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PageRank of the incoming page, the more weight that link carries to increase the PageRank of the landing page.

PageRank means nothing to a website until a web surfer decides to go to Google and search for information. When a web searcher keys in their search query, Google will perform a web search and return results for websites that match the search query performed. Those search results returned will be listed in order of relevancy to the search, and then in order of highest PageRank to lowest.

In other words, the higher a page is ranked with Google PageRank, the higher it will be listed in the search results for any given search based on the keywords and search terms used. For small, niche market sites, this may not matter as much as it does for websites where competition is fierce, keywords are similar, and many websites have the same or similar content or information.

If a webpage is selling a common product or providing a common service, chances are many other websites are also selling that same product or providing the same service. Because of this, and the fact that the average internet surfer will rarely go beyond the first few pages of search results when searching for something on the internet, ranking as high as possible in search engine results is absolutely essential to the website being found by the end user.

Things that benefit and increase PageRank include: quality, relevant content and keywords; information rich websites; incoming links from sites with similar content and relevancy and a high PageRank; user traffic and click-throughs on search results.

Things that may decrease PageRank or leave it unaffected: duplicate content (i.e., identical content found on other websites), links from pages on the internet that are not relevant to the site's content, outbound links to non-relevant webpages, keyword stuffing, spam linking, and other things Google determines at its sole discretion.

The best way most web developers have found to increase PageRank for a website is to provide an information rich, relevant content site that other sites pertaining to that information or content will choose to link to from their own site. Bloggers and social networking sites can also help build PageRank, so providing information, products or services that consumers will talk about on their blogs or recommend on their social networking sites can also help achieve PageRank.

A new site will begin with a PageRank of zero, and once indexed, can quickly and easily attain a PageRank of one or two just by being on the internet with a link or two somewhere out there leading to their site. Once a website or webpage reaches a PageRank of three or higher, increasing in PageRank becomes more difficult, with the number of links and relevancy of the links both having to increase too.

PageRank is not the do-all and end-all of the internet, but with a large percentage of web traffic being driven through Google's search engine, ranking highly in Google's search engine results is essential to driving traffic to any webpage. Having a high PageRank is one way, along with good content, good keywords, and a quality website, to ensure traffic on the internet finds that page.

Learn more about this author, Michelle L Devon.
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