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August 10, 2007

PageRank Ranks Links to determine Google’s Search Engine Result Rankings.

Filed under: Search Engine Marketing — Andrew Christiansen @ 11:53 am

How Google PageRank Works is a discipline in itself, and is at the forefront of discussions for search engine optimization experts, web developers, information and technology experts, academia and mathematicians.  Amazingly they frequently agree on one thing: Content is King.  To verify this, just look at the rankings of www.CNN.com or http://news.bbc.co.uk/.  Google PageRank is a voting system that uses links to a page as votes to a page.  Popular news websites have many links connecting to them; therefore, they have more “votes” and a higher Google Page Rank.  Global and topical popularity are taken into consideration in ranking pages.  PageRank, also known as “PR,” is one of many factors included in search engine results, which is why so much attention is given to its value.

You must be indexed and have links in order to have a PR value.  (To clarify “Page Rank” or “PageRank”: Toolbar Pagerank is updated infrequently, and is said to be unreliable. Search Engine Page Rank (or Search Engine PageRank) is relative to Placement in search engine results.  PageRank (PR) is a factor Google considers in deciding your placement within search engine results and is evaluated frequently.)  Link schemes led Google to refine their link-weighting algorithms.  Websites participating in “link farming” or link selling “for the purpose of manipulating search engines” are being be weeded out.

Buying and Selling links are useful for advertising, but a violation if used to manipulate Pagerank.  “Black hat” competition can be reported to Google on their form at www.google.com/webmasters/tools/paidlinks.  Google recommends designating links you paid for with a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the href tag, and keeping links related.  Another tactic of search engine manipulation is
“Google Bombing,” discussed at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3298443.stm.

In-depth analysis and significant peer-review of mathematical formulas involved in Google’s PageRank algorithms is rampant.  Mathematical deductions and networking analysis can help you decide link arrangement in a hierarchy that can result in heavier page ranking on one page, or average page ranking applied throughout. Nevertheless, you will find contradicting advice. For the purpose of this article, it will suffice it to say, good links going into your webpage help.

White-Hat Link-baiting suggestions such as free tools, lists, industry research, community building, and competitive analysis can be found at www.seomoz.org, together with a wealth of other information relative to web content, search engine optimization, and Google PageRank.  Cross-Linking (Reciprocal Links) are walking on thin ice.  Google maintains that “as long as the links are relevant” they are safe.  However, Google Guidelines state: “Link schemes include Link exchange and reciprocal links schemes.”  Many sites cross-link successfully, however, a large consensus of developers are afraid of getting banned by having too many reciprocal links.  (Yahoo has been touchy with mass cross-links.)  Since Google themselves have accidentally marked some of their pages as spam, this fear isn’t unjustified.  Get listed in a directory to start with a safe one-way link.

Providing killer content will avoid the cloudy guidelines of Google’s PageRanking and maintain a high Google PageRank.  Create and publicize content people want to link to. Keep up with How Google Page Rank works and the latest PageRanking guidelines on Google by subscribing to their related RSS Feeds.  With killer content and updated information, you will be able to make Google PageRank Work in your favor, and see first hand how Google can work for you.


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