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Google's PageRank Basics

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+ The Webmaster article below discusses the importance of PageRank for improving the result of your Search Engine listings. Learn how to check your PageRank and improve it through acquiring good quality links.
+ Linkism.com's Webmaster section aims to provide webmasters with marketing, promotional and web design tips. We focus on art sites because that's where our passion is, but the website promotion articles, tips and resources will also be useful for all website owners.

Linkism Art Directory> Webmaster Resources> Google's PageRank Basics

google pagerank article Google's PageRank (PR) Basics


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Update: PageRank continues to be an important factor in ranking well in Google, but is not the only factor. It seems to be having less importance and webmasters are not as obsessed as they once were with getting the largest PR possible. It is still a reasonably accurate indicator of a sites age and presence on the Internet.

As you begin to become more involved in promoting your web site online you will start to come across the PageRank term more often. PageRank is a technology developed by the Google search engine to measure the importance of web pages, often referred to as PR. Some of the basics of PageRank and how to improve the PageRank of your of your website will be listed in this article.



How to find out your Page Rank (PR) How to find out your Page Rank (PR)
To view your PageRank you will have to download and install the Google Toolbar. http://toolbar.google.com/
Once installed you will be able to view the PR of any website you visit, ranging from a PageRank of 0 through to 10.
(If you haven't already downloaded the Google Toolbar it is worth it just for the Popup blocker and easily accessible search options)

google pagerank and toolbar

What is PageRank and why is it so Important? What is PageRank and why is it so Important?
The Search Engine Google developed PageRank as a way of measuring the importance of a web page on the Internet. PR is determined by the amount of websites linking to yours, but it doesn't count all links as being equal. PageRank measures the importance and relevance of the website linking to yours and then passes on the appropriate PR value to your site.
Basically, all websites linking to yours are a vote of importance for your PageRank, but to gain more votes from each link it should be related to your web page and have a good PageRank itself.

The reason PageRank is so important is to get listed higher on Google's search results as PageRank is an important factor in determining where your site is listed.

Google has more information on PageRank..
http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html
http://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html

How to Improve your PageRank How to Improve your PageRank
The more relevant and important incoming links to your website the better your PageRank will be. The easiest way to start to improve your PageRank is to exchange link with related websites that already have a high PR. A better (although more challenging) option is to get relevant high PR websites linking to yours without you having to add their link on your site. There are many directories that will list your without having to exchange links, but most of them either charge a fee or make you wait forever to be listed. So you either have to exchange links with other webmasters or develop a valuable website that others will want to link to freely.

Factors that affect PageRank Factors that affect PageRank
There are several things to consider when looking to either exchange links with other web sites or to be listed in directories.

Relevance of the Website
An industry relevant link is of more importance than a link from an unrelated website. So a link from an art directory or another artist is of more importance than a casino if you are an artist looking for to improve your PageRank.

PageRank of the page linking to you
One of the most important factors is the PageRank of the site linking to you, more specifically the actual page linking to you. This determines the amount of votes your site receives their link. PageRank is updated monthly by Google and new pages will start with a PR of zero. So if the page you are receiving a link from is new but the mainpage of the website has a good PR than it is likely that in the future the new page where your link is will also have a good PR.

Number of Links on the Page

The fewer outgoing links on the page that you are receiving a link from the more PageRank value you will receive. The PR gained from the link will be divided and shared with all the other links on that page. So if you get a link on a PR6 page that has 100 outgoing links you will receive less value than a PR4 with only 10 outgoing links on it.

Javascript and Redirected Links
If you are looking to improve your PageRank than avoid requesting links from websites that put your link in Javascript or links that are redirected. A Javascript link where you will get no benefit will look something like this.. javascript:window('http://www.linkism.com') . Some webmasters employ this tactic to stop any PageRank value leaking from their site. If the page is very popular than it might be worth getting linked, but you will receive no PR value or benefit from search engines by getting links hidden in Javascript.
Redirected links of similar value. You just have to decide if the page is really worth getting a link from. If they receive very little traffic than it's really not worth the effort, especially if you are benefiting their site with a good exchange link (in other words you are voting for their PageRank but they're not voting for yours).

PR Conclusion PR Conclusion
PageRank is currently a very important factor in getting well listed in search engines, particularly Google. If you focus on building a good quality site that people will want to link to freely than your PageRank will increase by itself. But if your site is new or you sell a competitive product than you will have to work hard to increase your PR with a linking campaign. Remember that Google only updates PR about once a month so be patient and make improving your PageRank a long term goal.

Good luck with your PageRank!



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