If you’re exploring online marketing options – which by the way is a smart move – then the term search engine optimization (SEO) either has come up or will. And you can’t think about SEO without thinking about Google, who accounts for nearly 2/3 of online searches.
In simplistic terms, SEO is the process of optimizing your site for the search engines. When we say optimizing, we mean that you develop your website so searches for specific keyword phrases will result in a higher ranking for your website in the search engines than others.
But how does Google crawl, sort and rank all of the literally billions of web pages on the Internet?
This is where PageRank comes in.
When you’re developing your website and optimizing it for the search engines, you will go through a process of identifying terms potential clients will use to search for you online. When someone types your search terms in, Google has an algorithm that determines which websites should be displayed in rank order on the results page. You want to rank high on these “organic” results since people rarely go beyond page 1 or 2 in search engine result pages.
Google’s algorithm is very complex…it would be impossible to go into detail here. But in basic terms, it boils down to this:
Search Ranking = Relevance x PageRank
Relevance is basically that – a measure of how your website, or more specifically one of your web pages, matches the keyword phrase the user entered into the search bar. Google uses your content and the content of websites linking to yours to determine what your page is about.
But what counts in your rankings is your site’s PageRank, or an independent measure of how Google perceives your site’s quality, authority and credibility. Google reports this number on a simple 0-10 scale…but how is PageRank calculated?
While there is much debate about PageRank, one thing is about universally accepted – PageRank is primarily determined by how many other pages are linking to yours. Links are a vote of confidence in the eyes of Google. But remember, not all web pages are created equal. Larger web pages with more credibility that link to you will have more value to your PageRank than those with less credibility.
And how does Google determine these sites’ credibility? Well by their PageRank…sites with a higher PageRank that link to yours will carry a lot more value than those with lower PageRank. Not that sites with low PageRank don’t help…it simply will take more of them linking to you to have the same effect.
For example, let’s say you have a friend link to you from his personal blog. Let’s say his PageRank is 2 – this will help but if you get 100 more links to your site from sites like your friend’s, it will help more.
But if you can get a link from a site that has a PageRank of 6 then just that one link is like getting those 100 additional links I’m alluding to above. Internet marketing blog HubSpot divides PageRank into these broad categories.
0-3: New sites or sites with minimal links
4-5: Popular sites with a good amount of inbound links
6: Very popular sites with hundreds of links, many of them quality links
7-10: Usually major media outlets, big companies or A-list bloggers
How do I figure out my PageRank?
There are two ways to determine what your approximate PageRank is. You can download the Google Toolbar and enable the PageRank feature after installation. Or you can check out HubSpot’s Website Grader tool that will tell you your PageRank and a bunch of other interesting things.
One thing I should point out before I go…it’s believed that PageRank is calculated on a logarithmic scale, meaning the difference between PR4 and PR5 is likely 5-10 times the difference between PR3 and PR4. Therefore, there are likely over 100 times more PR2 web pages than those with a PageRank of 4. Meaning, if you get to a PR6, you’re likely in the top 0.1% of websites on the Internet. If most of your competitors have a PR2 or PR3, then you’re in pretty good shape.
Learn how SEO Advantage can help boost your PageRank and thus your search engine rankings by visiting our SEO knowledge center.
And feel free to contact us today to see how we can help you take advantage of one of the most powerful marketing channels in the known universe.
Tags: google, keyword research, organic search, PageRank, search engine optimization
There’s so much misinformation out there that people don’t really know what is and is not. It’s refreshing to see people that know what they’re talking about. You have an Informed commentary seems to be a rare commodity these days. Keep it coming. Internet Marketing Company
Thank you for your kind words of encouragement. We’ll certainly keep it coming and if there’s anything you would like to see more of on here, let us know.