About PageRank

First how do I tell if my site is even in google’s database. Someone showed me how to, you enter a code in googles search box to search direclty for your site but I dont remember how I did it.

Second. After I determine my site is in fact in google, how do I check its pagerank and how fast it will show up for searches?

Thanks everyone

For those of you not yet aware, Google is currently updating the
PageRank they are displaying in their toolbar. Each update
causes a stir among the SEO community and webmasters trying to
get their websites to the top of the Google Rankings.

What Is PageRank?

Without getting into too much detail, PageRank is essentially a
score out of ten as to the “value” of your site in comparison to
other websites on the Internet. It is based on two primary
factors; the number of links you have pointing to your website
and the value of the links pointing to your website. The value
is calculated based on the PageRank of the page linking to you
and debatably the relevancy of the page linking to you (there is
no hard evidence to back up the relevancy factor in regards to
PageRank that I have seen however it definitely is a factor in
your overall ranking).

If you are interested in more information on PageRank you would
do well to visit the many forums and articles on the topic and
also visit Google’s own description on their website at http://www.google.com/technology/ where
theygive a brief description of the technology.

What’s New?

The most current PageRank update will undoubtedly cause a larger
stir than usual in that many sites have shown drops in their
visible PageRank while at the same time showing significant
increases in their backlinks. This fact reveals that one of
three things has occurred in this latest update:

Google has raised the bar on PageRank, making it more
difficult to attain a high level, or The way they are
displaying their backlinks has changed, or The way they
calculate the value of an incoming link has changed.

Any of these are possible and has been noted in the past as
something they are willing to do. Additionally, it is possible
for all to occur at the same time.

As we don’t like to use client’s as examples I will use the
Beanstalk site, backlink counts, and PageRank changes as the
meter by which the following conclusions are drawn, however this
information was attained through looking at a number of client
website, and their competitors.

Google Raising The Bar To Lower Yours

In the past few PageRank updates it has become quite apparent
that Google is continuously raising the bar on PageRank. In
their defense, with all of the reciprocal link building, link
renting, etc. going on this was a natural reaction to the
growing number high PageRank sites that attained those ranks
simply by building or buying hundreds and thousands of
links.

There is no doubt that this is a factor in the changes in this
current update. If your site has maintained it’s PageRank, and
the PageRanks of your second-level pages then you have done well
in holding steady and if your competitors have not been as
diligent their positions will slip.

New Backlink Calculations I mention this one
only to bring to light that it is a possibility for your future
consideration during other updates. The Beanstalk website went
from 750 shown backlinks on Google to 864. it should be noted
that Google does not show all backlinks (if you want a more
accurate backlink count go to Yahoo! and enter
“link:http://www.yourdomain.com” (don’t forget the
http://)).

When the Beanstalk site showed 750 backlinks on Google we were
showing around 12,000 on Yahoo! (about 6.5% showing on Google).
The Beanstalk site is now showing 864 on Google and 15,500 on
Yahoo! (about 5.6%). If anything then, Google is showing less
links than before which negates the possibility that a website’s
PageRank is dropping due to a decrease in links but being hidden
by an increased number being displayed.

In short, while which backlinks Google chooses to display has
certainly changed over time it does not appear to be a major
factor in this update. If you see an increase in your sites
backlink counts during this update you undoubtedly have an
increased number of links.

The Value Of Links

Separate from the number of links you have is their value. This
appears to be an area of significant change in this update.
Areas that appear to have reduced value in regards to affecting
PageRank are:

Multiple links from the same site
or run-of-site links Intelligent and relevant reciprocal
links do not seem to have been penalized, probably due to the
increased relevancy factor. If you reduce the value of
irrelevant links and raise the value of relevant ones then there
is no need to penalize reciprocal links as, done incorrectly,
they will penalize themselves. Links with text
around them that indicate they are purchased such as “Partners”,
“Advertising”, etc. Google has and is actively trying to
reduce the value of paid links. This appears to have been
moderately successful where there is clear indication that the
link is paid for. Links from sites that hold
little relevancy (this factor is based on educated speculation)
The relevancy factor appears to have become more
important. Links from sites with content related to yours is
showing positive results while sites with larger numbers of less
relevant links are showing drops in PageRank.

What Does This Mean?

For those of you who have been proactive in your link building,
and focused on relevant sites using the Google Directory,
searches or a tool like PR Prowler it means, “stay the course”. Those of you
who have been building or buying links based only on PageRank
with little concern for it’s location, or how it is presented -
you will need to adjust your link building efforts
accordingly.

What Do I Do – My PageRank Dropped ?!!?

The first thing not to do is panic. Take a deep
breath, PageRank is one factor of dozens that Google uses to
determine the ranking of your page, it is not the only thing.
Now, visit your main competitors sites – there’s a good chance
you’ll see that they too dropped in PageRank. The plus side to
these kinds of updates is that they’re universal. It’s not as if
Google has it in for you specifically and so when they do an
update, the positive and negative impact is felt by all.

