Page Rank is a website ranking system created by the founders of the Google Corporation: Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Based on its own algorithm, this mathetmatical system "ranks" pages in various degrees of "importance" due to many combined factors; which in themselves are ranked in importance as well.

Page Rank grants a degree of importance for a web page by analyzing its composition, statistics and behaviors - as well as those of other pages that link to or relate to that page. It is represented in numerical format: with Page Rank 0 (or PR0) being the lowest possible rank, and Page Rank 10 (or PR10) being the highest.

Any legitimate internet marketer will tell you that Page Rank is "nothing but a number." Page rank and SERP (search engine results page) rankings have never been proven to be related. Therefore, Page Rank is not the be all, end all. Never concentrate your efforts on attaining a high page rank...but concentrate on creating content, and ultimately - a website of value.

Generally, pages start off as a "gray bar" or "N/A" ranking, which is lesser than zero. This states that not enough information has been gathered by Google to determine anything of significance about the page. Once the page has been spidered and analyzed for a few months, it can finally attain a Page rank of 0 (PR0) when it has been "recognized" by the search engine.

Most websites, through little promotional efforts, can attain a PR1 rather easily soon afterward. On average, web sites that have been live on the internet for 6 months or more generally get promoted to PR2 or PR3 as they gain more attention and/or links from other sites (known as backlinks).

Attaining a Page Rank of 4 or 5 becomes a challenge, as it requires a significant amount of lesser backlinks, or a number of high Page Ranked backlinks. The Page Rank difficulty scale continues to escalate. Generally, it is extraordinarily difficult to attain a Page Rank of 7 for the individual web master, and a near impossibility to attain a Page Rank of 8, 9 or 10 (such a feat is only seen in the web sites of major corporations and top global internet sites that have significant credibility). There is only a short list of elite websites that are PR10: including but not limited to Google.com, Yahoo.com, Microsoft.com.

The sure fire way to check your Page Rank is by using the Google Toolbar - it is a browser add-on that contains a graphical bar displaying the Page Rank of whatever site you're visiting.

There are several Page Rank checkers on the internet that also allow you to view your Page Rank; although the most accurate one is found on the Google Toolbar. It's good practice to always know that the Page Rank you see displayed anywhere (even on the Toolbar) may or may not be the real or actual Page Rank - which is hidden from the public, and is updated much more frequently than the publicly displayed Page Rank.

Note that while your home page may have a Page Rank of 3, the sub-pages of your site won't necessarily have the same Page Rank (theirs might be PR0, PR1, etc.)

Several methods of general web site maintenance and promotion will help boost a web site's Page Rank. However, do note that the true inner workings of the Page Rank system will never be fully released to the public, as it is a guarded and valued asset of the Google Corporation:

• Getting many backlinks (links pointing to your site), especially from high-profile, high page rank web sites, and other sites that are in the same general category of your site (such as education, entertainment, shopping, etc.) This is perhaps the most important method of all, in regard to attaining a high page rank.

• Having a unique web site with great content is always the correct path toward getting a higher Page Rank. Sites that are unique within a niche market get seen more often on search engines, get clicked and re-visited more, and are generally seen as "important" to search engines. Through a higher threshold of visits, clicks, and 3rd party link building to your site, the probability of attaining a higher rank will increase.

• Referrals, such as visitors who send your link to other people via email on a regular basis.

There are many misconceptions about Page Rank. Due to its mysterious, undisclosed nature - rumors will persist about how Page Rank is manipulated. However, many of them have been dispelled by Google professionals, and good old experience and trial & error:

• High page rank means a better chance of being listed high for search engine results. This is an untrue statement. In fact, it has been seen on numerous occasions to be untrue. On the contrary - there are times where sites listed high in search engine rankings have low page ranks, themselves!
• Three PR7 links will give your PR0 site a PR5. This is uncertain - some claim that several high Page Ranked backlinks will boost a website to a mid-level page rank itself. The sheer number of factors involved in the ranking of a page make this a difficult task to prove - or deny.
• PR 0 backlinks are worthless for attaining a higher Page Rank. This may not be true, as backlinks' strength lie in numbers. Many internet marketers suggest that a hundreds of PR 0 backlinks may result in your site's attainment of a PR1 or PR2.
• "Nofollow" marked links will not pass Page Rank to the site it links to. This is true - Google does not pass "credit" from one site to another, if a link is marked with the "Nofollow" value.