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Google PageRank Explained by: Tony Zhu Google PageRank has always been a controvertial issue among us webmasters. There seems to be many questions floating around with suggests that many people are not familier with how PageRank works. Here, I will attempt to answer some of the common questions and discard the rumors. 1. What is PageRank? Here is what Google says: '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.' Click here for more... In other words, PageRank is simply a mechanical algorithm by Google that attempts to evaluate the importance of your website larged based on the amount and quality of backlinks your website have. For the more intellectual crowds out there, check out The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web . 2. How do I check the PR of a webpage? If you use Internet Explorer, download and install the Google Toolbar. There will be a green indicator on the toolbar that tells the PR of a particular page. Hovering your mouse over the ind icator will give you a numeric value of the PR. In addition, there are numerous tools out there that will check the PR of a page without the toolbar. If you use Mozilla Firefox, you can install the PageRank Checker extention. 3. Why do I want a higher PR? It used to be believed that a higher PR value will give you a higher position in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). However, this is no longer the case. As any experienced webmaster, and even Google themselves, would tell you, there are hundreds of factors that determine where your page is displayed in the results. Google states that they do not recommend webmasters exchange links to increase their PR. They see it as trying to 'game' their search engine. Lastly, many people believe that a higher PR causes Googlebot to crawl through a page more often. 4. Is it a good idea to buy links for a higher PR? Websites with higher PR ('6
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