Pagerank In Google
Pagerank in Google - carefully explained and what you can do with it - written by top SEO experts

By 1998, the dot-com gold rush was in full swing. Web search engines had been around since 1995, and had been immediately touted by high-tech pundits (and Forbes magazine) as one more element in the magical mix that would make us all rich. Such innovations meant nothing less than the end of the business cycle.
 

But the truth of the matter, as these same pundits conceded after the crash, was that the false promise of easy riches put bottom-line pressures on companies that should have known better. One of the most successful of the earliest search engines was AltaVista, then owned by Digital Equipment Corporation. By 1998 it began to lose its way. All the pundits were talking "portals," so AltaVista tried to become a portal, and forgot to work on improving their search ranking algorithms.

Even by 1998, it was clear that too many results were being returned by the average search engine for the one or two keywords that were entered by the searcher. AltaVista offered numerous ways to zero in on specific combinations of keywords, but paid much less attention to the "ranking" problem. Ranking, or the ordering of returned results according to some criteria, was where the action should have been.

Users don't want to figure out Boolean logic, and they will not be looking at more than the first twenty matches out of the thousands that might be produced by a search engine. What really matters is how useful the first page of results appears on search engine A, as opposed to the results produced by the same terms entered into engine B. AltaVista was too busy trying to be a portal to notice that this was important.


There are many concepts as to how you can improve your Google PageRank but link building is one of the most powerful and effective ways to achieve this. But first, let us understand what a link directory really is so you will know how you can benefit from it. Basically, a link directory is a website that lists different resources on the internet. The topics that can be found in the directory can range from being broad to being specific.

One of the most popular link directories today is the "Open directory Project" or otherwise known as the OPD. This is directory that is manned by real people who will check the relevance of the websites being submitted. The websites that are deemed relevant will be included in the directory to enable users to find only the useful information they need. In addition, you can be assured that websites that are included in directories are not spam or junks because these sites go through the screening process of editors.

There are several kinds of web directories today: free and paid directories. It would be in the best interest of your site to submit your site to as many directories as possible. This is because being included in a directory gives your site credibility in the eyes of the visitors. However, in most cases, it will take months for your site to appear in free directories because of the vast amounts of websites that the editors of these directories need to go through everyday. And you should note that there is no guarantee that your website will actually be listed in these directories if another website that is already there have the same content as your website.

An alternative to free directories is the paid directories. Usually, the website you submit to paid directories will be accepted. Sometimes though, the fee you have to pay to get listed can be quite expensive, take the case of Yahoo directories, you have to pay $300 for every submission you send.

Overall though, the time and effort you spend in submitting to these directories is worth it because people treat these directories as a sort of online library so your site will surely be visited. And because manual submission to thousands of directories in the internet can be tiresome, you can now avail of directory submitter software that will enable you to submit your site to these directories easily.

I started a small website earlier this year to investigate whether I could supplement my income. In researching website optimization, I came across PageRank size for the first time and was amazed about how many people obsessed about it. Obviously everyone wants a larger one and there are various methods of increasing it - some proven, some painful, and some downright silly.

But let me explain what PageRank is first.

PageRank is one of the many factors Google takes into account when it returns the results for a search term. It is, in effect, Google's evaluation of how important a site is. The main element in this is the number of sites linking to your site and their PageRank size. This can be viewed as a popularity contest with the sites with the bigger PageRanks getting bigger votes (ain't that always the way).

The upshot of this is that sites with, shall we say, less than a handful of PageRank cannot get close to the top of the results when popular keywords are searched upon, and have to rely on more specific keywords to get traffic from search engines.

PageRank is measured from 0-10. Sites can be out into three categories:

PageRank 0-2 - New websites that are just starting out. Websites that have come to terms with the size of their PageRank and have given up trying to increase it (but secretly hope it'll still grow over time). Bad boys who have broken the rules.

PageRank 3-6 - Established websites that have proven they can perform. Niche websites that have a big enough PageRank to do what they need it to do.

PageRank 7-10 - Some of these guys' PageRank is so big it'll knock you over if they turn to quickly in the communal showers. In order to compete with this PageRank, one needs to develop other techniques to establish your own area of specialist expertise.

In order to not get their PageRank laughed at in those showers, webmasters are constantly looking to increase it. Here are a few ways to stretch that PageRank.

Increase the Girth - By increasing the number of pages on the site, it increases the amount of PageRank the webmaster can play with. If those pages point internally then it can increase the PageRank of those pages for instance. As we all know, girth is a secondary factor when it comes to performance and you should be careful that you don't create pages with no real value or content, as one can be punished for that (and not in a nice way).

