Understanding Google's PageRank

First, let me start with the definition of PageRank (PR) according to Wikipedia...a link analysis algorithm, named after Larry Page, used by the Google Internet search engine that assigns a numerical weighting...
The name "PageRank" is a trademark of Google, but the PageRank process has been patented to Stanford University, not to Google. Google has exclusive license rights on the patent from Stanford. The university received 1.8 million shares of Google in exchange for use of the patent.

Here's an elementary explanation of how Google determines your PR. (In reality, it's anything but elementary. Google doesn't fully share how they determine this.) A link from one page to another is a 'vote' for that page. But not all votes are equal. Votes from higher quality pages are weighed more heavily. Other factors in the ranking process include the relevance of keywords on a page and the actual traffic to the page among many other factors. Understanding the basics of PageRank is a part of a good link building campaign. But don't fixate on it, just use it to build a reputation for your site.

You can build good PR by getting quality links coming in to your site. Quality links means links from relevant, authoritative sites in your industry. This, in turn, "passes" authority to your site. Don't bother linking to any sites that are NOT related to what your site is about. They simply won't pass any authority, you will be wasting your time, and they could damage your reputation if they are a low quality site. Getting relevant, high quality, incoming links is one of the most affordable SEO methods at your disposal. It just takes some time. Don't try to get to a specific number, you just want to improve it.

Just like creating unique META data will help any page of your site get listed, each page in your site can obtain PR. Remember...the search engines index PAGES, not SITES. Link to the most relevant page of your site; not necessarily your home page. Ex. You have a gardening site that sells many gardening tools, has gardening information, etc. You find a good site that sells spades and you contact them for a link. You'll want their link to your site to go to a page that is as closely related to spades as possible...not a generic page that focuses on multiple products or unrelated information.

PR is ranked on a scale from 0 to 10.
Sites from 0 - 2 = newer site with few incoming links
Sites from 3 - 5 = more established site with more links
Sites ranked 6 and above = well established site with many high quality links
There are very few sites that have ranks from 7 - 10. They are usually large, highly trafficked sites with longevity in the search engines. Don't expect any PR for at least the first few months after a new site is launched. You have to 'play the game' for awhile before Google will assign a PR to your page, if at all.

Where do I find my site's PR?
There are many tools online; these are all free -
PRChecker.info
Free-Pagerank-Checker.com

I use a FireFox add-on called SearchStatus. With this add-on there is a toolbar added to my browser that shows the PageRank and Alexa Rank of the site I'm browsing. To find this add-on, go to "Tools/Add-ons" (when your browser is open) and search for it by name.

The Google toolbar also has a PageRank function you can enable. You can download it here: http://toolbar.google.com.

For those of you with bricks-and-mortar stores, consider linking to other business owner's sites in your local area, if you feel you have some of the same customers and can offer each others' customers value. It's a great way for local customers to find you.

Now you are armed with information [knowledge! and knowledge is power :-)], so go get some links!

Ciao for now, Paula