What is Page Rank?

Quite simply, it is a numeric value that represents the importance of a web page. It's of vital significance to everyone who derives business from a web site because it is one of the key factors that determines a page's ranking in Google's search results. Google bases the Page Rank (PR) concept on the assumption that when one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page. Consequently, these "votes" can increase a page's importance and boost its Page Rank. More importantly, the prestige (i.e. PR) of the linking page influences how valuable its "vote", or link, will be. Both the number of links and the ranks of the linking pages are used to calculate your web page's Page Rank.

How important is it, and why?
To understand the significance of Page Rank, let's look at how Google originally explained it

‘The heart of our software is PageRank, a system for ranking web page' that provide' the basis for all of our web search tools."

In other words, it's an essential part of how Google determines which sites rank highest in its search results. Their explanation continues:

"PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value." In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. . . Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

he higher a site's PageRank, the more quickly it will show up when you conduct a search - and the more likely you are to open it when you see it. Of course, high-ranking pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. It doesn't just count the number of times your search term appears on a page; it examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine the best matches for your query.

How essential is a high Page Rank to my site's success?
This is an excellent question, because many experts believe that as -Google has grown and evolved, PR may no longer be the most important determinant of how sites show up in searches. Current theories about PR range from that it's been abandoned, downgraded, modified, superseded, that it's a publicity stunt, and all the way through to it still being the same as always. Some see conspiracies in PR, others take Google's explanation of it at face value.
So what and who should we believe? My personal opinion (and I've stated this previously) is that Page Rank is still a factor to watch - but that it's not the be all and end all of getting your website on the receiving end of lots of traffic from Google.

Here are a couple of experiences that lead me to this conclusion:

• You could have a site/blogs with Page Ranks of 6 and 7 (i.e., impressively high) and still receive little traffic from Google.
• A couple of PR updates could change your website/blogs from PR of 0 to a PR of 6 Without any significant change in traffic before or after the update.

I consequently believe that PR is not the primary factor in your site's Search Engine Results Page rankings, or SERPs, and that an increase in PR doesn't automatically produce a direct and proportionate increase in traffic.

Wait a minute, what are SERPs? Are they more important than Page Rank?
Search Engine Results Page rankings (SERPs) refers to the listing of web pages returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query. It's obvious that your site's PR is going to play a big part in its SERPs, but as just stated, I consider it just one factor that Google looks at when they determine your blog's SERPs. I also believe that the day we see an update to our PRs is not necessarily the day that Google first determines them or the day the new PR starts to affect our SERPs. Many sources argue that the day we see a change in PR publicly in Google toolbars (and other tools) is actually days (or even weeks) after Google has worked out our PR and has taken into account the effect of this on our SERPs, although some see it the other way around and say that PR takes a few weeks to have an impact upon SERPs).

Another important factor in determining SERPs is the number of backlinks (i.e., links from other sites and from within your own sites) point to your domain. In fact, my research and experience seems to indicate that backlinks seem to have a more direct impact upon traffic levels than PR.

Another theory that many ‘experts' have about Page Rank is that it could be more important in how powerful a site is with its outbound links. ie if my blog links to your blog and it has a page rank of 2, that link does your blog less value than if my blog with a page rank of 7 links to it. This makes sense to me and I've seen a number of people try and ‘prove' it - none convincingly - but it seems to resonate with my experiences.

So what's your current thinking on how site owners/bloggers should view Page Rank?
Primarily, as an indication of how important Google thinks their sites are. I can't see Google keeping the PR system going if it wasn't of value to them; their PR updates, which come every couple of months, use up significant energy and resources. I doubt they'd do that just to keep us believing they still used it.
However, I keep an eye on my blog's page ranks because I look to them to show me if I'm on the right track to improving quality. Higher quality, rather than higher Page Rank, should eventually lead to more traffic but it's important to understand the distinction.

PR is also important to me because it also helps me monetize my business. If you have a blog with a high PR and you are using to sell text links to other site's operators, one of the few ways to judge the worth of a site for such purposes is Google's PR. And of course, it's a big plus for the prestige and reputation for your site to be highly ranked.

I'm sure that as Google continues to learn from traffic patterns on the web, Page Rank will adapt and evolve, as will other metrics of assessing a site's value. However, the importance of understanding how it fits into your marketing strategy is unlikely to change.