Google have a relevancy algorithm which decides where your website will be placed on a search results page (SERP). If you want to be no. 1 on Google then it’s this highly complex, constantly changing and secret algorithm (or computer program) that decides.

The perfect search engine:

“understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want.”       Larry Page

There’s no denying that Google doesn’t quite do that and there is a constant battle to remove spam results from the listings. Also, with Google Instant you could add fast to the criteria of the perfect search experience. The attention span of the searcher is getting shorter and searchers are expecting relevancy and they want it smartish. If you’re trying to be found on the web, then it’s up to  you (or your SEO) to help them along.

PageRank

The PageRank of a page on your site will be a factor in how high it appears in search results for the search term. One of the factors in this is the PageRank of those other website pages that are linking to your page, the one you want to rank for. These links are considered by Google to rate your importance on the web and this is why those site owners with an SEO strategy are always in keen pursuit of quality links to their sites.

PageRank itself is a rating from 1 to 10, with the highest being the best. Each time a website links to you, assuming it’s not a nofollow link, then in Google’s eyes it transfers a little of it’s authority on to your site. It’s often explained as being like a vote for your site.

Of course it’s only one factor, there are many others (over 200) that come into play in Google’s goal of providing comprehensive, relevant, quality results for searchers.

This infographic from Zippycart gives quick and useful overview of Google’s PageRank.

[Via: ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews]

Kinds of Links

PageRank is not the only measure of a link in to your site. Other things that Google look at are the ‘anchor text’ of the link (are there keywords in the link to the URL), the content around the link, the amount of links on the page and whether the link has a ‘nofollow’ tag – in which case no pagerank is passed on.

Site Crawl

In terms of your own site, your PageRank may be a factor in how deeply your site is crawled by Google. Sites that are many levels deep ie. where the user needs to click more than 5 or 6 times to get back to the home page are not crawled as often or as deeply if they are not perceived as relevant.

Duplicate Content

In the case of duplicate content, maybe someone has scraped your content from your site or you have the same content in more than one place, your PageRank may also be a factor in how Google decides which is the correct one to rank.

How to check PageRank

You can check the PageRank of any page using PRChecker. Or, if you’re a Firefox user, you can download the Live PageRank Add-on to display it. Alternatively, you can download the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer or Firefox. This gives you PageRank, Google Search box, Translation facillities and Bookmark options also.

Bear in mind though that the Google Toolbar PageRank is not updated frequently.

Irish Election by PageRank

For those you can’t bear to hear any more from our illustrious leaders, let’s do a popularity poll on the candidates based on PageRank. In alphabetical order:

• • Gerry Adams         :   4
  • Richard Bruton     :   4
  • Joan Burton           :   4
  • Eamonn Gilmore  :   4
  • John Gormley       :   3
  • Enda Kenny            :   ?  the Fine Gael candidate page may not be ranked  the Bebo page (www.endakenny.com) is a little unfortunate – more Simon Cowell than Vincent Browne..)
  • Brian Lenihan        :  4
  • Micheal Martin     :  3
  • Shane Ross             :  5

We appear to have a clear winner with Independent Shane Ross. Congratulations!

{Note, I’m not linking to any of them…]

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