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Introducing_PageRank_ _shattering_the_myth
| Introducing PageRank - shattering the myth
Copyright 2005 SharewarePromotions Ltd
One of the most fascinating aspects of the web is its dynamism.
We all know that it develops at an astonishing speed -
yesterday's craze is today's old news, and bigger and better
things seem to be springing up every few days. Some of them
crumble quickly into dust, while others seem destined to tower
above the rest.
Naturally, search engines also follow this pattern. Some of the
early search engine giants remain with us today, but many of
them are gone - and every so often, a new champion seems to
emerge. Recent years have seen the growth and development of a
search engine that puts all others to shame. It might have once
stood at the same level as its rivals, but there is no doubt
that for now at least, Google rules the web.
Many of the companies we work with see more traffic from Google
than all the other search engines put together, and there are
more than a few Search Engine Optimisation services who focus
almost exclusively on this one engine.
What is Google's secret?
So why is Google so successful? The answer is simply that when a
user goes searching on Google, they're likely to find what
they're looking for, and more quickly than on any other search
engine. Exactly how Google manages to do this is trickier to
answer, as they tend to guard their secrets well. They don't
want us to know too much about how they determine their search
results, simply because they don't want anyone to be able to
manipulate their own ranking.
Of course, human nature dictates that many of us aren't
satisfied with this. We desperately want to be able to affect
the ranking of our sites, and some of us will go to great
lengths to do so. We work hard to find the perfect keywords,
tweak our meta tags and optimise the content of our site to what
we hope is Google perfection.
But recently, a new word has entered our vocabulary, and is
surrounded by so much hype that very few people actually have a
realistic understanding of what it is - or what it isn't.
PageRank is where the attention is focused today, and many
companies are determined to find a means of improving their
magic number. "I want to be an eight," they say, as if PageRank
was a dress size that they could grow into with the help of some
heavy-duty calorie shots. Unfortunately, it's not quite as easy
as that.
So what exactly is PageRank? There's a surprisingly simple
answer: it is Google's way of estimating how important a web
page is. On a basic level, Google decides that if one page links
to another, the second page must be considered important. If one
page on one site has 15,000 pages linking to it, it must be for
a good reason, right?
Page Rank is about pages, not websites
Let's begin by straightening out a few basic points. First of
all, PageRank is assigned on a page-by-page basis. A whole
website does not have this score, and different pages within a
site can have very different PageRank values assigned. Another
important point is that the rating (out of ten) assigned is
essentially little more than an approximation of a given page's
PageRank. The actual values cover a far greater range than zero
to ten.
Before going any further, we should take a look at the most
important point of all, often overlooked when we get caught up
in the PageRank frenzy. PageRank is only one factor that Google
takes into account when displaying the results of a search.
There are still other factors of equal significance in
performing well on Google - so don't make the mistake of
thinking that you would live happily ever after if your PageRank
was a little bit higher. Other factors include a page's title,
and the use of keywords within the page's text - not in the
keyword meta tag.
PageRank is still one of Google's more ingenious strategies, and
is certainly one of the many reasons that it stands head and
shoulders above the rest. Partly, this is due to a combination
of two factors. Firstly that the very nature of PageRank is
difficult (but not impossible) to manipulate, and secondly that
the exact details of how the value is assigned is a closely
guarded secret.
However, there is one very useful source of data - an academic
paper detailing the formula used to calculate PageRank from
Google's early beginnings as a university project. This formula
will have certainly been altered and expanded over the years,
but it is generally accepted that it still represents the
essence of their PageRank system
The Page Rank Formula
The exact details are lengthy, and far beyond what I am capable
of dissecting. But the basic formula is as follows:
PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) +
.. + PR (Tn)/C(Tn))
PR(A) is the PageRank of a particular page (A) - not a website
as a whole.
1-d is the dampening factor, as explained below.
PR(T1) is the PageRank of the page that links to our (A) page,
and C(T1) is the number of links contained on that same page.
The formula is repeated throughout every single page that
contains a link to this (A) page.
Two important points to take into account. First of all, if
you're thinking that the formula would in practice be an
infinite loop, then you're correct. This is the very nature of
the web itself, and is also why Google has introduced the so
called dampening factor.
The second point concerns the way that PageRank is awarded by
one page to another. The generally accepted means of
understanding this is to consider that a given page has,
according to its own PageRank, a certain amount of voting power.
If the page in question links to five other pages, then each of
the pages being linked to receive their PageRank "award" of one
fifth of the original page's voting power. It's also worth
noting that the number of links on a page includes a website's
internal links.
Link farms don't work
This makes it quite obvious that the so-called link farms, where
each page of a website contains many hundreds of links in an
attempt to artificially boost so called "link popularity", are
doomed to fail from the start. In addition to this, Google has
its own system for not only minimising the effect that these
sites have, but eliminating it altogether. As the formula shows,
PageRank works as a multiplier of a site's overall value, so
Google has made sure that link farms have their own value of
zero - which means that a link from them counts for nothing,
quite literally.
