What is a PageRank and how a website is assigned with a PageRank?

OK, you all might have been hearing this word PageRank more often these days, especially in my recent articles. Even few of my friends asked me like "Mythili, what is this PageRank all about" and yes few darling friends threatened me "First tell what a PageRank is and then continue your other topics. Else, I don't mind buying a ticket to Switzerland, not to hit you, but just in the name of guest, I make you busy in the kitchen and won't let you to write any more topics until you explain me PageRank". Wow what a nice threat.

Trust me, I am not writing this article just to stop my friend flying to Switzerland, but I don't want her to suffer in the icy Switzerland and prefer her to come in summer. So, with a pure good intention, I am going to tell about PageRank in very simple ways.

OK, have you all studied in schools? Yes, I heard your roaring and shouting. Priya, yes yes, I remember you were next to me in the classroom. I accept. So, back to our original discussion about PageRank. In school, we all used to write tests and exams, score marks and based on the total marks scored, we will be given a rank which ranges from 1 to n, where n is the total strength of the class. The student who gets the 1st rank is called as the topper (I mean the real topper and not the backdoor meanings), where as if a student gets 10/10 rank, then he/she is considered poor in studies.

But Google and other search engines like Alexa, Bing and Yahoo do an opposite ranking. If a website has 10/10 as PageRank, then it has achieved the top most level. Just like your score in the mark sheet. If you get 100/100 in Mathematics, then you are the King (or Queen) in that subject. Similarly, the search engines will judge your websites and give a PageRank ranging from 0 to 10. Only few websites have achieved a PageRank 10/10 in the whole of the Internet world and lot has 0/10 as the rank. Frankly, very large number of sites are not ranked at all, yet.

So, now you might have understood what a PageRank is all about. But why is it so important? how is it decided? Who decides this? How a website is determined to get and assigned a PageRank?

These questions take you to the deeper level of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) concepts, which leads to SERP (Search Engine Result Page). First let me tell why is it important to have a higher PageRank.

When you want an information or details about anything in this world, the first job you will do is to type http://www.google.com/ in your browser and search. Sometimes, I have gone mad of typing my mobile number in the google search, when I couldn't find my mobile in the living room. Once when clicked on the search button, you might have seen a loads of websites loaded in the result page (this is called as SERP, search engine result page) which are relevant to your search keywords. Everyone is aware that there are thousands and millions of pages exist in the Internet database. So, on what basis the result page orders them and shows it to the user / customer?

Here comes the PageRank. Though there are lots of factors like keyword richness, Backlinks, Quality Comments deciding the search engine result page, PageRank plays an important role. The websites with higher PageRank comes first in the result pages.

Now, isn't it clear why a higher PageRank is must for a website? To survive in the Internet world, your website should have a PageRank. If you are writing an article, just for yourself or for few friends, to whom you will send the article link personally and never mind about getting other new readers to your page, then of course you don't need to bother much about a PageRank. But, if you are in the middle of a competition and want to have more readers, then you should have a good PageRank, which leads to more search friendly and in turn getting more visits to your website / page.

I am showing my Triond Profile here as an example. Triond is a content writing website and to know more on it, click here. Triond has a PageRank of 5/10, where as my profile got a PageRank of 2/10. Attached below the image of proof. Most of my fellow authors, who are writing for a very long time in Triond are yet to receive a PageRank.


Mythili Kannan - Triond Profile - PageRank 2/10



Now we are clear about

1. What a PageRank is?
2. Why a PageRank is important for a website?

Let us move on to the question on how to get a higher PageRank.

There are lots of deciding factors to determine a PageRank of a website. The first and foremost thing is the "Original and Quality" contents of the website. Websites which have duplicate contents (and that too without a credit to the source page) or just having links to other web pages without any contents on its own are not given good PageRank (sometimes even not considered for ranking itself). After this main qualification, other factors like Backlinks (I will explaining Backlinks in details, very soon. For time being, Backlinks are the inbound links sent to your article from outside web pages like Facebook or Twitter or some other's website), Keyword richness in the articles existing, Quality comments received by the article from the visitors, discussions it triggered, usefulness on the base of votes it received, etc... determines the PageRank. To tell in a very simple and easy way, it is just like your answer sheet in the examinations, valued on the basis of its content and clarity and receiving a score based on it.

To summarize on how to get a higher PageRank,

1. Write an Original content. Many people might have already written on the same topic. But still you can write it on your own words and style and keep up the originality.

2. Make sure you did a small marketing job of spreading the news (that you wrote a new article) to Google, Bing, Facebook, Digg and Twitter by submitting the link to them. Also do the usual job of telling your friends and family about the new article.

3. Go visit other authors works in the Internet. Write them Quality comments, which in turn works as a Backlink to your article. Good and successful authors generally visit the pages of people writing Quality comments to their work, and appreciate them back with their Quality comments and reviews.

4. Keep repeating the above steps every time and follow them rigorously. You will be blessed with higher PageRank in near future, automatically.


So, I have answered three important questions in this article.

1. What a PageRank is?
2. Why a PageRank is important for a website?
3. How to get a higher PageRank?

Soon I will write an article here to tell on how to install the Google Toolbar for the browser to display the PageRank of your website or any websites you visit. If you liked this article, please leave your valuable comments and votes. Thank you so much.

Edit: Here you can find the installation guide for Google Toolbar - PageRank tool