The confusion still weaves its way slowly around the Internet about Google’s PageRank and exactly how it affects your website. Many people are under the belief, that a high PageRank will give you high rankings for your website. You couldn’t be further from the truth in actual fact. Below I have listed some basics about PageRank for those who think otherwise:
# PageRank is one of over 100 assessed features of a webpage for order of ranking.
# Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to deliver relevant pages.
# The higher the PageRank is not necessarily the higher your website ranking.
# PageRank and links are not the same – unpopular to some beliefs.
# PageRank does not improve solely by more links pointing at your website.
# Important high quality websites will receive a higher PageRank.
Let’s discuss each in a little more detail.
PageRank is one of over 100 assessed features of a webpage for order of ranking
Those who are stuck on the theory that PageRank means everything; really need to have a good long look at this statement, that Google supply on their website. You can make a website with a PR1 onwards rank on the front-page for given keyword terms. What some confuse this with are competitive keyword phrases. Something like “search engine optimization” or “web host” for example. Front page listings are not achieved by high PageRank’s alone, this being one of those well circulated myths of the Internet. Don’t confuse PageRank with relevant links pointing at your website and other optimisation techniques. Links and PageRank are only related by the fact “relevant” links will generally improve your PageRank.
Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to deliver relevant pages
A higher PageRank does not necessarily make your website more relevant for related terms. The information contained in that site must still be well written and described within each page to reflect relevancy. For example, you could have two websites; one about “red doors” and another about “green doors”. The website about red doors can have a PR10, but when you search for “green doors” you will come up with a website that has a PR1 possibly because it is more relevant within the written text for that phrase. Now if you typed in “doors”, then you could come up with completely different websites again because of page text relevancy vs. link popularity and PageRank. A well written page to target exactly what you are selling is the secret to targeted traffic, not PageRank.
The higher the PageRank does not necessarily mean a higher website ranking
PageRank is only used by Google, that’s the first thing to remember. Google provides 50% of website traffic currently, though be aware, sticking all your eggs in one basket is just asking for trouble. The more links pointing at your website increases your websites’ relevancy, but not necessarily the PageRank, if the links are not from like pages.
PageRank and links are not the same – unpopular to some beliefs
You need to understand that they are not the same thing. PageRank is Google’s measure of importance. Links are the Internets measure of importance of your website. Google will tell you this themselves. Still unconvinced? Get the information straight from the horses’ mouth: http://www.google.com.au/technology.
PageRank does not improve solely by more links pointing at your website
What many forget, is this; PageRank and how many links you have are not related at all. As Google themselves state, it is the importance of a page that links to you that gives your website an improved PageRank. You can have two identical websites; the first has 1,000,000 links pointing at it from all over the web and has gained a PR6; the second has 1,000 links pointing at it from like information websites and directory listings and also has a PR6. You can now see the difference in work effort to gain the exact same PageRank from Google.
Important high quality websites will receive a higher PageRank.
This is the truest statement that exists. If you’re a Google nut and persist in having all your eggs in the Google basket, then you need to substantiate relevancy of your links and not quantity. Quantity means something for other search engines, not Google. Google would prefer 100 quality links from like or similar websites, with a high PR, than a million non-related websites. It just means more work for them in the end. If you have two Internet Directories with a PR8 each, and they link to one another, then Google would assess that as more important than the thousand or so links pointing to the Internet Directories from personal websites about cars, boats, computers and so on. But; other engines would use those thousand and so other links to establish relevancy. Don’t forget about the other engines.
Let’s listen to Google
Google themselves state, “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 link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyses the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.” Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don’t match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page’s content (and the content of the pages linking t!
o it) to determine if it’s a good match for your query.” (Full information available at http://www.google.com.au/technology)
So in conclusion, listen to fact not fiction. The professionals are the people with the correct and factual information that you need. Avoid those unprofessional people with little knowledge. Once money is paid, for an Internet service or product, it can be extremely difficult to recover lost funds. This information is mostly released from Google and other search engines, so if in doubt, go directly to the engines and ask questions. They are generally more than willing to help you with your enquiries. Note that this may take a while with the volume of emails and correspondence received be these search engines daily.
Anthony Parsons has been performing search engine optimization since 1998. In late 2003 I decided to fly solo and opened my own SEO business to service the global community. With my wife being an acknowledged copywriter, anthonyparsons.com as a business will continue stepping forward breaking the boundaries of conventional SEO techniques. Making a winning husband and wife team, we make SEO affordable for all budgets.
