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Improved Search Engine Rank: Google Page Rank
                Misconceptions - Parts 1 & 2
By Peter Nisbet (c) 2007

Improved search engine rank is attainable through good search
engine optimization, part of which is the maximizing of your
Google Page Rank through intelligent linking with other web
pages. In this first part of 2 on the subject of Google Page
Rank, we will look at the argument for attaining high listings
through a linking strategy.

Google Page Rank is a buzz term at the moment since many
believe it to be more important to your search engine listing
than search engine optimization. If we ignore for the moment
the fact that Page Rank is, in itself, a form of SEO, then there
are arguments for and against that belief.

Before we investigate these arguments, let's understand some
fundamentals of search engine listings. First, most search
engines list web pages, not domains (websites). What that means
is that every web page in a domain has to be relevant to a
specific search term if it is to be listed.

Secondly, a search engine customer is the person who is using
that engine to seek information. It is not an advertiser or the
owner of a website. It is the user seeking information. The
form of words that is used by that customer is called a 'search
term'. This becomes a 'keyword' when applied to a webmaster
trying to anticipate the form of words that a user will employ
to search for their information.

A search engine works by analyzing the semantic content of a
web page and determining the relative importance of the
vocabulary used, taking into account the title tags, the heading
tags and the first text it detects. It will also check out text
related contextually to what it considers to be the main
'keywords' and then rank that page according to how relevant it
calculates it to be for the main theme of the page.

It will then examine the number of other web pages that are
linked to it, and regard that as a measure of how important, or
relevant to the 'keyword', that the page is. The value of the
links is regarded as peer approval of the content. All of these
factors determine how high that page is listed for search terms
that are similar contextually to the content of the page.

Without doubt, there are web pages that are listed high in the
search engine indices that contain very little in the way of
useful content on the keywords for which they are listed, and
have virtually no contextual relevance to any search term.
However, a careful investigation of these sites will reveal two
things.

The first is that many such web pages are frequently listed
highly only for relatively obscure search terms. If a search
engine customer uses a common search term to find the
information they are seeking, they will very rarely be led to a
site that has little content other than links, but it is
possible. The second is that they contain large numbers of
links out to other web pages, and it can be assumed that they
have at least an equal number of web pages linking back.

It is possible to find such web pages for many keywords. An
example is on the first page on Google for the keyword 'Data
VOIP Solutions'. There is a website there that is comprised
only of links. The site itself has little content, but every
link leads to either another website that provides useful
content, or another internal page full of more links and no
content. That is how links can be used to lift a web page high
in the SE listings.

Such sites frequently contain only the bare minimum of
conventional search engine optimization, but the competition is
so low that they gain high listings. You will also find them to
contain large numbers of internal pages, every one of which
contain the same internal and external links.

It is true, therefore, that it is possible to get a high
listing without much content, but with a large number of links.
However, is that a legitimate argument for those promoting links
against content? Could you reasonably apply that strategy to
your website? Could a genuine website really contain thousands
of links to other internal pages and external pages on other
websites, and still maintain its intended purpose?

In the second part of this article, titled 'Search Engine Rank:
Google Page Rank Misconceptions' I will explode some myths
about Page Rank, and explain how many people are wasting their
time with reciprocal links, and perhaps even losing through
them. It may be that a linking strategy is not so much an
option, as a choice between the type of website that you want:
to provide genuine information or to make money regardless of
content.

Improved search engine rank might be synonymous with Google
Page Rank, but perhaps only if you want to sacrifice the
integrity of your website.

Part 2

Improved search engine rank is difficult enough to obtain
without you having to trawl through all that has been written
about Google Page Rank in order to find the truth. There are
many misconceptions about Page Rank, and Part 2 of this article
dispels the most common of them, the first being that Yahoo and
MSN have their own version.

In fact this is not so. Yahoo had a beta version of a 'Web Rank'
visible for a while, ranking complete websites, but it is now
offline. MSN has no equivalent as far I can ascertain. The term
'PageRank' is a trade mark of Google, which is why I refer to it
as Page Rank and not PageRank. A small difference, but a
significant one.

If you are one of those that believe that the more links you can
get to your website the better, then you are wrong. When Google
started the Page Rank frenzy by putting that little green bar on
their toolbar, they didn't realize the consequences of what they
were doing. People fought to get as many links to their website
as possible, irrespective of the nature of the websites to which
they were linking.

That is misconception Number 2. You do not link to websites, you
link to web pages, or should I say, you get links back from web
pages, not websites. It is, after all, the link back that counts
isn't it? The link away from your site doesn't count. Wrong!
Misconception Number 3. The link to your web page counts no more
than the link away from your web page. In fact, it could count
less. You could lose out in the reciprocal linking stakes if
your web page is worth more than the other person's.

Let's dispel that misconception right now. When you receive a
link from a web page (not web site) you get a proportion of the
Google Page Rank of that web page that depends on the total
number of links leaving that page. When you provide a link to
another web page, you give away a proportion of your Page Rank
that depends on the number of other links leaving your web page.

The Page Rank of the website you get a link from is irrelevant,
since that is generally the rank of the Home Page. You will
likely find that all these great links you think you have from
PR 7 or 8 websites are from a links page that has a PR of ZERO!
So you get zilch for the deal. If you are providing them with a
link from a page on your site even of PR 1, then you lose! Most
people fail to understand that.

No incoming link can have a negative effect on your PR. It can
have a zero effect, but not negative. However, if you have an
incoming link with zero effect, and an outgoing reciprocal link
with a positive effect to the target page, then you will
effectively lose PR through the deal. Every web page starts with
a PR of 1, and so has that single PR to share amongst other
pages to which it is linked. The more incoming links it has, the
higher PR it can have to share out.

If your page has a PR of 4 and has three links leaving it, each
gets twice the number of PR votes than if 6 links leave it. Your
page with a PR of 4 has to get a similar number of PR votes
incoming as it gives away to retain its PR. In simple terms, if
your PR 4 page is getting links from a PR 8 page with 20 links
leaving it, you lose out big time! It's simple math.

No page ever gives away all of its PR. There is a factor in
Google's calculation that reduces this to below 100% of the
total PR of any page. However, that is roughly how it works. You
don't get a proportion of the whole website ranking; you only
get part of the ranking of the page on which your link is
placed. Since most 'Links Pages' tend to be full of other
outgoing links, then you won't get much, and will likely get
zero.

That is why automated reciprocal linking software is often a
waste of time. If you want to make the best of linking
arrangements, then agree with the other webmaster that you will
provide each other with a link from equally ranked pages. That
way both of you will gain, and neither loses. Some software
allows you to make these arrangements.

Another misconception is that only links from external web pages
count. In fact, links between your own web pages can be arranged
to provide one page with most of the page rank available. Every
page has a start PR of 1, so the more pages you have on your
site then the more PR you have to play with and distribute to
pages on your website of your choice.

Search engine rank can be improved by intelligent use of links,
both external and internal, but Google Page Rank does not have
the profound effect on your search engine listing that many have
led you to believe. Good onsite SEO usually wins so keep that in
mind when designing your website.
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Peter normally has several pages of his website listed within 2
days, and he shows you exactly how he does it on his website
http://www.improved-search-engine-rank.com using screenshots and
actual examples.
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