404 Group

Named after Google co-founder Larry Page, PageRank is a value assigned to every site indexed by Google. Each page is ranked on a scale of 1-10 (or truthfully, 0-10, with 10 being the highest score, and some sites have no score). This PageRank number is essentially an indication of the “popularity” of a web page, as indicated by how many other web pages link to it.

It’s not strictly based on volume, as Google also considers the quality and authority of the sites that are linking to your website. So 50 inbound links from authoritative websites that have a good PageRank themselves will weigh more than 1,000 inbound links from a link farm or web ring and will result in a higher PageRank. Incidentally, very few websites have achieved a PageRank of 10 and yes, Google’s own home page is one of them. Most small businesses would be doing very well to have a 3 or 4.

How do you find out what your website’s PageRank is?

METHOD 1
It’s a little work to set up, but this method gives you a tool that will show you the PageRank of every web page you go to. Download and install the Google toolbar in your browser. Trust me, you’ll love it.

For Firefox:

http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/toolbar/FT3/intl/en/index.html

For Internet Explorer:

http://toolbar.google.com/T4/index.html

Once the toolbar is installed, it will include a bunch of buttons you may not want, and you can customize it to remove them. On the right side of the Google toolbar, click on “Settings”, “Options” and you can customize it from there.

The PageRank indicator will now automatically show you the Google PageRank of every single web page you visit. It shows a sliding green bar but if you hover your mouse cursor over it, it will tell you the PageRank in numbers.

METHOD 2
Click on the following link and type in the web address of the site or page you want to check.

http://www.googlepagerankchecker.com/

So, you know the PageRank of your web page. Now what?

Your PageRank is only ONE of the factors that Google considers when deciding where to place your site in the search results. The higher it is, the more it can help you, theoretically. I’ve worked with many small businesses who have no PageRank, or a PR of 1, and we can still get their site to show up well in the search results!

To increase your site’s PageRank, you need to make a concerted effort to draw links to your site. That will be the subject of my next post, Life is still a popularity contest.