|
|
Googles PR System Explained
The complexities of Google's PR (Page Ranking) System have grown more difficult to understand since the Hilltop Algorithm was introduced. This beginner's guide to the PR system explains the basics of what PR is, what it does, and how it affects your site's rankings. This revolutionary search algorithm has made it to where the most relevant and popular sites with the best content do the best on Google's search page. Keep in mind, this algorithm is kept secret by Google for fear of it being exploited, but the basics have been released for study.
In a nutshell, Google's Page Ranking is a system devised to rank pages based on their content and popularity and place them accordingly within the search results based on their relevance to the general topic. Or, in laymen's terms, it's a system to make sure sites are put where they need to be, both in search results and in rankings. A site dealing with pet care is not going to be listed in the top 10 when searching for "web design," but depending on its content and popularity it could be well towards the top of the list on "pet medicine" or "sick dog."
PR is on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest ranking possible. Of course, only a very few sites have a PR 10 or even a PR 9 for that matter. PR 7 and PR 8 sites are considered very good sites, with lots of original, relevant content and a great deal of inbound links. You will usually find sites with a high PR at the top of the list under Google's search engine, and many others, since relevant content and lots of links is almost a prerequisite for being placed high in any of the major search engines on any of the major keywords.
PR "Spread"
PR is set up to "pass on" from one site to another, or one page to another if it is within your own site. As the PR "spreads" throughout your site, you will get less and less utility from it. A link from a PR 5 site to your main page will give you a PR 4 link to your main page. Since your main page will be linked to other pages within your site, any links on your front page (up to 100 pages) will then receive a PR 3 link from your main page. It continues to trickle down, exponentially losing power until it peters out.
Keep in mind, however, that depending on what page linked to you, and how many links were on that page in the first place, your PR could be significantly lower than expected. If a PR 5 page links to your site, but has 300 other links on that single page, you may get anywhere from 0 to 4 PR. Thus it is beneficial to have a limited number of links on your main pages, due to the smaller amount of PR being passed down with the more links it is being passed to. Overall, a small, concise site with lots of inbound links and few outbound links would be the ideal "PR trap," although relevant, original content is needed as well.
PR's Effect on Rankings
The effects of PR are plainly viewable to anybody with the Google Toolbar. Simply search for a keyword, and look at the PR rating of the top 10 sites. The highest PR will usually be on the top of the list, depending on content. If a PR 8, however, has a keyword that does not match their content, they will most likely be ranked lower than a PR 6 on the same keyword with more relevant content on the subject matter. A site with high, relevant, and original content, along with matching keywords and a multitude of links from related sites, will place extremely high on searches containing their keywords. A site with old content that is not updated often with links from non-related sites and keywords that do not relate directly to their content, on the other hand will probably not show up within the top 100 sites on the same search.
So basically, PR is what drives listings on the Google Search Engine. How to optimize your site to take advantage of this system, however is the real challenge.
Utilizing PR
To make proper use of the PR system, many different things must be done to assure your website is "acceptable" within their guidelines. Basically, making your site more relevant to your topic will have a great effect on your PR ranking, especially if you are "popular" among those sites, or have many links coming from related sites. Each site on the internet has a Page Rank, assigned by Google, based on their content and popularity. To view the page rank of each site, download the Google Toolbar from their site. It will automatically show you the rank of the page you're on with a small counter on your task bar.
Now, obviously a "good" site links to you, it will have a better effect on your website's popularity. Say, for example, a PR 3 website puts a link on their links page to your main page. That link will be considered a PR 2 link to your site (PR - 1), giving you a PR of 2 on your main page. If, however, a PR 0 site adds a link to your site, there is almost no change. A link from a grayed-out site, which means they have a negative PR, will actually be a detriment to your PR, as they have been deemed a site not relevant to anything (or relevant, but banned) by Google. Of course, a link from a PR 7 site to your own will be drastically more effective in boosting your PR than even 20 PR 3 links would.
