Being indexed by Google is a big success for any website because it gives access to billions of potential visitors. However, with all of the millions of websites jockeying for position in Google’s databases, your website might not get any traffic.
What determines traffic? One answer to this question is page rank.
Below, we explain the concept of page rank and discuss methods to maintain, as well as improve, your pagerank over time.
What Is Google PageRank?
PageRank (also known as PR) is a Google trademark which refers to their patented method of analyzing link popularity and determining the relative importance of web page. Google defines PageRank as follows:
A Google feature that helps determine the rank of a site in our search results. PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your searches.
In other words, pagerank is mainly determined by an analysis of inbound links.
How Do I Increase My PageRank?
Having the aforementioned definition, it is quite obvious how one might go about increasing their website’s pagerank. You simply need to acquire links from other reputable websites. Of course, this is easier said than done, and it might take considerable time and effort to accumulate inbound links.
Unfortunately, pagerank is not this simple. There are other factors which may influence your rank. Even worse, you could actually be hurting your pagerank by some of your practices.
Could I Be Hurting My PageRank?
In addition to inbound link analysis, Google PageRank is also affected by outbound link analysis. This means that your website is also judged by the sites to which you link. Fortunately, this one factor is completely within your control.
If you link to low PR sites, or sites of a questionable nature, your own pagerank may be affected. To prevent this from happening, you can do one of two things: a) simply remove all links to any questionable sites, or b) add a special rel="nofollow" attribute to your link tags. See the code sample below:
<a href="http://www.QuestionableSite.com" rel="nofollow"> Questionable Site </a>
When Google sees this attribute embedded in links, it ignores the links and treats them as if they aren’t on your page.
In addition, when accumulating links, stay away from the following types of sites:
- Link farms
- Paid Link Opportunities
- Websites that are affiliated with spammers
- Large reciprocal linking circles
Does High PageRank Mean High Traffic?
Generally speaking, the higher your pagerank, the more traffic Google will send your way. Yes, there are other factors which will determine your traffic volume, such as type of site, size of site, and keywords. But if all things are equal, websites with high pagerank will dominate those with low pagerank. So it is to your benefit to regularly work to improve and maintain your Google PageRank.