Google PageRank Questions and Answers

Q. What is Google PageRank?



A. Google PageRank (one word) is the measure of the relative importance of a web page on the internet. The numbers rank from 0 to 10. The higher the number, the better the PageRank.



Q. Is the PageRank (PR) number for the entire site?



A. PageRank is determined for each individual web page, as every page on your blog has a different PR. The blog home page is likely to have the highest PR as it will have the most sites linking to it.



Q. How is PageRank determined?



A. PageRank is calculated based on your incoming links. The higher the PR of your incoming links, and the fewer there are on a page, the more PR is passed to your blog page.



Q. How does my PageRank increase?



A. PageRank increases in a geometric manner similar to the earthquake Richter Scale. For example, it is harder to go from a PR4 to a PR5, than it was to reach the PR4 from a PR3. In a similar fashion, it's even harder to get to a PR 6, than it was to get to PR5 from PR4, and so on up. Each level requires increasingly more high value incoming links than did the previous level.



Q. How can I find out my Google PageRank?



A. It is displayed in increasing amounts of green on a guage on the Google Toolbar. The Google toolbar can be downloaded for a PC at http://toolbar.google.com and it also displays backlinks and works as a pop-up blocker. There is no Google Toolbar available for a Mac.



Q. How soon do the backlinks and PageRank show up on my Google Toolbar?



A. It often takes two full monthly updates for all of your incoming links to be discovered, counted, calculated and displayed as backlinks.



Q. Do all of my backlinks get displayed?



A. Google only shows the backlinks it has found and calculated for your pages that have a PR4 or higher. All links are included in the tabulation, however.



Q. Do low level PageRanks help my blog's PR?



A. All incoming links count towards your total, but lower level PRs (0-3) don't count a lot immediately. They will add more PR later, however, as their own PR's increase.



Q. Should I exchange links with low value PageRanks?



A. PageRank should not be your primary concern for link exchanges. Benefits to your readers, of discovering new and interesting blogs and websites should be your first concern. The PR is simply an added bonus, and the PR may rise over time. A PR2 could soon be a PR7.



Q. Are 60 outgoing links to other blogs too many?



A. No, as Google is only concerned with pages of over 100 outgoing links that it considers to be link farms. Your blog is not a problem.



Q. Can my PageRank go down?



A. Yes it can, if you lose some important links, that are no longer linking to your blog. PR loss can also occur if some of your linking partners also experience a drop in their own PR.



Q. Is it important to have good PageRank?



A. Yes, as PageRank is part of the Google algorithm that determines where your blog will appear in the search engine results. Higher PR pages, especially for competitive keywords, will usually be listed higher. Keep in mind that relevant on page content of your blog is even more important.