There is a scare story doing the rounds which claims that being
listed on link popularity sites, or for that matter any site
with a large number of links, can get your site penalised or
even banned from Google. This is simply not the case. If it
were, you'd effectively be able to wipe-out your competition's
Google presence with one afternoon's work. It doesn't work that
way.
Having links to your web pages on sites with a low page rank and
a large number of links means that the benefits are quite
effectively minimised to zero. But this will not detract from
your current PageRank at all.
Obviously, what people really want to know is whether PageRank
can be manipulated. In the past it was often considered
impossible to do so, but nowadays this is not always the case.
There are two simple factors involved: Firstly: who links to
you, and how they choose to do so. Secondly: your own website's
navigation and internal links.
Clearly, the sheer number of pages linking to you will not
influence your PageRank. Of far greater importance is the
PageRank of each of these pages, and how many links appear on
them. Common sense certainly needs to be applied here. In
theory, one simple way to improve your PageRank might be to have
Microsoft link to you from the front page of their website. In
practice, this might be a little difficult to achieve.
It is already quite clear that linking out to another website,
even if it opens in a new browser window, actually involves
potentially giving away a lot more than a little space on your
website. My advice would be to look at your link exchanges as
you would your food. You always want to make sure you're not
leaving yourself hungry, and if you do choose to share, be
selective. Exchanging a piece of your sirloin steak for a small
piece of stale bread, shared between hundreds of people, is far
from an even trade. If you're doing so to help another site, as
an act of charity, then this is fine and well, as long as you
know what you're giving away. Choose wisely.
Well-known websites and their PageRank
Now that we have a basic understanding of how PageRank works,
let's take a look at some of the more well-known websites on the
web today, and see how their main pages perform.
Finding out a page's PageRank is couldn't be simpler. Follow the
link to Services and Tools from the Google home page, and find
the Google Toolbar. After installing the software, a bar appears
at the top of the browser showing a value for each page you're
visiting. Hold the mouse over the bar, and you'll be told the
page's PageRank - a score out of ten. As already mentioned, this
figure is little more than a representation of a page's actual
PageRank.
Not surprisingly, very few pages score ten out of ten, and those
that do includes the likes of Microsoft, Yahoo, Google itself,
AltaVista, Adobe, AOL, Mozilla.org and others. In other words
we're looking at the biggest of the biggest websites - and not
something that most of us could ever hope to achieve!
Of course, there is a simple reason that search engines and
directories have such a high PageRank. Not only do they link to
a huge, ever-growing list of sites and pages, but more
importantly, a truly staggering number of these sites and pages
link back to them. When you consider the importance of
reciprocal linking, you start to understand why they do so well.
With Adobe, you only need to consider the sheer number of web
pages out there that link to a PDF file (with links to Adobe for
their free reader software), and you will see why they have
achieved such a high number.
A nine out of ten score still puts you within a very small
minority of the web. Should you be able to achieve this high a
PageRank, you'll be rubbing shoulders with the likes of MSN, BBC
News, Winzip and Internet.com. We're talking about the web's
upper classes here - not really attainable for the majority of
normal website owners.
Eight out of ten starts bringing you to the "reachable" web.
You'll find sites such as CNN, TuCows, Simtel, the Association
of Shareware Professionals, the Shareware Industry Conference
site and Lockergnome.
A PageRank of seven is starting to appear reasonably attainable,
as long as we're willing to work hard on the content and
reputation of our site. The sevens include companies such as
D-Link, MSNBC, CNET's Download.com and our very own
SharewarePromotions.com.
Don't lose your perspective! At this point, a little perspective
might be in order. A critical point to remember is that PageRank
only plays a part in performing well in Google. PageRank's
primary aim involves ranking the results of a search - but in
order to show up in the search to start with, your site needs to
be properly optimised and have good, solid content. So contrary
to popular belief, the era of Search Engine Optimisation is far
from over. It's only had a new, interesting factor thrown into
it.
Finally, a note of caution. This article has been an attempt to
very briefly summarise an enormously complicated subject. Aside
from constraints of space, much of the workings of PageRank
remain shrouded in mystery. The ideas presented are based on
available data, known facts, speculation and my own experience -
but none of it should be considered as insurmountable fact!
PageRank is undoubtedly an important factor in how much traffic
you will receive from Google. It is, however, merely one
component in your arsenal of tools to win the battle for one
particular search engine. Even with the constantly evolving web,
and the ever-tightening systems employed by the search engines
to quantify the usefulness of a website, content is still by far
the most important factor, and will invariably form the base on
which everything else is built. Be seen, be sold.
About the author:
Dave Collins is the CEO of SharewarePromotions Ltd., a well
established UK-based company working with software and shareware
marketing activities, utilising all aspects of the internet.
http://www.sharewarepromotions.com and http://www.davetalks.com
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