People who search on Google for a particular topic will see thousands or possibly millions of websites that are relevant in their search results. Google uses PageRank as a way of demonstrating which websites are the most relative to the particular topic, aka keyword.

Quite simply, Google PageRank is the measure of how relevant or "useful" a website is for a particular keyword. The higher PageRank a website has for a keyword, the higher that website will appear on search results for that keyword. In today's Internet market, PageRank is extremely important. A high PageRank can translate to more visitors to a website, which increases profit potential if that is the goal.

To get a better idea of PageRank and its usefulness, consider the section of the phone book that lists towing companies. Have you noticed how many towing companies just happen to have a lot of A's at the start of their name? AAA Towing, AA+ Towing, A1A3A Towing, etc. I'm willing to bet that these people are working with the knowledge that their company will appear closer to the front of the phone book towing company list if their name starts with A or a combination of A letters. And why would they want to appear towards the beginning of the section? I would further guess that a considerable portion of people searching for a towing company in the phone book aren't going to spend all day doing so. They're going to check for maybe 1-3 names and that's it. Having a business name that appears towards the front of that list increases the chances of being found and contacted. That's a similar concept to how PageRank functions and why it is so important.

Like the phone book, people who are searching on Google for a keyword don't want to spend all day at it. After all, people are searching for information, not for keywords. They want to see websites that relate to what they're searching for, and quick. A recent search for the term "workout ebooks" returned almost 2 million results. These results are divided into pages. Would you expect anyone to look for pages that ranked at # 52,352 in the results? That outcome is not very likely. Most people will search for the pages that appear in the first few pages of results, as those are likely to be more relevant to what their search topic is.

Since Google is such a huge part of the Internet these days, it is of little surprise that countless individuals have been trying every tactic under the sun for determining how Google calculates PageRank. Of course, Google isn't saying much. The general consensus is that a website's Google PageRank is influenced by the number of links on other websites that point to the website being ranked. Some helpful items in PageRank determination are the amount of content and the frequency at which this content is updated.

In summary, on the Internet, Google PageRank is not unlike a physical location of a business. As a comparison, consider stores and restaurants you see on main roads and thoroughfares. More people see them, so they have a greater potential for pulling in visitors than businesses that are hidden away in less traveled areas. It's simply the law of averages. Google PageRank is what makes a website appear higher on a list of search results, and therefore can make a website much more attractive to someone searching on Google.

Learn more about this author, Paul Heingarten.
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