. The truth is they just don’t know.
By Angela on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
Thanks to my site’s ridiculous longevity, I have achieved a pagerank of 4 without doing anything at all.
By yeepage on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
Just wroye my own update on pagerank too, enjoyed yours alot
By Karen on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
Glad you liked my post on hockey!
Page rank, I try to ignore it and just make my blogs the ones that people love to come back to and read.
By Opal: Vegan Momma on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
Excellent article I guess I should pay more attention to the Google PR, as Karen mentioned I’ve been ignoring it mostly and like her I try to make it where people want to stop by.
I haven’t paid too much attention to the website grader for the longest time iwebtools wasn’t even ranking my Vegan Momma blog, which, at the time had a PR of 5. This last update it went down to a 4. The only thing I did differently was changed the name of my website so maybe this had something to do with it?
By Sly from Slyvisions.com on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
I can’t wait till the update! My domain is new (made sometime last month) but I’ve already seen lots of positive backlinks and all that.
By Contamination on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
Live by the Google, die by the Google.
While I agree with the tried and trusted rule of writing quality content and being around for a long time, doesn’t that go against your goal of being financially independent after 1 year?
But you ARE on the right track.
By Terence Chang on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
Great post! However, I have few of my personal thoughts that I want to point out.
1. PR doesn’t mean you will be on top of google search result, which drive you long term traffic
2. PR is also based on how long your site have been up from the same OWNER, not just the number of backlinks or age. In other words, if the domain has switch from one owner to the other, the PR may decrease.
3. A high PR site doesn’t mean to have high PR pages. If you only have home page with high PR, it won’t do much good to your site overall.
4. PR is Google’s marketing terms. Without PR, no one will not go after it. It will just be the same as Yahoo.
Good job! Bryan!
By Brown Baron on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
People are getting a little antsy waiting for the update, I know I am .. a little heh. Nice post Bryan.
By internetgenius on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
Excellent post, Bryan! Pagerank is indeed extremely complicated to explain, but you seem to have done quite well … I have always explained it kind of like a credit score (there are lots of factors at play, each carrying different weight).
In my opinion, however, PageRank is overrated! I have to agree with Terence on this one.
By Bryan on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
Great comments guys! I’m glad you took the time to chime in…
I agree that PageRank CAN be overrated. But, for a money blog (like mine) it is invaluable. Your PageRank coupled with your Alexa Rating determines how much most advertisers are willing to spend when it comes to placing ads on yours site.
By Ryan Shamus on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
I must weigh in with my thoughts on the phrase, “PageRank is overrated†- actually I just scrolled up to see that you answered it with pretty much exactly what I would have said.
Keep in mind, PageRank may be overrated for those that own sites or blogs that have no intentions of monetizing them, but for us out there who really are trying to “make money onlineâ€Â, PR is extremely valuable for us. It could mean the difference of $200 per text link compared to $20 per text link per month. You know what I mean?
Here’s what it boils down to for me: If the bulk of advertisers and companies will pay me more money because I have a higher PR (which is true), then I’ll make damn sure I get it as high as I can!
Anyhow, great post dude.
By Jason on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
Yeep. Quality post.
I didn’t know a new PageRank update was coming up, Bryan. I could have swore there was one a little over a month ago. How did you find out about this?
By Bryan on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
It’s one of the “buzz†topics in the community right now. Every 3rd or 4th blogs that I read (and I read a ton!) is mentioning PR updates.
Update: Ryan Shamus just posted the 300th comment on this blog! For this I would like to award Ryan an invitation to keep reading! Great prize huh?
By Bryan on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
In case you didn’t read the first comment, I want to apologize to everyone that lost their link due to the technical difficulties I had with a plugin.
Feel free to email me (email form in the about me section) and I’ll put your link back up.
Those of you that had URL’s that I remembered, I put them back up already.
Sorry again!
By Jason on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
“It’s one of the “buzz†topics in the community right now. Every 3rd or 4th blogs that I read (and I read a ton!) is mentioning PR updates.”
Hmmadee hmmadee… That kicks behind. Can’t wait.
By Sly from Slyvisions.com on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
Nice points there Terence. I get that from people too, in which they say that your PR determines how your pages will be for Google search results..which it totally not a fact.
By Ryan Shamus on Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
300th comment - sweet!
300th comment = $300 cash prize, right?
Check is in the mail I bet!
By Andrea on Jul 26, 2007 | Reply
Even if the PR doesn’t put you at the “absolute top” of the search result for any query, it is a very important rank for placing you at the top of the results for *relevant* queries. So to speak, say you have a surfer search for “pet care” and you run a extremely good website on pets and pet care so that many (a lot of) other sites link to your, then that surfer will get your site among the first results.
By Angela on Jul 26, 2007 | Reply
Yesterday, my site got a link from a site with a pagerank of 8! Just in time.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/17828
By Snoskred on Jul 29, 2007 | Reply
I added this post to my weekly wrap up this week, just so you know.
Snoskred
http://www.snoskred.org/
By doris on Aug 1, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for this simplified post… I’m praying for a higher PR. It makes alot of difference when monetization comes into the picture. Now, I’m just waiting…
By Bryan on Aug 1, 2007 | Reply
doris - We all are… Hurry Up Google!
By Jens Ellingsson on Aug 17, 2007 | Reply
Nice tool but I believe I will at least jump one whole number on the page rank. I have 4 today and was predicted 4.4.
By Bryan on Aug 17, 2007 | Reply
That’s awesome Jens. I hope you get there!
By Kurs on Aug 17, 2007 | Reply
Then I checked VG.no (Norwegian online newspaper with about 2 mill readers daily) and the tool told me that the current pagerank was 2. It is 6.
By Columbus Ohio Web Consulting on Aug 30, 2007 | Reply
Great post. But, did the pagerank update ever happen yet?
BTW- Great job on meeting your goals this month!!!
-BRAD
By Bola Oluyemi on Sep 20, 2007 | Reply
Hi, thanks for the info on page rank.Page rank of my site is 0,been hoping I could improve it but no luck.Though I have about 2 or 3 sites with PG2 linked to me, so I don’t really know what the problem is here. Don’t see the need in begging people to link in unless they are really interested in my contents.
Any help on how to improve this will be appreciated.
By Amanda on Sep 26, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the info.! I have been wondering how exactly Google came up with my Page Rank, and now I know (sort of). But seriously, I do at least understand the premise now. And my predicted page rank is 4, although it didn’t tell me what my current rank is…
By Vienna on Dec 19, 2007 | Reply
you’ve got some really good info for starting bloggers like me.
keep them coming!
By Junior on Apr 2, 2008 | Reply
Excellent, you could not have written it better and a million thanks for the info.