Achieving Success on the Internet: Understanding Google PageRank

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF GOOGLE'S PAGERANK

Google PageRank was developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in the late 1990s in an effort to create a better, more relevant search engine. PageRank is a "link analysis" algorithm that analyzes incoming links to a given web site in order to determine a site's relevancy in relation to the search word or words. The determined relevancy is expressed in a value of 0 to 10, the higher the number, the more relevant a given web page is in relation to the search word or words. In brief, the algorithm that results in the numerical ranking is a measure of both popularity (the number of incoming links to a given site) and quality (higher quality incoming links are given more weight than lesser quality incoming links). That's a very, very cursory explanation of how PageRank works. If you want to know more details (and the details are complicated), you can read the Wikipedia entry for PageRank.

The bottom line, however, is this: in general, all other things being equal, the higher a web page's PageRank (assuming the PageRank is legitimate; see blow for more information on this issue), the more popular the page within its particular subject niche. A PageRank of at least 5 is desirable for any given web page, and a ranking above 6 is difficult to obtain.

PROBLEMS WITH PAGERANK

PageRank is widely recognized as being the best automated way of determining the intrinsic quality of web pages (and thus sites). However, as with any automated system, over the years some people have utilized questionable methods of achieving inflated, or simply false, PageRank rankings for their web pages and sites. Some details of PageRank schemes are a bit complicated, but there are a number of ways to game the system, including the usage of "link farms" (massive quantities of otherwise useless web pages created for the express purpose of pointing to a given web page or pages) and "Google bombing" (creating massive numbers of sites that include the same anchor text - that is, the visible text in a hyperlink - that biases Google's algorithms towards a given web page or pages).

There are other ways of gaming Google's PageRank, but the only thing you really need to know is that trying to manipulate the manner in which Google analyzes your web site's pages could get your entire site booted out of Google! Site owners beware: many Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services use such unethical practices in attempt to quickly boost a site's pages, but Google software is attuned to such methods and will (sooner or later) penalize the use of shady search engine manipulation tactics.

Finally, in the department of PageRank issues, more and more individuals are gaming PageRanks on expired pages and domains and putting their "product" up for sale on eBay and online forums that specialize in buying and selling sites and domains. Increasingly, buyers should be very cautious about purchasing web sites or domains that are advertised with PageRanks.

ACHIEVING GOOD PAGERANK

The basic formula for achieving good PageRank is simple: create many original content pages for your site, and work on getting other legitimate, original content sites with good PageRank to link to your site.

That's it. Sweet and simple. If you invest the time and effort to create a good, content-rich web site, and avoid quick PageRank schemes, you will ultimately be rewarded with a good PageRank for your site.

If you are starting from scratch, give yourself a year to obtain a PageRank of 4 or 5. Add pages to the site weekly if not daily, and make sure the pages are original content that people want to read. And each week locate at least five other sites to request reciprocal links from; if one of the five agrees, consider your efforts for that week successful. Continue this weekly program for one to two years, and you can expect to achieve good PageRank.

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