PageRank™ (Google PageRank):

PageRank™ - often abbreviated PR - is a factor which Google uses to measure the relative importance of a website . It is calculated by analysing the link structure of a website according to Google’s unique and patented algorithm which was developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. This algorithm considers each link pointing to a page as a vote for the page. To calculate PageRank™ not only the number of votes count but also the importance of the voting site. Links from pages with high importance count more. The exact way Google calculates PageRank™ is not disclosed.

This concept is what made Google stand out from all other existing search engines in the late ‘90s and is the main factor that let it take over the search engine market within a few years because it enabled Google to deliver much more relevant search results compared to other search engines which relied on on-page factors only.

The term, by the way, does not refer to the rank of a (web-)page but to Larry Page.

PageRank™ is a figure between 0 and 10 where 0 means least important and 10 means most important (e.g. google.com assigns itself a PageRank of 10, google.de has 8, yahoo.com has 9).

PageRank influences the position of a site in the SERPs after on-page factors like keyword s, meta tags and others have been counted in. This means that a site with higher PageRank™ but badly optimised in keywords would be positioned below a well optimised site with lower PageRank™.

You can find out about the Google PageRank™ of a site by downloading and installing the Google toolbar (you find it under http://toolbar.google.com/ ). A bar graph in green gives an impression of the PageRank™, the exact figure can be seen when moving the mouse over the graphics. Note, however, that the toolbar doesn’t give a totally reliable representation but only an estimate.

Google PageRank indicator for http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/toolbar/index.html within the Google toolbar. The German text in the mouse-over window means “PageRank is Google’s standard for the relevance of this site (8/10)”

[Rank goes back to Old French ranc and Frankish hring = circle, ring (in the sense of “a group of people of a certain social position”)]

 

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