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What is Google Pagerank??

oogle PageRank has always been a controvertial
issue among us webmasters. There seems to be many
questions floating around with suggests that many
people are not familier with how PageRank works.
Here, I will attempt to answer some of the common
questions and discard the rumors.

1. What is PageRank?

Here is what Google says:

"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."

In other words, PageRank is simply a mechanical
algorithm by Google that attempts to evaluate the
importance of your website larged based on the
amount and quality of backlinks your website have.
For the more intellectual crowds out there,
check out The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing
Order to the Web .

2. How do I check the PR of a webpage?

If you use Internet Explorer, download and
install the Google Toolbar. There will be a green
indicator on the toolbar that tells the PR of a
particular page. Hovering your mouse over the ind
icator will give you a numeric value of the PR.
In addition, there are numerous tools out there
that will check the PR of a page without the
toolbar. If you use Mozilla Firefox, you can
install the PageRank Checker extention.

3. Why do I want a higher PR?

It used to be believed that a higher PR value
will give you a higher position in SERPs (Search
Engine Results Pages). However, this is no longer
the case. As any experienced webmaster, and even
Google themselves, would tell you, there are
hundreds of factors that determine where your
page is displayed in the results.

Google states that they do not recommend
webmasters exchange links to increase their PR.
They see it as trying to "game" their search
engine. Lastly, many people believe that a higher
PR causes Googlebot to crawl through a page more
often.

4. Is it a good idea to buy links for a higher PR?


Websites with higher PR (6, 7, 8) often make
money by selling links to sites with lower PR. As
Google states, if they are aware that sites are
selling PR instead of just advertising space (how
they can differ the two I can't say or if, ind
eed, they can), both the buyer and seller may be
penalized. The penalty may take the form of a
lower position in SERPs and/or a downgrade of PR.
Thus, we recommend that you do not buy links
simply for a higher PR. A great stredegy if you
can not buy links is to simply submit your
website to free website directories. Start off by
submitting to http://www.splur.net and work your
way from there.

5. But I still would like to improve the PR of my
site. What should I do?

First of all, sites don't have PR, pages do. (
hence the name Page Rank) Therefore, it is
possible for an internal page to have a higher PR
than the homepage. In order to get PR, the only
way is to get links to it. Incoming backlink from
a page with a higher PR is more valuable than
incoming a backlink from a page with a lower PR.
In addition, the PageRank that a link "gives" is
spread out between the number of links on the
page. For example, a backlink from a PR4 page
with only two links on the page can be more
valuable than a backlink from a PR7 page with
fifty links on the page.

6. How many links would I need to get my homepage
to PR7?

The answer to this question varies greatly
between different sites. Sometimes a couple links
from other PR7 or PR8 pages will do. On the other
hand, you may need hundreds of backlinks from PR3
or PR4 pages.

7. I've acquired many backlinks to my site. Why
isn't my PR improving?

There are many reasons why you may not be seeing
the results. First of all, if you see PR5 for a
page, the real PR may be PR5.0000 to PR5.9999.
You have no way of knowing the exact PR of your
site. Thus, you are simply not seeing the results.
Secondly, Google might have done a PR algorithm
update. Lastly, the PR of the pages that are
giving you incoming backlinks might have changes,
thus changing your PR as well.

8. How often do PR change?

Results may vary (a week to six months).

9. Why is my PR in the Google Directory different
than my toolbar PR?

Google uses a different scale for measuring
PageRank in the Google Directory.

10. Why is it so much harder to go from PR6 to
PR7 than from PR5 to PR6?

Google Pa geRank value goes up logarithmically. (
i.e. going from PR9 to PR10 may look like the
same as going from PR1 to PR2, but is actually
1000 times more difficult). The exact logarithmic
scale is unknown, but there has been speculation
that it may be around 5. (i.e. going from PR2 to
PR3 is 5 times more difficult than going from PR1
to PR2)

11. I just lost all my PR!

Don't panic just yet! Check to see if your PR is
white-barred or grey-barred (white or grey in the
PR ind icator). If it is white barred, then your
PR will probably come back. However, if your PR
is greyed, then it means that Google saw your
site as having used unethical SEO techniques (e.g.
selling/buying PR, keyword stuffing). Also,
Google sees http://example.com/abc.htm and http://
www.example.com/abc.htm as two different pages.
In this case, the PR of the page is spread
between these two UR Ls.

12. If PR is virtually useless, then why is it so
expensive to "buy"?

Over the years there has been many misconcepts
about PR. Sites with higher PR claim that PR is
valueable so that they can make more money
selling links. Gradually, the misconceptions
quietly built up.

13. What's up with the PageRank formula I see on
the Net?

You may have seen a formula to determine PR. I
cannot say that the formula is untrue, but it's
the implementation of the formula that is in
question. Just remember, the Internet is NOT all
about Pagerank!
About the Author
This article was provided for your pleasure.
Please visit http://www.splur.net and submit your
website to receive a FREE link to increase your
site's page rank.