We often hear the question “How do I get my site to the top of the Google search results?” There’s no easy answer. But one component of high search placement is “PageRank.” When you perform a Google search, the sites shown in the results are displayed in order of their PageRank. This term gets thrown around in conversations about effective SEO and website marketing, but what is it really? Why is it important? What affects PageRank? Here are some facts about PageRank and how it impacts sites like yours.

PageRank is a system of voting that places the burden of determining relevance on the Web itself. Think of the Web as a library and a page on your site as a single book. Google’s PageRank system not only analyzes the content of your book, but also how many other books reference it. The more books that reference it, the higher the book’s PageRank. In this way, the more Web sites that link to yours, the higher the PageRank assigned to your site. Yahoo and MSN Live have similar systems, but they are not publicly visible like Google’s PageRank. Keep in mind that PageRank is updated at irregular intervals. Adding links today will not affect your PageRank until an official PageRank update goes into effect.

PageRank itself does not only consider the quantity of links to your site, but their relative quality as well. Because of this, your site will get more PageRank value from a high PageRank site than from a lower one. It also considers the relevance of the site linking to you from a content perspective. You get the most value from well-respected, well-linked Web sites that are in your industry, and the least value from sites with low PageRank outside of your industry.

PageRank can also be seen as a valuation of the chance of finding your site by randomly clicking links on the Web. The higher the visibility your site has, the more likely people can find it by simply clicking around the Web. PageRank runs from 0–10: 0 being a brand new site with no known links and 10 being the most important site(s) on the Web. Currently, only Google’s search page has a 10 PageRank.
You can check sites’ PageRank by downloading and installing the Google toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/). By allowing Google to gather anonymous data from your particular Web surfing, they will in turn provide you with the ability to see the PageRank of any site you visit, including your own.

PageRank is a large part of Google’s algorithm. Exactly how much and how it is determined is a trade secret and kept well guarded by Google. However, having a higher PageRank means more quality links which leads to better rankings. Over time, your PageRank will grow organically as you promote your site on the Web. Keep an eye on rankings as you surf, and you’ll begin to see the importance of this cool metric.