Expose Yourself - Advertising your website is a core piece of your strategy. However, to really increase that PageRank, you need incoming, permanent, links not occasional pay-per-click ads or banners that can change day-to-day or week-to-week. Ways to do this include, writing high quality articles that get published on a number of sites (the author is still working on getting that one right), being active in fora associated with the subject of your website, and forming a group in one or more of the social websites. You certainly shouldn't keep it in your pants, but over-exposure can be detrimental to your PageRank too, if you are deemed to be spamming.

Hire Some Prostitutes - There are some websites (the author is told) that will provide links to your website for a fee. Now, this is illegal in the United States of Google and there are severe penalties if you are caught. They rely on snitches to let them know it's happening, so this kind of activity tends to happen on street corners and undesirable neighborhoods on the web. This is not recommended.

"Don't Worry About It, It Happens to Everyone" - There is a small but vocal group that says you shouldn't worry about the size of it and just concentrate on providing good content for your visitors. This is the equivalent of "the size doesn't matter, it's what you do with it Honey", or a favorite of my ex-wife's - "more than a mouthful's a waste". The reality is that people visit your website because of what's on it, but they won't visit if they don't know it's there - so a balance is needed.

There are also a number of things you should avoid that may shrivel your PageRank.

Getting Caught With Your Pants Down - Anything that Google prohibits (and there is a lot) can adversely affect your PageRank if they catch you in the act. So keep your nose clean and make sure you understand the rules.

Orgies - Simply exchanging links with other sites doesn't really have an effect on your PageRank (although it still might generate traffic) and using "link farms" can have a negative effect. The author has never visited a "link farm" (to his knowledge) but imagines they are akin some sort of communal retreat for perverts, or like one of those swinging parties you never get invited to.

Flashing - Pop-ups are not actually banned but they are obviously unpopular. A number of directories are now banning sites that have excessive pop-ups, which will decrease the number of sites that will publish a link to your site if you do have lots of pop-ups.

In summary, PageRank is a very important aspect, but to obsess over it means you won't satisfy your visitors in other areas, which might be important to them. If it is that important to you, you need to get out and meet people!

If it's big enough to do the job, be happy.

Whether you believe in SEO or Page Rank and wonder which is more important, your thinking is irrelevant. You are wasting your time in wondering what is the correct answer to that question, since even if you knew it there is little you could do to use that information.

Why do I say that? Because SEO, or search engine optimization, is a way of designing your website, and placing content in it, to satisfy search engine algorithms. Search engines are so sophisticated today that if you achieve that, then you will also satisfy visitors to your website. If you satisfy visitors to your website, then they will stay on the page they landed on and read it. They will then click to read other pages on your website, and might even make a purchase.

Sure, some will leave right away, but if the search engines feel that your content is good enough for a high placement in their indices for the search term, or keyword, that your visitor used to get to your web page, then it is more likely that you will achieve a relatively high stick rate of people to your site than a lower one.

Now, consider if you thought Google PageRank more important (and PageRank is correct, not Page Rank). You would then spend more of your time trying to get links back to your website than you would properly optimizing your site and filling it with good content. If you were successful in that difficult job, then Google, and possibly other search engines, would list you a bit higher in their indices, not because their spiders thought your site was relevant to the search term used by the potential visitors, but because other websites though so.

You will then get visitors to your website, and the page they land on would have to be relevant to the search term they used or they will immediately leave. If it is relevant, they will stay, perhaps visit other web pages and perhaps make a purchase.

So what is the difference? You get basically the same end result. How can you tell which is the more important. There is one simple way to do this, and one that I have used more than once. Design two websites round the same keyword. Make the keyword the name of the website and then apply classical theoretical SEO to one site, including some of the extra special tips that can make the difference between success and failure - in fact that DO make that difference.

Now apply only minimal SEO to the other and make sure you have exactly the same content on each, but rewritten to avoid duplicate content or that would negate the test. However, with the second site, you must generate as many links back to your website as possible, using non-reciprocal links where possible, but reciprocal links where necessary. There are a few ways in which you can generate lots of one-way links to selected pages on your site, and you should make that your home page for the purposes of this test.

Wait 4 weeks then check Google, Yahoo and MSN for the position of each of your home pages. You will find that your first website will generally be listed higher for the keyword that both sites are built round. Check again about 3 months later, and will likely find that website 2 will feature higher as the links start to take effect, but then the first site will overtake it as it generates its own links naturally.

Basically, what this proves to me is that it is essential to optimize your website for search engines in the classical way, but that for best results you must also have a good level of links back to your website. There are simple, ways to achieve both, but that would be the topic of another article. However, in the end, if you apply both, then you will achieve best results. I know that there are exceptions to this, and I have highlighted them in some my ebooks, but generally that is the case.

So, the answer to the question: SEO or Page Rank, is that neither is the more important. They are both equally important, but it is possible to do one better than the other and then you would be tempted to say that your way was best. But you would be wrong!

If you did find what was the best you couldn't use that information since search engines rules are transitory but good honest content and classical SEO has always prevailed, as has a good number of links that others follow to reach your website.