Now, if you’ve noticed that everyone around you has stayed the
same or increased in PageRank try to remember this, there’s
nothing you can do about where you’re currently positioned in
regards to PageRank and it will probably be another 3 months
before Google updates the public PageRank again so … start
building some good quality (high relevancy, solid PageRank)
links, work towards and increase in the next update.

Panicking now won’t help, intelligent reaction will.

What Happens Now?

Traditionally the search engine results will begin to fluctuate
based on the new visible PageRank 3 to 7 days after they are
visible. This does not have to be the case as Google’s had these
numbers all along but it’s worked this way in the majority of
cases in recent history. So monitor your search engine positions
over the next week or two and watch for changes. Try to hold
back on making major changes to your site during this time as
often the final positions will differ from those that can be
viewed during the shuffling. In a couple weeks time evaluate
where you stand and tweak your site as necessary but don’t spend
too much time on that … you have a solid link building effort
to undertake.

There are those in our industry who will tell you that PageRank
is dead. I’ve been reading a lot lately about how we are
supposed to ignore the green bar in our browser but you know
what? I disagree and I’m going to tell you why.

For those who don’t know, PageRank is Google’s way of
determining a website’s worth based on the number of incoming
links it has. In other words, Google counts the number of links
pointing to a site as votes, generally speaking the more votes a
site has the more it is likely worth to Google.

While this is a simplistic view of PageRank and it has indeed
gotten much more complex than this, in essence this is what
PageRank is. So why would many think it’s not worth anything?

Because at one time, Google’s ranking algorithms were based in
large part on the PageRank calculations. Too soon, however,
webmasters realized that in order to get high rankings, all you
needed was a bunch of links. Google caught on however, and
adjusted the algorithms to ensure that only relevant links were
counted.

But what makes up a relevant link? Well, look at a website from
a searchers point of view. If I am the owner of a website and
I’m going to link to other sites, do I want to link to a bunch
of unrelated sites that provide no added value to my site’s
visitors? The answer should be no.

Therefore I want to provide links to relevant related sites
which are a benefit to my site’s visitors. This is the strategy
Google is employing to attempt to determine the relevancy of
links. The links should be related and/or relevant to the site
they are linking to.

While there’s a ton of programming and logic involved, this is
essentially what the “new” PageRank does – it devalues those
links that are unrelated or non-relevant to the site to which
they link.

So, now that I’ve provided this brief introduction, lets get
back to the original question – is PageRank dead? Should we
ignore the green bar in our browser? The simple answer is no.
(FYI, if you don’t have the Google Toolbar, you can get it here.

While PageRank has been devalued somewhat by Google it is still
the essential algorithm Google uses on their index.

While it is true that PageRank is not the ultimate ranking
algorithm anymore, it still contributes to rank. Therefore you
will see sites with a low PageRank value outranking other sites.
But this is due more to the site itself than the number of links
(Go figure – Google is trying to return relevant results
regardless of how many links you have).

In any case, the results you see on Google are better than they
once were and less susceptible to influence by aggressive search
engine optimizers. But that’s not to say that PageRank is dead.
Far from it.

To really understand the effect of PageRank, one must understand
how Google works.

Google has thousands of interlinked computers inside their data
centers. Each computer has a job. Some calculate PageRank, some
count links, some serve results when queries are performed.

When a site is indexed by Google, it goes into the database
where the algorithms are applied and values assigned. When a
query is performed, the database is checked and all the sites
which match the query are shortlisted. Then each server is then
told to return only the top results (it may be top 3, it may be
top 10, we don’t know). And guess which factor determines which
top results are returned? You guessed it – PageRank. So if your
site is on a cluster which has a bunch of higher PageRank sites,
then there’s a pretty good chance that it won’t make it to that
next level of processing.

It is at this next level where PageRank is devalued – and the
pages are sorted based on other factors to ensure they better
match the query. They are then returned to the searcher in the
order Google deems more appropriate to the query. All this
happens in a split second.

Another place where PageRank is extremely helpful is link
building.

As any good search engine optimizer knows, links are still
important. It should seem pretty obvious throughout this article
that links are what drives your ranking. All engines use some
form of link popularity to determine rankings, not just Google.

So when you do link building, PageRank can be a great indicator
of the value of a link. Remember, if you are doing link
building, you are first going to want to find useful links and
ones that are of a value to your website’s visitors. But you can
consider PageRank when searching out these links. Because a site
with a higher PageRank will contribute more to your link
popularity than one with a lower PageRank.

This comes with a caveat, however, and that is that no one
except Google knows how accurate the PageRank displayed in the
Google Toolbar is. It is only updated occasionally, so the true
PageRank can be different than what you see.