Getting Good Links
One of the most important things to remember about getting a high PR ranking is to get links from "good" sites. These include sites that are directly related to your own site in some way, and preferably sites with a high PR of their own. Good examples include award pages and directory listings. With relevant links coming from related sites with a high PR, your site will not only gain PR fast, but will gain in real popularity. High PR sites traditionally have high traffic due to their link volume and content. If there is a link to you, it is a sign that you have a good site on a related topic with good content as well, attracting visitors who didn't find exactly what they wanted. More visitors means more PR, which in turn gets you more visitors. You can see how important good links can be.
Try to steer away from sites with unrelated topics, as these will probably not help much, if any with your traffic, and may actually bring a penalty to your PR. Other sites to steer away from when trying to work up your PR would be FFAs, or Free For All link programs. These sites allow browsers to enter their link into a huge list (sometimes of thousands of other sites). Usually you will find that these sites have been "grayed out," or given a negative PR effect by Google, bringing your PR down if you have a link from them.
Doorway pages are another thing to avoid. These are shorter, shallow sites that are created simply for putting as many keywords and links as possible on their pages in order to "farm" PR for higher rankings on Google. These, in general, once they are found are "grayed out," as well as sites they link to. Enough links from these will assure that your site will not show up on Google's search at all.
Getting Good Content
Good, original content is not as hard to obtain as some might think. By writing articles for your site you can provide pages of completely relevant and unique content, as long as the articles are on subject. A few articles will give you plenty of original content to get a fairly good "relevance rating" with Google, which contributes to your PR rating, and it will not trigger the dreaded "duplicate content" tag that will doom your site to obscurity.
In addition, if you can get enough relevant content together, you can eventually become recognized as an "expert" in the field. With that status, you will get enough traffic to boost your PR even more. People are always in need of information, and if you provide good enough information, you will find yourself getting links from all over the internet.
PR in a Nutshell - An Overview
Basically, with enough unique content and relevant links, you can have a high PR site and be ready to take on the internet. Overall, things to keep in mind are to stay consistent with your main topic, both in links and in your content, and stay away from the "no-no" sites mentioned above. If you can do these things, you can gain a high PR and a good ranking with Google in a relatively short period of time.
You can see other articles by Claude Beavers on this topic at: SuperFaster.com - Free Web Promotion Articles and Resources
How To Conceal Your Website?s ?Fingerprint? From The Search Engines
The internet marketing industry is now flooded with various page and portal generators.
Sitemaps 101 - Back to SEO School
Sitemaps are without doubt one of the most often ignored and undervalued aspects of search engine optimization. You've probably spent a huge amount of time working on pages of original content, keyword density and getting incoming links but never once spared a thought for a sitemap for your new creation.
SEO Help: Dont Try to Fool the Search Engines
Writing articles is all the rage these days on the web. Or should I say getting other people to write articles for you, joining membership sites that provide "private label" rights -- that is all the rage.
The Google Phenomenon: Greatest Hits Collection
As my readers know, I've been one of Google's harshest critics. However, I'm also a firm believer that it's okay to criticize, as long as it's justifiable and fairly balanced with deserved praise.
Good Things Come to Those Who Wait (and Other Analogies and Cliché?s for SEO)
We've all heard that familiar expression, "Good things come to those who wait". Whether you're waiting for your Heinz ketchup to pour out onto your burger (remember those commercials?), waiting for Christmas day to open your gifts, waiting for summer vacation to be let out of school, or waiting in line at the DMV? well, maybe not the DMV, good things will come if you simply allow them to come in their own time.
The Best and Easiest Google-Friendly Change to Your Web Site
No matter who you are or how much you pay for web site advertising, free search engine traffic is probably responsible for a big part of your business. So why make your web site so hard for search engines to figure out?
