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What's the Story on PageRank?
By Donald Nelson (c) 2007

A lot of website owners are upset or puzzled when their
website's Google PageRank goes down or does not rise. Is it
worth losing any sleep over changes in that green line and
number that appear in a Google tool bar at the top of your
browser? I think that excessive worry or thought about
PageRank is not constructive, and it is better to put it all in
perspective by taking a rational look at what PageRank is and
what it is not.

First of all the concept behind PageRank is indeed at the heart
of Google's ranking process. The Google founders came from
academia and they noticed that in many academic documents some
sources were continually cited. They reasoned that if a
particular document such as a book or research paper was
mentioned in many places then it must be important. They applied
this to the web and assumed that if one website links to another
it is in fact, giving a "vote" for that site. A website that
has many incoming links must have a certain degree of
importance. In the current Google algorithm the quantity and
quality of incoming links is certainly a factor in deciding the
ranking of a particular website for any given search-query.

Think about it. In the early days of the web people would build
websites and then they would tell their visitors to check out
other "cool" sites and they would link to these sites. This is
the process of natural linking and it still goes on. If you
really have good content, people will link to you without
letting you know. Similarly, if your name is Bob Dylan and your
website is www.bobdylan.com, thousands of people will link to
you without you having to send a cheesy email begging for a
link.

Various government agencies, educational institutions,
established companies and anyone else who is "big" in the "real
world" is likely to also be big on the Internet simply by virtue
of their previous fame and accomplishment. Google's ranking
system took this into consideration and this is one of the
reasons why Google is currently the number one search engine. It
gives better results and that is why people use it.

But, does that mean that only the big players can be seen on the
net? Far from it. While there is a difference between one guy
working in his house with one computer and a corporate giant
with a whole staff, and this is indeed reflected in rankings,
the Internet provides a much leveler playing field than in
yesteryear. Prior to 1995, it would have been very hard for
someone to spread their news and views far and wide as bloggers
do today. It costs millions of dollars to publish a daily
newspaper or to print and circulate a magazine, but it costs far
less to publish a website or a blog, and lots of "little guys"
have taken advantage of the power of the Internet.

But what about PageRank, how much of it do I really need to get
my site noticed? For those who are not familiar with the
PageRank system. Google supplies a tool bar which you can
download and install on your browser. If you make a complete
installation with all the advanced features, then every time you
open a new website you will see a green and white bar with the
label PageRank. Put your mouse on the bar and you will see a
number from 0 to 10. If a website is not indexed by Google or
banned by Google, the bar may be grey or all white.

But what do the numbers mean? I had a client who was worried
about his number 3 PageRank figure and based on my observation I
answered him with my unofficial view on the rankings. Here is
how I currently see it:

PageRank 0-2 shows that a site does not have many links and needs
work, However, and this a big "however," it may not really
affect your search engine rankings. I have a client with a page
rank of 2 and his site ranks well, even number one, for several
search terms in a fairly competitive industrial category. So
PageRank is not everything; it may have an impact on your
rankings and traffic, but in some cases it may not matter. In
any case if you have a PageRank of 0-2, you can work on it
through proper link building activity which I will explain at
the end of the article.

PageRank 3 can be OK in some cases but in highly competitive
industries you should work to improve it.

PageRank 4 is quite a normal number and indicates that you have
enough links in either quantity or quality to make your site
competitive.

PageRank 5 indicates that a site has many links or links from
authoritative sites, and that Google has good "trust" in the
site. It is a respectable and attainable PageRank.

PageRank 6 is very difficult to attain. This rank indicates that
the site has many links and links from respected places.
Remember the example of www.bobdylan.com, which I mentioned
above; it has a PageRank 6, so you can get an idea of the
difficulty involved.

PageRank 7-10 is usually earned by large and established
institutions or websites which have tremendous authority, due to
the quantity and quality of the incoming links. It is extremely
difficult to attain this ranking. You really have to be special
to get it.

So, don't worry excessively about PageRank. First look at your
traffic, then look at your sales and finally at your bottom
line. They are the important numbers to watch. If you want to
increase your traffic and also PageRank, then here are a few
steps that you can take:

1. Add content to your website. Make your website so good and so
useful that people will link to you without you asking for a
link.

2. Write articles and get them published on other websites and
blogs with a link back to your site.

3. Distribute online press releases

4. Judiciously exchange links, or even better, exchange content
(containing links back to your site) with other websites.

5. Get your site listed in online directories.

These efforts will certainly help you to build targeted traffic,
and they most probably will also help you to increase your
PageRank as well.
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Donald Nelson is a search engine optimization
(http://www.a1-optimization.com) specialist and the publisher of
the A1-Article Directory (http://www.a1-articledirectory.com), a
source of content for website owners and blog publishers.
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