SEO Dance

If you have installed the Google Toolbar you will be able to see the pagerank of every site you visit in your browser. How? It has that PageRank icon with some green part or can be as white as a ghost depending on the PageRank of the website you are viewing.

What is page rank? Here is how Google explains it:

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.”

Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don’t match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page’s content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it’s a good match for your query.

Ok, enough of the vote-vote important-important Google jargon about page rank. Simply put, page rank is the grade or mark that Google gives to a website. Now how is a website ranked? One popular SEO notion is that a website is given a page rank depending on the number of inbound links (IBL) it gets from other websites. So, to get a high PR (0 as the lowest page rank and 10 as the highest), link building is a key move.

So why would you want a high page rank? Here are what I believe the two best benefits of a high page rank:

1. Air of More Authority

Having a website with a high page rank does not necessarily mean that you will be on top of the SERPs. But you will “look” like you are offering a lot better content than other websites if you have a PR of 6 or 7. It can help in scoring more subscribers or readers if you are running a blog.

2. More Monetization Opportunities.

These past few months, dozens upon dozens of blog monetization methods are being offered. Aside from PPC (pay-per-click) ad networks like Adsense, YPN, Chitika, link selling (Text-Link-Ads, Text Link Brokers, Adbrite, Performancing) is starting to take off. And more often than not, these online ad networks prefer to cater to those sites or blogs with high PR.

Here’s one page rank checker if you don’t have the Google Toolbar.

But rest assured, a high PR does not guarantee higher traffic as some would assume. Many website owners would attest to this. But it still thrills a lot of people, especially SEO-conscious ones to see that little green line go longer every few months, that includes me.

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