The Truth About PageRank

When someone refers to PageRank, they are in fact referring to an algorithm itself and then also the score given to each page as a result of this algorithm. PageRank is largely the reason why Google is more successful than the other nine search engines. Google were not the first to look at links by any means, but they were the first to do so in a meaningful way.

Without going in to the technical detail on how PageRank works it is a scale based on link equity which estimates the importance of web documents. The basic structure has stayed the same for a number of years but has evolved and become slightly more sophisticated. It is also important to point out at this stage that Google use a wide number of factors to produce search results and Pag Rank is just one of these factors. Google does not reveal how important PageRank is in this process but nonetheless is an important part of the ranking process. So we have clarified some common misconceptions below regarding PageRank.

The Truth About Page Rank:

Myth 1: PageRank is a vote for one page by another

This is a great description in laymans terms, but PageRank does not actually work this way and is therefore quite misleading. A better definition would be that it calculate the probability a user will end up on a given page if the user were to follow links around the web, in a random fashion.

Myth 2: Websites have a PageRank

This statement is incorrect, PageRank applies to individual pages not to a site as a whole. In general Homepages tend to have a higher page rank as they usually have more links pointing to them.

Myth 3: PageRank relates directly to traffic

This statement is also incorrect. PageRank is an indicator of a pages ability to rank but it does not specify how it actually ranks or what terms it is ranking for, think of it asa rank of potential.

Myth 4: PageRank indicates how important Google thinks your site is.

Again, this is untrue. PageRank as mentioned above is just one of the many factors Google uses to index and rank sites.

Myth 5: PageRank is Googles only algorithm related to links.

This statement is also false. Google use a number of calculations based on links and of course other factors to determine indexing, ranking etc.

Now that we have quashed some of the most commons myths about PageRank hopefully you will now have a clearer understanding of how it actually works. It is important as it is one of the factors that Google consider but as to how important it is

WebResults.ie offer a wide range of web marketing services, so if you want to improve your listing / ranking on Google for key terms relevant to your business, contact us today to find out what will work best for you and your business.