What is PageRank?
PageRank is a link analysis algorithm which was patented and used by Google. This was the first algorithm which Google used as the initial foundation of the search engine. Back in the day, sites with a higher PageRank would appear higher in the search engines. Nowadays, there is very little emphasis on PageRank. It is simply one of the many factors.
How was PageRank calculated?
PageRank used the number of links referring to each web page (also called backlinks) to decide what rank it would be given. The more trustworthy, higher-quality backlinks a site obtained, the more likely that site would be given a higher PageRank.
How Google measures PageRank:
PageRank is measured on a scale of one to ten. It is assigned to individual pages within a website. For instance, Positionly.com is given a PageRank of 5 while Positionly.com/plans is given a PageRank of 4.
PageRank is a metric which Google no longer updates publicly; it was last updated in November 2013. A website that already has PageRank will no longer see any changes to their PageRank and any newer websites will consistently have a PageRank of 0.
Why is PageRank important?
The concept of PageRank, not the measurement of PageRank, is still an extremely important metric of SEO. A webmaster should always focus on earning new, high-quality backlinksas this will have a winning effect on the long term of an SEO strategy. The best way to earn backlinks is by publishing valuable content.
Is PageRank dead?
Google has come out and said that they no longer use PageRank as a ranking factor. However, Google has released a new factor to their algorithm, RankBrain. RankBrain is a machine learning technology that uses all of Google’s past algorithms to bring a user the most relevant results. It is the third most important ranking factor, after backlinks and content.
Google has admitted that they are unsure of which past algorithms RankBrain is using to determine relevant results for a user. Therefore, it is possible that RankBrain might discover that PageRank is an important ranking factor. Potentially, this can bring back PageRank… but let’s not hold our breath!