Search Engines The Masters Of The Internet Universe ? Part 1
Trillions of Billions of content pages make up the wide world of Internet. Keeping a house clean and arranged with proper placement for each household item is so big a task for each of us that it is a much despised daily chore. Ever wonder who or what keeps the Internet clean organized and keep them in arms length for you when you need it? This humongous task of making sure the right set of data is kept organized and delivered as information to the right folks when they need it are done by the Search Engines (SE). There are many popular search engines that deliver search results for countless number of searches every Nano-second. The Internet is the first place folks go for obtaining any type of information. The Internet has become the knowledge warehouse of what the world knows. Well almost true. If you have not discovered the full potential of the search engines it is not too late.
Finding Profitable Keyword Phrases
So you have a site concept developed that you are ready to start writing great content for.
Googles Back Door... Get Your Website Indexed Quicker!
It's the buzz word's going across the internet marketing guru's strategy platform at the moment?Google's Sitemap to index your web pages within days if not hours.
Googles New SEO Rules
Google has recently made some pretty significant changes in its ranking algorithm. The latest update, dubbed by Google forum users as "Allegra", has left some web sites in the dust and catapulted others to top positions. Major updates like this can happen a few times a year at Google, which is why picking the right search engine optimization company can be the difference between online success and failure. However, it becomes an increasingly difficult decision when SEO firms themselves are suffering from the Allegra update.
Tops In Toolbars?
Most internet marketers are aware of, and probably use, the Google Toolbar. After all, it has been the only indicator of Google's PageRank number that has been assigned to a given web page. Whether the number is accurate, important, or even updated any more is a matter of debate on the marketing forums. But the only feature that was really worthwhile for more casual surfers, other than being able to use the Google search box directly, was the popup window blocker feature, which oddly enough, is the least favorite feature of many an internet marketer.
Link Swapping - How to Win the Website Marketing Game in 3 Easy Steps
If you are a webmaster, chances are one of your main concerns is the ranking of your website with the major search engines. Since you are concerned with this, you are probably involved in acquiring links to your websites on the Internet to further increase the link popularity or your site. The reason gaining links to your website is important is because many of the large and popular search engines focus on the amount of links there are to your site when they begin ranking your site. The more links you have, the higher your website will rank. So, if you are not familiar with how to increase your marketing by acquiring links then you need to learn. Fortunately, it is not difficult and will not take a lot of effort, but you will need to be open minded, patient, and always play fair. Consider the following suggestions when you are beginning your link swapping or reciprocal linking campaign.
Page Rank Purgatory - Simple Things You can Do to Keep Your Web Site Out of Search Engine Hell!
Are Meta Tags Really Dead?
Search Engine Marketing Hype Killing Small Businesses
Think about the first thing you ever heard about "marketing a website" on the web. 99% of the time the first words anyone ever hears are "search engine marketing." Or some semblance of the phrase.
Search Engine Optimization - Free Tips and Help - Part One - The Title Tag
Search Engine Optimization is a widely misunderstood industry. Many webmasters, including myself, have been mislead by industry forums, and Internet "chatter". Having tried many different approaches, starting in 1996: It is ironic that the methods I used back then, still hold true today, to a great extent.
Google Has No Content On Page
One of the post from My SEO world Meet Up Group?.!
Keywords: The First Step To Recognition
Open Wordtracker [ http://www.wordtracker.com/ ] and you'll see following proclamation by Brent Winters, President, FirstPlace Software, Inc., the makers of award-winning web promotion software, WebPosition Gold [ http://www.webposition.com/ ]:
Driving Your Website through Google Sandbox
What is Google Sandbox?
Meta Tags - What Are They and Which Search Engines Use Them?
Defining Meta Tags is much easier than explaining how they are used, and by which engines. The reason is very few engines clearly lay out what they do and do not look at, and how much emphasis they put on any one factor. So, we'll start with the easy part
LSI and Link Popularity
When Paypal's official Web site no longer ranked #1 in Google on a search for "paypal," it was obvious that Google had become more aggressive in penalizing sites with "unnatural" backlink anchor text. Although the high-profile Paypal example has since been rectified, thousands of webmasters are suffering the consequences of not ranking for even their official company name, let alone their top keywords. It is important for search engine optimizers to understand both how anchor text penalties are being applied and how LSI ensures that anchor text variance will not dilute a link popularity building campaign.