You will almost
certainly have heard
of Google PageRank
and how important it
is - Google
themselves say that
it is the basis for
all
their search tools.
But what is
Google PageRank in
simple terms? And,
once understood,
what implications
does Google PageRank
have for the average
webmaster?
This is what
we explore in this
article...
Let's start with a
description from
Google:
PageRank relies
on the uniquely
democratic nature of
the web by using its
vast link structure
as an indicator of
an individual page's
value. In essence,
Google interprets a
link from page A to
page B as a vote, by
page A, for page B.
But, Google looks at
more than the sheer
volume of votes, or
links a page
receives; it also
analyzes the page
that casts the vote.
Votes cast by pages
that are themselves
"important" weigh
more heavily and
help to make other
pages "important."
Important,
high-quality sites
receive a higher
PageRank, which
Google remembers
each time it
conducts a search.
Of course, important
pages mean nothing
to you if they don't
match your query.
So, Google combines
PageRank with
sophisticated
text-matching
techniques to find
pages that are both
important and
relevant to your
search. Google goes
far beyond the
number of times a
term appears on a
page and examines
all aspects of the
page's content (and
the content of the
pages linking to it)
to determine if it's
a good match for
your query.
So what can
we learn from this
description?
There are two
critical things that
we need to
understand.
Firstly,
that Google PageRank
is all about the
number of
high quality,
relevant
inbound
links that a web
site has.
Secondly,
that having high
PageRank is
not enough on its
own to
ensure high Google
search rankings for
particular search
terms. As Google say
above - Google
combines PageRank
with sophisticated
text-matching
techniques to find
pages that are both
important and
relevant to your
search.
Having great
web site content
AND your
site optimised for
your target search
terms is also
critical
to
achieving Google
success!
Let's look at each
of these factors in
more detail...
Inbound
Links
There are no
shortcuts here,
despite what you
will read on the
Net.
Building
quality, relevant
link partnerships
with web sites that
have a PageRank that
will help boost
yours, is a
long-term,
painstaking process.
There is no point in
amassing large
numbers of inbound
links from sites
that are either a)
unrelated to your
business b)
free to all
directories or
c)
have a low PageRank
themselves (and
appear unlikely to
increase this over
time).
You might experience
the illusion of
progress but that is
exactly what it will
be - an
illusion.
Not only are you
highly unlikely to
get meaningful
numbers of referrals
from such links,
such a 'cheap and
easy' approach will
do nothing to
improve Google's
evaluation of your
site.
Web Site
Content and
Optimisation
As we have seen,
achieving a high
Google PageRank is
desirable
but not sufficient
to achieve high
Google rankings for
your critical
keywords.
Good practice needs
to be followed to
ensure that your web
site is
optimised
for your target
keywords.
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