In my posts I refer to Google PageRank a lot so I decided to dedicate a post it and explain it in a little more detail and outline the essentials for SEO. If you are looking for a thorough explanation of the PageRank algorithm go here.

Google PageRank is a scoring system for pages Google has indexed. It is essentially a measure of a page’s importance to Google. The highest possible PageRank is 10 and the lowest is 0. PageRanks are based on web pages. Each page of a site is assigned a PageRank. When people refer to a site’s PageRank are referring to the PageRank of the site’s home page.

How does Google assign PageRank?
The quick answer is inbound links. The more inbound links a web page has, the higher PageRank it is likely to have. In reality it is more complicated than that. Inbound links from pages with higher PageRanks weigh more heavily and the number outbound links from a page can decrease page rank.

How does my Google PageRank affect my site’s search engine ranking?
The algorithm that Google uses to determine their search result rankings is very complex and they don’t make it public. There seems to be a correlation between a page’s PageRank and its position in the search results for a particular keyword but there are a lot of other factors in play. You will frequently see pages with a low PageRank showing up higher in search results than a page with a high PageRank. However, generally speaking, if Google likes a page enough to give it a high PageRank, they will like it enough to rank it high in search results.

How do I find out my site’s PageRank?
There are a few useful tools for finding out and tracking your site’s page rank. They are:

Google Toolbar – The Google toolbar has a PageRank feature that gives you the rank of the page that is currently loaded in your browser. When you first load the Google Toolbar, you will be asked if you want to disable or enable the PageRank feature. Go here to get the Google Toolbar.

Live PageRank Firefox Plugin – The Live PageRank Firefox plugin is a good alternative to the Google Toolbar if you want to track your PageRank but you don’t want to the extra features of the Google Toolbar. It also gives you the PageRank of the page currently loaded in your browser but displays it discreetly in the bottom right corner of your brower. Go here to download the Live PageRank plugin.

PRChecker.com – PRChecker.com is a great resource if you want to get the PageRank of a website very quickly without downloading anything. Go here for their PageRank Checker tool. They also have buttons that you can put on your site that display your PageRank. Go here to get a PageRank button. I only recommend using one of these buttons if your home page has a PageRank that is worth bragging about, like a PageRank of 4 or better.