An Introduction to PageRank

November 27, 2007

Many people who first time see the word PageRank in their life after they have been blogging or building their website for years. It has brought into my attention that most of the pages on the Interenet are using too much technical terms in their articles when explaining PageRank, so here is my simple version of explanation. You will find in this article:

• What is PageRank?
• Why do we need PageRank?
• Building PageRank
• How to check PageRank

What is PageRank?

Simply put, PageRank is Google ranking measurement for a page's popularity based on how many links pointing to that page. Generally, PageRank for your homepage normally is highest compare to other pages on your site.

Why do we need PageRank?

PageRank helps Google prioritize your page when showing it on the Google Search Result page. Note that it's Google only. For a blog or website builder we need to use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques for build better PageRank to be found by web searchers.

For the same keyword and relevancy, a page on a higher PageRank site would be placed on top of a page with lesser PageRank. That's why SEO people are desperately seeking ways to improve their PageRank.

Everyone needs to have good PageRank for their website, otherwise their pages will never be searched by Google.

Building PageRank

Building PageRank in No-SEO

People who don't know about PageRank depends upon other webmasters and their friend network to increase it naturally. This process is normally very lengthy, but more commonly used. Actually since it's no-SEO, there isn't a technique.

Building PageRank in white-hat-SEO

People who know about PageRank and SEO would actively builds their PageRank by building search engine friendly (SEF) links. There are white-hat SEO people who actively seek out for search engine friendly links.

The ultimate rule of thumb for building PageRank is:

"Put link to your site anywhere, anytime, any reason."

Building PageRank in black-hat-SEO

Many people are too desperate for PageRank. Those such as Internet marketers and affiliates have tendency to go beyond the limit. They would use text link ads and other ad network which offer search engine friendly links and pump up their PageRank to have much more exploited advantages over the other group.

Black-hat-SEO is explicitly prohibited by Google. Google would happily ban a website from their search index for violating this rule, if they find out.

How to check PageRank

After you know a little about PageRank, the next step is to try it out on your own page now. If you have Google Toolbar, then your PageRank is already visible there.

Otherwise you can use some web tools. You will need to copy and paste the URL of the page you need to check. You can use any of the following tools to check it:

• BlogFlux PageRank

Well I was about to put more but they all seem to broke since the time I wrote this: Special Days - PageRank for Google is 0. So BlogFlux is still the number one resource to check your PageRank.

Note: Don't cry yet if you see your page's PageRank is 0. Normally only your homepage have a noticeable PageRank. If your homepage has no PageRank, then cry.

What's Next?

This is only an introduction to PageRank from my own understanding. I will be writing much more about this topic in the upcoming posts. If you can't wait, feel free to read this PageRank by WikiPedia or this Pagerank Explained (very technical though).

This post is made thanks to my friend Haan. She asked me earlier: "Hey Binh, what is PageRank?". Please feel free to comment, everyone.

Tags: PageRank, SEO