The Google PageRank Explained Simply A common question amongst website owners is, “How is the Google PageRank assigned to my website?” The answer is not as maddening or mysterious as most people imagine. This short article offers you a simple and easy to understand introduction to the most essential factors you need to know about your site’s Google PageRank. The Aim of the Google PageRank Google’s intention with its PageRank (PR) system is to objectively and accurately assess the importance of each of the billions of webpages in cyberspace that are all fiercely fighting with each other for top placement in Google’s search engine results.

Explained simply, Google’s strategy is that, any website that has many other websites linking to it (i.e. Inbound Links or External Links) must be popular. Why else would so many other sites have hyperlinks pointing to it? Google counts the number of websites that have a hyperlink leading to your site and uses this to calculate your site’s PageRank. The PageRank is a Popularity Contest Google’s strategy is based upon the uniquely democratic nature of millions of autonomous websites that have the free choice to post a hyperlink to a third-party website or not. Accordingly, each Inbound Link a website has is regarded as a VOTE in an intercontinental internet Election. Websites with more votes will have a higher PageRank. Amongst SEO professionals, this is referred to as “Link Popularity,” and this whole system can be thought of as the world’s biggest popularity contest. Google’s PageRank can, first and foremost, be viewed as a “PopularityRank.”

For example: As of January 7th, 2009, www.coca-cola.com has 2,570 External Links and a highly impressive PR8, while www.7up.com has 447 External Links and a PR5. At the extreme, www.wikipedia.org has a PR9 with over 77,000 External Links. All External Links are NOT Created Equal This hypothetical “trans-national cyberspace voting” is not entirely democratic, however, because each individual vote is not valued equally. Google does not weigh all Inbound Links to your site evenly. Instead, it determines each link’s value through a brain-boggling, complex algorithm that only a genius has any chance of understanding. That being stated, the two most important factors which determine an External Link’s Search Engine Optimization value are as follows: The key factor is the Google PageRank of the webpage that contains the link to your site. For example, a link to your site from Wikipedia with a PR9 is vastly more valuable than a link from someone’s private Blog with a PR1. The second most significant factor is the link’s pertinence to your site. Google compares the keywords on your site and the keywords at the site linking to you, and it calculates the External Link’s “Relevance.”

For example, if you sell computers, then an article about “computers” with a link to your website is vastly more valuable than an article about “baby clothing” with a link to your website. Initiate a Link-Building Campaign Today A pivotal SEO strategy is to implement a link-building campaign for your site. The best options you have to acquire External Links to your site are business directories, classified ads, magazines and article databases, business and personal profiles, and collaboratively exchanging links with other websites. For instance, if you set the reasonable weekly goal to get two new Inbound Links, then, within two years, you should earn a very respectable Google PR5.

For information and assistance with your link-building campaign or other Search Engine Optimization services, feel free to visit our website or email us at Marketing Marksman (http://www.marketingmarksman.com) in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Copyright NoticeThis article may be reposted, in whole or in part, freely at any website without limitation as long as Marketing Marksman is identified as the author with at least one functional hyperlink to the http://www.marketingmarksman.com webpage.  This article cannot be republished outside of the World Wide Web without prior written permission from the author.  See our site for more legal information and contact information.