Google PageRank
Eight things you should keep in mind when trying to boost your Google PageRank
Google PageRank (0 to 10). Google PageRank is a link-analysis algorithm that interprets web links and assigns a numerical weighting (0 to 10) to each site.
High-quality sites receive a higher PageRank. The actual PageRank number is used in the ComMetrics algorithm. Important is to watch for the trend in a blog’s PageRank – usually 6-18 months is a good timeframe.
All else being equal one should consider the following:
1 – Here it is very much like waiting for the judges to give a skore for a Figure Skating performance, the higher the better.
2 – Generally, the older a website the higher the PageRank.
3 – PageRank becomes interesting when having a score of five or higher. Individuals rarely score above a five, while universities easily get a five or higher (justifiably, of course).
- participants do well if they get a six or higher for their corporate blog(s)
4 – Certain domains appear to be weighted higher than others, especially if you start out. For instance, launching your blog using the .com domain is likely to get you a higher initial PageRank than using a country domain such as .ch, .dk or .lu This also applies when using the .eu domain which initially will get you a lower socre than if you launch using the .org, .com or .net domains.
- Nevertheless, the older your blog or website the lower this effect is as illustrated by
Europa – Gateway to the European Union with a PageRank of 9
- .
- As well, if your webpage has the highest number of unique visitors each month the domain issue is of little consequence if any as the
Swiss Federal Railways’ (SBB) searchable online timetable with a PageRank of 8
- illustrates.
5 – If the other sites one links to are high in the search engines for similar keywords to yours and in the same basic category, then outbound links to them makes sense. Looking at it from Google’s point of view, by linking to a site that is considered important on this subject, you are providing relevant information for your viewers.
- This means that linking to relevant material (e.g., White Papers, Research Reports) on web sites with a high PageRank indicates to Google that the blog is adding value for its readers who want more beef/in depth material.
6 – When a web page has no outbound links, its PageRank cannot be distributed to other pages. Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin characterize links to those pages as dangling links. Important is also to know that PDF files are dangling links. However, these kind of links do not diminish the PageRank of the linking page or site. In turn, PDF files is a good way for search engine optimization for Google.
- The above means that linking to research papers in pdf format hosted on university site (e.g., managing brand advertising more effectively – a case study) will help Google to learn more about the blog that links to this paper by ‘studying’ the content of the research report.
7 – A blog or website in English is more likely to get a higher PageRank than one in a less widely understood language.
In part this can be explained by the fact that a German blog may be willing to link to an English blog. Primary reason being that many of the German blog’s readers undestand English, of course. The same does not apply for the English blog linking to a Latvian, Polish or German counterpart.
- In practice this means that fewer links in the language of the
- home country means a lower PageRank compared to the English sister site. For instance,
Danfoss DK scores a Google PageRank of 6
- while its
Danfoss.com site in English gets an 8
- . This applies to many
- as well. For instance, the
Roche example shows (6 for .ch and 7 for .com domain
- .
8 – Some would argue that counting Yahoo! InLinks and Google PageRank separatley means double-counting the same information.
- In part this is true since both are based on how many backlinks one has. However,
- does also account to linking page’s own PageRank score. In turn, the latter means that an incoming link from a blog with a PageRank of 8 is given more weight than one with a 5.
- , in contrast, is a raw score counting each incoming link – no weighting given.
Find out more about improving a blog’s ComMetrics Footprint, as well as the Google PageRank, Technorati Authority, Technorati Ranking, Yahoo! InLinks, Google BlogSearch.
Please subscribe now so you can claim your personal and/or corporate blog AND trace those that you want to compare yourself to.
Find out more about the 2009 FT ComMetrics Blog Index using these links: Leaders by metric, What is top class, Methodology, Good and best practice, Lessons learned, Trends to watch, Your own index report, Free download: pdf report