Simple SEO

Page Rank – What is it?

WOW…didn’t realize it was so long since I last posted on this blog! Anyway…..

I am not sure about everyone else but when I write on my blog, I hope a lot of people read what I wrote. For me it is merely to satisfy my need for attention. Being the middle child and having 3.7 kids causes me to feel neglected. Keeping this in mind, I try to gain attention through my blog’s Page Rank (PR). What is Page Rank you may ask?

Page Rank is basically a ranking system Google uses to determine the “value” or importance of your website, blog and its pages.  Achieving a good Page Rank is a part of any SEO (Search Engine Optimization) effort.

How does Google calculate Page Rank? That is a huge secret but linking is very important in determining Page Rank. Links from other websites and/or pages count as a “vote” for your website or page. The more votes your site or pages have, the higher the value but not all “votes” (links) are equal. If the linking page has a high PR it will pass some of that value to yours. If the page has a lower PR than yours, Google will not value the link as much a link (vote) with a higher PR. Linking from one page to another within your own site also helps build Page Rank.

How is Page Rank Expressed? Page Rank is expressed on a scale from 0-10. Most new sites have a PR of 0-2. Fairly established sites with decent links will rank from 3-5. Anything with a PR6 or higher are very popular sites with many valuable incoming links. Very few sites have a Page Rank of 7 or higher so don’t get upset if you do not rank that high.

For most sites, the home page has the highest Page Rank. This is normal but does not mean that some of that Page Rank cannot be distributed to individual pages. Inter-linking pages from the home page can help redistribute that PR of the home page and getting links from other sites to individual pages will help.

OK, so you ask: WHY DO I CARE? Maybe you don’t but if you do, Page Rank will matter in regards to how your site shows up in Google searches. For example: If you have a site selling digital cameras, you will want your site to place high in the results for internet searches for “digital cameras”. You ideally want to be in the #1 spot but the first page of results might be adequate as the results may contain millions of sites. The chances of people clinking on your site are greater if you rank higher in the results. Many people and companies pay to have their sites SEO done for them so they receive a high Page Rank but it something you can do on your own in time.

If you want to know your Page Rank you can visit PRChecker and enter your site. If you are like me and use FireFox, you can download the SearchStatus extension. This extension will show you the Page Rank of every page you visit.

Related posts: Commenting=Links and Publicity, What is SEO and How Will it Help You? and SEO and the Proper Use of Keyword

I hope this information was useful. Please let me know what you think. I appreciate all feedback.