Does Google Page Rank Really Matter?

As a website owner, you probably spend a great deal of time strategizing ways to improve your position in search results. Even if you have little knowledge about SEO, you probably know that there are a number of factors that contribute to your position in Google and other search engines. One of those factors is PageRank. You’ve probably heard that you should that you should work towards establishing a favorable PageRank for your website….

But exactly what is PageRank?

At its core, Google PageRank creates a hierarchy for websites of a similar subject matter. The idea is that effectively ranking websites will improve search results by placing the most “important” website at the top of a results page.

How is Your PageRank Determined?

You may be wondering how Google determines the importance of a website. The truth is some aspects of how PageRank words as an algorithm are unknown to us. What we do know is that websites linking into your site play a huge role.

However, it’s important to know that not all links are created equal.

Page rank takes into consideration the number of websites that link back to you. Generally, the more websites linking in the better. In theory, Google believes that a high number of websites linking back to you is an indication of your clout in your subject matter. Makes sense, right?

Not so fast.

A secondary and possibly even more important factor is the QUALITY of the websites linking back to yours. Google gives more credit to links from highly regarded websites than they do others.

What does that mean for you as a website owner?

Essentially, if you’re going to implement a link-building strategy into your SEO plan, you want to focus on the quality of links over quantity.

For example, a website that has one high-ranking website linking back to them is going to benefit more than one that have ten lesser websites linking back.

How Often is PageRank Updated?

Google works in mysterious ways sometimes, and the frequency with which they update PageRank is no exception.

The truth is, we’re not really sure how often PageRank is updated.

There was a time when Google offered a browser extension that would allow you to check the PageRank of your website and others as often as you wanted. This gave us some insight into algorithm tweaks, but today, website owners aren’t able to see keep track of changes in their PageRank.

The question becomes, if we can’t track PageRank the way we once did, does it even really matter anymore?

Well, the short answer is yes.

Even though we can’t monitor our PageRank as we could in years past, Google has confirmed that PageRank still plays a factor in their algorithm, and therefore affects your performance in search results.

Other website owners would argue that PageRank isn’t important. That’s because some businesses, especially in the e-commerce world, have begun to rely less and less on organic search to drum up business. Instead, they’re putting most of their trust on paid search solutions such as AdWords and Facebook ads.

How to Improve Your PageRank

If you have the budget for expensive advertising campaigns, then perhaps PageRank isn’t something that you need to concern yourself with as much.

However, for most local companies, organic search is still crucial to their business.

If that’s the case for your business you should defiantly look for ways to help improve your PageRank.

The first step towards improving your PageRank is understanding the factors that go into determining the “importance” of your website. As we mentioned before, the exact formula Google uses to determine PageRank is unknown to us. However, through years of testing and data analysis, we can safely say which main factors website owners should concern themselves with.

Ranking Factors

As we mentioned before, quality backlinks play a big part in determining PageRank. But how do you determine what websites Google would count as “quality”? Here’s where you have to use your best judgment. You probably have some insight into what organizations are considered to be influential in your niche. These are the first websites you want to target in your link-building strategy.

Although, getting high-quality websites to link back to you is easier said than done.

There are different ways you can approach this. One way is to create extremely high-value content in your niche and publish it to your website. From there, you can share your content with your target website and hope they will link back to it. If the content is strong and they believe their own audience would find value in it, you have a good chance of earning a link back from them.

As you can imagine, this strategy requires a great deal of work and relationship building.

Another key factor that we know affects PageRank today is social media influence. Websites that are associated with strong social media profiles often see a bump in PageRank.

But what makes for a strong social media presence?

Again, we don’t know exactly what Google’s criteria is, but it would appear that audience size and more importantly engagement play a key role. Favorable reviews on social networking sites such as Facebook can also be beneficial.

When to Hire an Expert

The truth is that PageRank can be a complicated topic. Because of this, many website owners become frustrated and decide to ignore PageRank altogether. However, this could be a costly mistake.

We know that PageRank plays an important role in determining search results, but many of the methods for improving PageRank are complex and time-consuming. That’s why businesses can benefit from enlisting the help of a local SEO professional to help them improve their PageRank and overall presence on the web.

SEO strategies pertaining to PageRank and other factors are constantly changing. It’s understandable that you, as a business owner, don’t have the time to constantly adjust and pivot your SEO strategy.

That’s where we come in!

Our team of SEO experts can help you improve your PageRank and drive more traffic to your website. If you’ve been struggling to get visitors to your website for too long, give us a call today and book for free local SEO consultation.