What is Google PageRank & Why should I care?

Defined straight from the horse’s mouth [wiki].

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 hyperlink from “Page A” pointing to “Page B” as a vote,. But, Google looks at more than just the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote.

In short your Google PageRank is not the singular deciding factor on SERP (Search Engine Results Page). There are a multitude of factors Google uses to decide where your site stacks up against the rest of your competition.

These would be a few of them to look up and read on.

Meta Tags

Keyword Density

Outbound Hyperlinks

Trackbacks/Pings

Age of your domain : “Old is Gold” (The older the better according to Google)

Finally make sure what you write or decide to say should be based on quality not quantity

What factors affect my PageRank,  Can I improve it ?

You can , essentially PageRank is all about who links to your website and who do you link to. I’ll briefly explain outgoing links. Basically if you write an article, let’s say you write about the net’s best 100 wallpapers , you are going to have a LOT of outgoing links. Essentially (Analogy coming up) let’s say your dad gives you $100 and you have 100 friends that you’re going to give $1 dollar to. The thing is that each time you give a friend $1 dollar your NET value goes from 100>99>98>97>96>95>etc . . . .

So to prevent your PageRank(Net Value) from going down you will have to be selective to which URL (Your Friends) gets the Vote(Dollar). The way Google understands if you are voting for a URL is if it is like this.

Social Site << This is considered a Vote in Google’s system

Social Site << Google sees the attribute (rel=”nofollow”) on hyperlinks, those links won’t get any credit when they rank websites in search results.

What is my Page Rank ?

There are many websites online that check your PageRank. A few of these sites I have listed here are ones I personally use & trust.

PR Checker

Smarter PageRank

Check PageRank

BlogFlux (This one Gave me inconsistent PageRanks, but you can use this to compare)

Is there a way to see my future Page Rank if I edited my website?

Yes there is a website that I came across while surfing the net and it’s called PageRankPrediction, It seems reliable and accurate based on the changes I made to my website , you may want to check it out.

Myths on PageRank Fact VS Fiction

1) The more outbound links I have on my website & articles , the better my page rank will be ?

Answer>> No this is not true , in certain cases if you have nothing but “link farms” and no real content Google may actually penalize you for it thinking it’s spam. Your PageRank is based on the quantity and quality of Inbound & Outbound Hyperlinks.

2) The more affiliates I have the better?

Answer>> Yes & No , This question is tough to answer because this is more about preference. Pointing to a website with low-PageRank may be considered a “leak” of PageRank “juice”. Personally I don’t beleive in affiliations because in most cases it ends up like a Facebook wall where you show off friend’s sites and all. Maybe I’m crazy but I think it’s tacky. Every person is different. (Sherif fyi thinks affiliations are a good thing)

3) Google Likes it when I use proper header tags a lot in my articles!

Answer>> Hmm yes Google will appreciate the fact that you are making your content more readable but don’t over use it and think that it is a good replacement instead of making parts of your content BOLD. Use CSS that’s what it’s there for

4) Is it better use more keywords than my competitor would use ?

Answer>> Personally I keep it a thumb rule to limit keywords on posts / articles to a MAXIMUM of 9 keywords. Google and other search engine do not like it when you’re stuffing the page full of keywords. This will lead you to get either penalized or banned.

5) Does being listed in directories help ?

Answer>> Depends what kind & quality of the directory. Previously Google had pretty much sucked up to DMOZ as THE one and only directory you should try to get into as well as Yahoo’s paid directory. The thing is the DMOZ can take anywhere from 4 weeks to 4+ years to get listed. While Yahoo’s directory is very expensive to get listed into. As of recently Google has removed the bullet of suggesting webmasters to get submitted to the directory from this article I read. So don’t go crazy about gettin submitted. If you’re in & accepted great if not than who cares not like it will “make or break” you.

6) Increases in Pingbacks/Trackbacks/Inbound links are good right ?

Answer>> Yes they are good , not only does it mean another human being was interested in your article but also linked to your site. Remember a link to your site is like someone just gave you $1.00 only instead of cash you got yourself a Google vote.

7) Anything I haven’t heard on a website that I should know of ?

Answer>> Yea , if you’re a regular Mr.Potty Mouth you can expect Google to catch this quick. You can guess that abusive or hateful speech is monitored and you may be penalized for it. It’s simple if you feel strongly then use asterisks or symbols to say something like “I lost money in the stock market son of a bi*$h”

8 ) Is it important to have my whole site indexed by Google and other bots ?

Answer>> That is actually a very bad idea , Do you want Google to index your admin directory and login as well ? Didn’t think so , only index parts of your website that hold importance. Some webmasters argue that indexing certain sections such as the archive is a waste of time. Again this is your call I personally don’t like indexing the archive as it is repetitious material. In most cases it’s not even significant.

9) Any fast way to improve my website ?

Answer>> If you update your website often & frequently, Google will reward you since it loves fresh new material to add.

10) I heard it is important to use excerpts on my main page is this true ?

Answer>> Yes it is true , Not only does Google hate duplicate content on the same site but other Search Engines do as well. So make sure you use excerpts or summaries

Resources , Websites to help you boost your PageRank

Google is always changing their views/rules on Page Rank so try to keep upto date with the freshest news.