Isn’t it hard to imagine a life without ‘Google’ and its extraordinary powers of transforming your surfing time into an easy, no-hassle yet enriching experience? Google serves as a life-saver for a large number of Internet users everyday with its innovative utilities and services. The best part of Google services is that they are developed thoughtfully, keeping in mind the needs of the common users of the Internet, and not just as a means for minting money. So unless you have been hibernating since the last ice age, you must have come across a particular term which goes by the name of “PageRank”.

PageRank can easily be called one of Google’s best trademarks ever and is a reliable indication of the worth of a web page on the Internet. It was developed by Larry Page and later Sergey Brin as a part of a research for the development of a new type of search engine. Today PageRank is the foundation for every Google search tool. Its influence is such that every web-based business owner and webmaster worth his salt is working up a sweat trying to increase his page rank in an effort to increase the popularity of his space on the web. Let us find out some more about PageRank, the way it works and also a few tips on how to increase your page’s rank.

How is PageRank calculated?

If you have ever wondered how Google throws up millions of results and that too in the order of importance, within a moment of you hitting the return key, here is your answer. Although PageRank is not the only factor which decides a page’s ranking in Google’s search results, it is one of the most significant ones. The technique by which the ranking is done can be explained in a fairly simple manner. Google considers the linking of one page to another as similar to a voting process, where one page is voting for another. Hence, more the votes cast for a page, more popular a page is supposed to be. Also, Google distinguishes an important vote from a less important one, by considering the relative importance of the page which is casting the vote. This means that even the importance of the votes, and not just their numbers, is accounted for in the computation of a particular page’s PageRank, which just proves the comprehensiveness of the service. Google remembers the websites which have received a higher ranking in the past and displays them every time a search is conducted.

Though it is known how the PageRank system works, Google has not disclosed the exact calculation procedure of the PageRank, which is the core process. All of the inbound links, i.e. the links from outside and within the site, are considered for calculation. Let us consider the following case:

The PageRank of a certain page called ‘A’ has to be calculated by Google, which is denoted by the symbol PR (A). The value of the same is given by an easy-to-understand formula, a variation of which Google probably uses.

PR (A) = (1-d) + d (PR (t1) / C (t1) + … + PR (tn) / C (tn))

Where, t1… tn refer to the pages which link to A

‘C’ refers to the number of outbound links a page contains

‘d’ refers to a damping factor (normally set to 0.85)

Or simply, we can say that

PageRank of a page = 0.15 + 0.85 X (A “Share” of the PageRank of every page that is linked to it)

Where,

“Share” = PageRank of linking page / Number of outbound links on the page

Consequently, this means that every single page adds a little amount of value to every page that it links to. Also, the formula says that the amount of value that the page adds is a trifle lesser than its own value, i.e. 0.85 X its own value. All the other pages that link to this page equally share this particular value. Hence, we can conclude that if your page has a link from a page with PageRank (or PR5) and 4 outbound links, it has more weight than let’s say, a link from another page with PR8 and 50 outbound links. But you must also remember that more the number of links on another page, lesser would be the PR benefitted by your page from that page. Also, more the number of pages known by Google in your site, more would be its PR. Interestingly, when your page votes its PR value to other pages, its own PR value does not get deducted from its account by the value voted by it. Hence, the system is not about the transferring of PageRank points, although a page can lose some points indirectly. Finally, the ranking is done on a scale of 0-10, where 10 is the highest PageRank.

Increasing Your Page’s PageRank

There have been many myths surrounding the concept of PageRank ever since its inception. Users keep coming up with newer ideas everyday to keep up with the ranks’ game. However, knowing your facts about the technology and utilizing them well, can prove to be an effective Internet marketing tool for your business and skyrocket the popularity of your websites in lesser time than you think. Always remember that “Content is King”. Create original, good-quality content which is useful in nature so that users would want to read and share the information with others. Next, submit your site’s address to leading web directories like ODP, Yahoo! and Business.com. Also make your URL visible on blogs, online reference sites like Wikipedia and industry-based professional websites. To get more hits for your website, do the most obvious thing: Publicize It! List your website everywhere: business cards, letterheads, brochures, and even include it in your email signature. A good idea is also to send out newsletters to inform and update people about the new and upcoming features on your pages which will improve the stickiness of your website. Provide an RSS feed for your website which will make it easier for Blog search engines to index it as well as improve the site’s readability with the help of headlines and neatly distributed content. Also remember not to keep your website down for extended spells as it can lead to Google reducing your PageRank.

Your website can also be published under a Creative Commons License which can enable others to copy, distribute and create derivative versions of your content, as long as they give credit to the writer and link your website as well. Another good way of improving your ranking is to ask other quality websites to link your pages but be careful not to trade links with others only for gaining PR as then you stand a chance of being blacklisted by Google. Reversely, always inspect a site before linking back to it, keeping in mind its value to your readers. Finally, regularly search Google for your website to see your current standing and check out sites similar to yours but with higher PageRanks to find out where they are scoring brownie points. So take time to discover the latent treasures of your website and take steps today to avoid wasting its potential PageRank.