Google: Page Rank
Earlier in Google: Biggest Misconception, I mentioned that Google did not index websites but only indexed web pages. Almost everything that Google does is at the web page level except for the Page Rank. Google has the concept of Page Rank for grading a website:
- The name "Page Rank" does not come from ranking a web page but the ranking algorithm developed by Larry Page, one of the founders of Google.
- The Page Rank calculation is done 2 to 3 times per year.
Each URL, the web page full address, of your website is assigned a Page Rank, a numeric value between 0 and 10 then Google will assign and distribute the Page Rank to the whole website. It's usually assigned at the home page level.
- If there are 10 links on your start page, each link will be assigned a ranking of 1/10th of the Page Rank.
- If there are 100 links on your start page, each link will be assigned a ranking of 1/100th of the Page Rank.
The Page Rank influences but does not determine how high your web page will be displayed when somebody searches for...
Factors influencing the Page Rank
- Links from external sources: The higher the Page Rank of the other websites linking to your website, the higher your Page Rank.
- Longevity: How long has the website existed.
- Frequency of updates: How often is there new material added to your website. That's why blogs, like CNN or the Huffington Post with extremely frequent updates - dozen times a day, always rank higher.
- Number of web pages in your website and the linking between the web pages.