If you study SEO, you have certainly heard of PageRank, right? It is one of the many indicators that allow search engines to rank sites to show them in their search results.

Through PageRank, a search engine determines the popularity of a page. And in the digital world, a site needs to be relevant to appear on the first page of Google.

Keep reading to understand more about this important algorithm!

What is PageRank?

PageRank is a Google search engine developed to rank the popularity of each internet page based on the links it receives and the popularity of the sites linked to it.

In this way, each page and site are indexed by the search engine according to their score in PageRank and other factors.

However, this PageRank score is one of the most important criteria in SEO.

A brief history of Google PageRank

The first PageRank patent emerged in 1998 and became the original metric used by Google to calculate the importance of a page and rank it.

And what does this have to do with Google? Everything! The search engine was created based on Sergey Brin’s idea that web information could be classified based on the popularity of the link.

Thus, it took into account the number and relevance of pages that point to that particular link.

In the article that presented Google, it is possible to see the reference to PageRank when the search engine’s resources are explained:

The Google search engine has two important features that help it produce high-precision results. First, it uses the web link structure to calculate a quality ranking for each page. Second, Google uses links to improve search results.

PageRank is what made Google something unique.

After all, does PageRank still exist?

It is important to note that PageRank has not been discontinued, it is just no longer disclosed as before by Google.

Thus, the metric still exists, but only Google has access to this information.

In this way, if you search for a PageRank calculator or any other tool that displays this scale, the tool’s return will likely be zero. But it does not mean that the metric is actually zero.

How does PageRank work?

PageRank measures the quality and quantity of links received by a page on a website. The goal is to refine its ranking.

Therefore, the higher the popularity of a site, the more valuable it will be to search engine crawlers.

This is one of the elements that dominates website referencing. However, it is not the only one, as there are hundreds of other factors to improve your position in Google search engine results pages.

For a long time, the Google Toolbar gave an approximate idea of the PageRank of web pages. It was a score from 1 to 10.

However, this public indicator was no longer updated and was abandoned in 2016.

After that, Google made it clear that its engine continued to use the confidential algorithm internally.

Why is PR important?

As mentioned earlier, this mechanism is a positioning criterion taken into consideration in the search engine algorithm.

Although Google has not communicated its exact influence, PageRank makes all the difference in an SEO strategy, confirming its importance.

The popularity of a site results from the quantity and quality of the links it receives. Therefore, it is directly related to link building – a strategy used in SEO to increase the number and quality of inbound links to a page.

What is taken into consideration in Google’s PageRank algorithm?

To evaluate the popularity of a website or internet page, the PageRank algorithm takes into account the number of received links and the popularity of the sites that send these links.

In addition, the topic of the pages has also become a criterion integrated into the score calculation.

In other words, it is important that the page talks about the topic that its content is addressing.

How to have a good PageRank score?

To have a good PageRank score, you need to do a well-directed job with links.

You should always consider these three criteria:

  • The number of links pointing from pages A to page B;
  • The PageRank of each of these pages A;
  • The number of external links present on each page A.

It is also important to pay attention to the theme that connects the two pages because Google’s algorithm can judge the semantic proximity between the two contents.

Best practices to increase score

To increase your score, you need to make the most of the PageRank you receive from external sites.

There are at least three very simple methods for this, follow along:

Search for all directories that deal with the same topic as your site

Collect as many directories as possible to get several links that will direct to your site.

It is little by little that you will build a digital authority, and this is a great way to start!

Exchange links with sites that talk about similar topics

The better the sites, the better the links. Therefore, you will gain PageRank and relevance in the topics they deal with together.

However, be careful: if your site points to a poorly rated site by Google, the link exchange can do more harm than good.

Therefore, choose your partners carefully!

Get your site mentioned in forums

This strategy only works if your site is of quality and forum members speak positively about it.

And the better your site, the more “spontaneous” links you will receive. That is, other sites will decide on their own to create a link to your site because it will be interesting and worthy of being visited.

If you can do this, you are definitely on the right track!

And how do I know my PageRank?

Although Google is no longer providing PageRank, we usually use some metrics that mirror the original PageRank document to create a similar metric.

A recommendation is to use the Moz metric set, Domain Authority, and Page Authority.

Both Domain Authority and Page Authority estimate how well a site will rank in search results.

In summary…

Search engines consider that the interest of your site is directly proportional to its popularity. That is, the number of links pointing to it.

The more people talk about you, the more interesting you are and deserve a high ranking!

It is important to remember that the interest of the sites that talk about you is also taken into consideration.

Although it is very important, this mechanism is far from being the only factor that influences site positioning.

Therefore, do not make the mistake of focusing on this as your only netlinking strategy.

Did this content help you? We hope so! Don’t forget to share and follow other articles on our Blog!