PageRank

Definition

PageRank is a link analysis algorithm developed by Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin that assigns a numerical score to webpages to measure their relative importance within a set of webpages.

PageRank Relevance For SEO

PageRank was instrumental in Google’s early success as a search engine because it helped Google return more relevant search results compared to other search engines at the time. It continues to be one of the many ranking factors Google uses today to determine search rankings. Understanding PageRank provides insight into how Google perceives the importance of webpages.

While PageRank is no longer a public metric, optimizing sites to earn more high-quality inbound links remains an important SEO best practice for improving search visibility.

Brief PageRank History and Evolution

PageRank was created in 1998 and filed for patent in 1999. It quickly became Google’s core search ranking algorithm. Over the years, Google has updated PageRank to make it more resistant to manipulation. The original PageRank patent expired in 2019.

PageRank Best Practices for SEO

• Earn links from high authority sites: Getting links from authoritative, reputable sites will pass more PageRank value to your pages.
• Focus on quality over quantity of links: A few quality links from reputable sites are better than many poor quality links.
• Diversify link sources: Getting links from a diverse range of quality sites helps avoid over-reliance on particular sites.
• Monitor new links pointing to your site: Use link tracking tools to monitor new links to find link building opportunities and identify potentially harmful links.