Never a day goes by without people asking what is Page Rank, why is it so important and why does everyone rave about it? Well it used to be important, but as far as your position in the search engines is concerned its importance has declined.
Page Rank is very still useful for two reasons. The mere fact that a site has a value means that Google has seen it, understands it is there and has read it's content. Secondly when viewed on sub-pages it shows that the structure of the site is allowing the spiders to crawl effectively beyond the home page.
To explain Page Rank you have to grasp the difference between two specific elements, there is Page Point Score (PPS) and Page Rank (PR), they are very different. Typically a spidered page with no incoming links has a page point of 1 this equates to a PR=0. Each link gives page points to the recipient page. The value of how many points that migrate to the recipient page is based on the originating page's points divided by the number of outgoing links on that page. For example if a site has 11 pages, a homepage that links directly to 10 other pages which all link back. PPS of 1 will be awarded to the 10 pages but the homepage having 10 incoming links (from PPS 1’s) will be awarded 10 points. If the home page is linked to by another site with say PR3 (512 PPS) then you can see how the calculations take on a whole different perspective.
It should be noted that just because you have a PR4 site pointing to your, the migrating PPS is divided by the number of links on the sending page. So if the PR3 (512PPS) has 100 outgoing links the one that points to you will migrate only ... 5 (512/100).
The number of PPS to PR goes something like this; -
PR0 = 1 page point,
PR1 = 8 page points,
PR2 = 64 page points,
PR3 = 512 page points,
PR4 = 4096 page points,
PR5 = 32768 page points
PR6 = 262144 page points,
PR7 = 2,097,152 page points,
PR8 = 16,777,216 page points,
PR9 = 134,217,728 page points.
In the quest for incoming links care should be taken, not all sites especially those in frames and with dynamic content migrate PR. Any such link is virtually worthless as far as optimisation is concerned.
So back to the question, why does everyone rave about Page Rank? Because when there is a Google Page Rank update it is reassuring to know that your effort has worked as expected and increased or better Page Rank is one way you can see that the optimisation work has paid off. Be aware though, that having a high Page Rank doesn't make your site score highly for search terms, but sites that score well for search terms usually have good Page Rank - there is a difference.
So what can you do to improve things?Google ranks web sites in a number of ways, one is by title of your home page. To improve your ranking, make sure the title of your home page is no more than 12 words long, preferably in groups of two words separated by a comma, and that you include your main key words in the title of your homepage - don't simply call it 'Home'!
Additionally, keywords are best written in your body text in groups of two, such as "web design", "corrugated boxes, corrugated cases" and so on. However, avoid too much repetition of keywords. "Keyword stuffing" as this is called, may only serve to reduce your overall ranking in the search engines.
Links to your web site from other ranked and recognised sites or directories play a key part in how Google and Yahoo will rank your site. (These are known as ranked in-bound links). Try to get your site registered with as many good quality directories as possible. Some are free, others make a small charge. This is well worthwhile.
Make sure all your web sites pages are indexed. A major fault most search engine optimisers and web designers make is only to optimise the home page. Google ranks pages, NOT web sites. Make sure your home page has direct links to every other page and optimise each pages text and keywords. You will vastly increase your chances of success. Cool home pages with no links to the rest of your site are no good at all.
Google especially, takes note of changing information on web sites and typically, you should try to add a page a month, or change the text on at least one of your pages regularly. Typically, between 200 and 300 words should be enough.
One way to obtain regularly changing data is by including something called an RSS feed in your web site. Really Simple Syndication or RSS allows you for example, to put live news from BBC.co.uk onto your own web site, so your automatically, get updated and changing news information on a daily basis. Google loves this sort of thing and we have used it to good effect in a number of web sites.
Make sure your web site has its own 'site map'. This makes Google and Yahoo's job of crawling and indexing your web much easier. Again, this is something most major search engines look for. This should be linked directly off your home page for best results.
For help, take a look at
http://www.lincolnshire-webdesign.co.uk
