SEO Tips

What I learned about PageRank so far and how can I make use of it. Google updates the PageRank around like every three months. Google PageRank update is a process in which every page that is indexed in Google gets a new PageRank.

What is PageRank?

PageRank is, if I put it simple, a result of the internet web pages elections. Every page gives a vote for another web page by putting a link on the original page that points to the page that gets the vote. Just to make sure that the election thing is not a total and complete democracy some votes count more than others and every page can give as many votes as it wants (Yikes!).

Votes that count more:

• votes from pages that did better in the last elections (have higher PageRank) - because if the page did well in the last elections, then it must be something special about it and it is not likely that a special page would vote for some crappy page,
• votes from pages that only give a few votes (they are not full of links) - because if my old grandpa goes and votes (he never does) for _______(insert a favourite politician, hm…is this a paradox:) ?) , then this politician has got to be a really good guy.

And vice versa, votes that count less:

• votes from pages that sucked balls did not perform particularlly well in the last elections, because if they can’t even make their own page look good, how can they decide which page should win the elections and
• votes from pages that are full of links. These pages vote for just about anybody that comes along so votes from vote whores em, enthusiastic voters count less (they are not picky enough).

How is PageRank calculated?

PageRank is calculated using a rather complicated formula (I do not want to get into this ). But the point is that the PageRank of the voting page is distributed to all pages that get the vote. It is distributed to internal and to external pages - no difference. Oh, and that PageRank distribution doesn’t hurt the PageRank of the voting page if you are wondering. Now it is probably logical why a vote from a higher ranked page that votes for less pages counts more.

And the result? The calculated PageRank is a number between 0 and 10. PageRank 10 means complete and totaly election victory, that goes to pages like Google, DMOZ.org and similar. Ups, I just gave them two more votes :). On the other hand, PageRank zero means that:

• web page is probably hidden somewhere under a rock in the dessert on Mars,
• web page is so new that is not even unwrapped and it has not been through any PageRank updates,
• the web page owner had played some dirty games during the election campaign and Google does not like that. So the page was dropped from the Google index.

Now I will stop talking for a while and give you something to do. PageRank of your website or blog can be checked here for instance -> www.digpagerank.com. The blog you are reading right now is stil in its diapers and has a PageRank zero. (Please, vote for me! I promise lower taxes! )

Another thing that you can check is how many wotes does your webpage or blog have. Number of votes is called link popularity. There are many tools for counting votes, this one is quite interesting, it gives you the number of votes for you and for up to three of your competitors. If I check the number of votes:

• my humble Buzz blog has 208 VOTES
• This weird blog for instance has 193 votes
• Google.com has 198.321.616 votes (uf uf!? I still have a long way to go).

Of course these vote counts are more khm.. Florida way (no offense), different counters give different results. But you can get the feel for where your page stands in the elections were today. One thing that is more important than the number of votes is the quality of votes. One vote from the “big kahuna” with a PageRank of - lets say 7 is worth more that a whole bunch of votes from PageRank 1 pages.

PageRank for the advanced

PageRank that is given by Google every three months is not actual PageRank. Google calculates PageRank all the time and the result is not a whole number. PageRank that you can see is just a rounded PageRank at the last PageRank update.

Why should I know the PageRank of my site?

Well… you can compare it to your friends and meassure whos PageRank si bigger or who is a bigger Link Pimp (Link Wimp or Link King) . PageRank is also indirectly connected to your position in the search results in Google and other search engines. But there are other ways to profit from your PageRank, not just to impress chicks (is this even possible?). I will look into this in the next article.