That’s why I mentioned above to use the PageRank as an indicator
of the links value, and not the sole criteria when evaluating
what sites you want links from. But as you can probably guess
from the tone of this article – while the PageRank value you see
may be flawed, it is most certainly in use by Google

Google PageRank is very much like penis size:

- Everyone thinks it’s important.

- No one admits it’s important (unless you’ve got a huge one).

- Everyone is interested in the size of everyone else’s.

I started a small website earlier this year to investigate whether I could supplement my income. In researching website optimization, I came across PageRank size for the first time and was amazed about how many people obsessed about it. Obviously everyone wants a larger one and there are various methods of increasing it – some proven, some painful, and some downright silly.

But let me explain what PageRank is first.

PageRank is one of the many factors Google takes into account when it returns the results for a search term. It is, in effect, Google’s evaluation of how important a site is. The main element in this is the number of sites linking to your site and their PageRank size. This can be viewed as a popularity contest with the sites with the bigger PageRanks getting bigger votes (ain’t that always the way).

The upshot of this is that sites with, shall we say, less than a handful of PageRank cannot get close to the top of the results when popular keywords are searched upon, and have to rely on more specific keywords to get traffic from search engines.

PageRank is measured from 0-10. Sites can be out into three categories:

PageRank 0-2 – New websites that are just starting out. Websites that have come to terms with the size of their PageRank and have given up trying to increase it (but secretly hope it’ll still grow over time). Bad boys who have broken the rules.

PageRank 3-6 – Established websites that have proven they can perform. Niche websites that have a big enough PageRank to do what they need it to do.

PageRank 7-10 – Some of these guys’ PageRank is so big it’ll knock you over if they turn to quickly in the communal showers. In order to compete with this PageRank, one needs to develop other techniques to establish your own area of specialist expertise.

In order to not get their PageRank laughed at in those showers, webmasters are constantly looking to increase it. Here are a few ways to stretch that PageRank.

Increase the Girth – By increasing the number of pages on the site, it increases the amount of PageRank the webmaster can play with. If those pages point internally then it can increase the PageRank of those pages for instance. As we all know, girth is a secondary factor when it comes to performance and you should be careful that you don’t create pages with no real value or content, as one can be punished for that (and not in a nice way).

Expose Yourself – Advertising your website is a core piece of your strategy. However, to really increase that PageRank, you need incoming, permanent, links not occasional pay-per-click ads or banners that can change day-to-day or week-to-week. Ways to do this include, writing high quality articles that get published on a number of sites (the author is still working on getting that one right), being active in fora associated with the subject of your website, and forming a group in one or more of the social websites. You certainly shouldn’t keep it in your pants, but over-exposure can be detrimental to your PageRank too, if you are deemed to be spamming.

Hire Some Prostitutes – There are some websites (the author is told) that will provide links to your website for a fee. Now, this is illegal in the United States of Google and there are severe penalties if you are caught. They rely on snitches to let them know it’s happening, so this kind of activity tends to happen on street corners and undesirable neighborhoods on the web. This is not recommended.

“Don’t Worry About It, It Happens to Everyone” – There is a small but vocal group that says you shouldn’t worry about the size of it and just concentrate on providing good content for your visitors. This is the equivalent of “the size doesn’t matter, it’s what you do with it Honey”, or a favorite of my ex-wife’s – “more than a mouthful’s a waste”. The reality is that people visit your website because of what’s on it, but they won’t visit if they don’t know it’s there – so a balance is needed.

There are also a number of things you should avoid that may shrivel your PageRank.

Getting Caught With Your Pants Down – Anything that Google prohibits (and there is a lot) can adversely affect your PageRank if they catch you in the act. So keep your nose clean and make sure you understand the rules.

Orgies – Simply exchanging links with other sites doesn’t really have an effect on your PageRank (although it still might generate traffic) and using “link farms” can have a negative effect. The author has never visited a “link farm” (to his knowledge) but imagines they are akin some sort of communal retreat for perverts, or like one of those swinging parties you never get invited to.

Flashing – Pop-ups are not actually banned but they are obviously unpopular. A number of directories are now banning sites that have excessive pop-ups, which will decrease the number of sites that will publish a link to your site if you do have lots of pop-ups.

In summary, PageRank is a very important aspect, but to obsess over it means you won’t satisfy your visitors in other areas, which might be important to them. If it is that important to you, you need to get out and meet people!

If it’s big enough to do the job, be happy.

Seo Question-If I switch my website from frontpage to wordpress will I lose my google pagerank? Also some of my pages are #1 organically listed on google. I would just like to update my old site and have the functionality features of wordpress. But I am afraid to changeover. Thanks

I’ve been running around submitting my site to free search engine directories and I noticed that they all have PR=5 or higher despite the fact that they have so many out-links. And, I don’t know of many sites that link back to link directory sites.

So I don’t get it, how do they have good pagerank?

Also, is it even worth my time submitting my site to them? Are they actually going to make any difference in my site’s rank?