In a previous post, I said that I would address Google’s PageRank and sort it out for you; what it really is and not is.
It’s PageRank, not SiteRank.
Google calculates your PageRank by looking at the quality and amount of back links, to a particular page. Since many people only link to the main page of a domain, it will also get the highest rank, of all your pages.
However, it is possible that a subpage of your blog can outrank its main page, as well.
Let’s say that you write a truly striking post on how to cure a terrible illness, and both CNN PR 8 and Wikipedia PR 9, would link to that post from their main page, then you can be certain that your post would outrank your main page.
Therefore, when it comes to blog commenting and SEO, you should look at the PR of a particular post, not just the main page, to increase your chances of getting some PR juice out of it.
The same goes for directories, only submit to directories with PR on their actual category pages. That way you’ll get the most out of the boring submitting routine.
High PR = High placement?
PageRank is just one of over 200 factors that determine your placement in the search results, therefore a high PR alone, does not automatically equals a higher placement.
If you have Google toolbar installed in your browser, you can check this yourself. Just do a couple of random searches and look at the PR, of the sites that comes up on the first page. Chances are that you will see sites with very low PR, outranking sites with much higher PR.
The reason for this is, simplified; that Google’s algorithm will present what it thinks is the best content available, for a particular set of keywords and not just the page with the highest PR.
There’s a reason behind the phrase, content is king, you know.
Google only updates PR every few months.
Just because the PR in the Google toolbar updates every few months, doesn’t mean that your actual PR just changes then. The truth is that your PR changes frequently, but Google has decided only to reveal it, every couple of months, through their toolbar.
How to Increase Your PR
A solid way, to increase your blog’s PR is to post good, relevant content and gain quality back links from authority sites, with an established high PR.
Make sure that your content is original, well written and with correct spelling and grammar. You can bet that Google can distinguish the difference between a handcrafted article and a spam article made by an article spinner!
Don’t bother to gather many links from low quality sites, your own sites, or even worse, buy links. Google will just ignore them and in worst-case scenario, ban your site or lower your rankings considerably, instead.
In addition, you should also be very fussy, with what type of sites you link to, from your blog. Only link to sites, in your own niche and that you feel gives value to the visitor.
I hope that you have learned a bit more about what PageRank actually is from this post and understand why they say, content is king.