PageRank is Google's system for ranking web pages.

A page with a higher PageRank is

• deemed more important
• is more likely to be listed above a page with a lower PageRank

Google describes PageRank:

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. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

In other words, Google conducts "elections" in which

• each web page casts votes for web pages
• with hyperlinks to those pages

But unlike a democracy,

• a page can have more than one vote
• links from pages with high PageRank are given more weight
  (according to their ranking) and thus help to improve the targets' PageRank.

If you don't want a link to be considered for the purposes of PageRank,

• e.g., a spammer posts a link to a discount pharmacy site
• specify the hyperlink attribute rel="nofollow"
• which Google implemented in January 2005.

See the PageRank of a page with the PageRank meter in the Google Toolbar (an advanced feature).

Using the Google Directory, compare the relative PageRank of your site with those of related sites.

In the next section, Improving Your PageRank, I offer suggestion for how to improve the PageRank of your webpages.

This page was last modified on Sunday November 26, 2006.

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