Is Page Rank Important?
Introduction
You would not believe just how often I hear people ask if page rank is important, and also hear people talking generically about how page rank doesn't matter, and unfortunately most of the time when I read conversations about PR, I just hear PR doesn't matter, time and time again. No evidence, no debate, and a kind of religious fevour in their belief, without support. Just as bad are the people who claim that page rank IS important, but are equally stubborn about acknowledging what it actually is.
The truth of the matter is that while a high PR is not, by itself, going to get you to the number one spot of Google, Google Page Rank is important. What people do not understand is that Google Page rank is not as important as the actual 'trust' of a link.
Page Rank is just one calculation, providing one value, in a huge link matrix.
A PR6 site filled with spam links will be worth nothing compared to a PR3 site that is high quality, because Google looks at much more information than the PR a link provides. It judges the link source site on a wide range of factors to judge a number of 'quality' scores to decide just how valuable a link is.
So What is Page Rank Anyway?
Page Rank is simply a numerical display of the value of a page based on a number of factors, most importantly the number of backlinks, and their Page Rank value.
So let me point this out right now,
When people talk about the importance of backlinks, but say Google Page Rank is NOT important, they are contradicting themselves!
If you have read my Hub the Truth About Backlinks then you will see estimated graphs on the number of links of a particular value required to reach a certain page rank. It will also describe what backllinks actually are, if you are unclear on the subject!
Page rank may also alter based on other factors, if for isntance your site is flagged for malware, or spam, you may notice it changes to 'N/A' Which is also the base state for sites with next to no backlinks, or sites which have not yet been indexed.
Please be aware that while page rank is internally calculated in real time, the Google Toolbar display of Google Page Rank is updated only once every few months.
A little bit of information about this article.
All the information in this article has been taken from researching well known SEO experts websites, as well as combing the information which Google releases. Everything in this article has been investigated, rather than blanket statements which are often made by those who don't do the research.
Is Google Page Rank Important?
So Is Page Rank Important?
My view on Page Rank is pretty complex, and has come about from reading nearly a decades worth of articles from both Google, and reputed SEO experts. The simple answer is that Page Rank is often (But not always) an indicator of a high quality website.
Before I talk about how important Page Rank is however, first I need to talk about Backlinks.
Backlinks are just part of a complex formula which judges where your site is placed in relation to others for particular Keywords. While I would not say that backlinks are THE most important part of the formula which judges where a website is placed for a particular keyword, I do think it is highly important, especially in distinguishing two very similar articles with similar keywords, H tags and similar.
Since Google page rank is a numerical indication of these backlinks, it is a simple way of seeing how many backlinks a website has, and comparing your page rank to a competitors can help judge how many more backlinks they have in relation to your own website.
While Google plays down the importance of Page Rank (which is rumored to be down to PR link sales) they have also talked in the past as to how the PR value of each webpage is used as the numerical value in the Google ranking formula. So that digit you see in the Google toolbar, is part of the formula that ranks your website. To me that in itself is a pretty good answer to the question of is Google Page Rank important or not. Even if it is a small part of the formula, Google PR still gives a boost.
The Quality of Backlinks
Page rank is not really an indicator of the 'quality' of a backlink. It only really shows the number of backlinks a site has, and that is a pretty easy thing to forge. The quality of a site is often judged under 'Google Trust'. Google trust is not like page rank (a single calculated number) but instead it is a broad term for the huge array of values which Google use to judge how high quality your site really is.
A Link from a site with high Google Trust will be a high value backlink, and will even increase the 'trust' of your own site a little bit!
If Page Rank is Important How Do I Increase It?
Page Rank is best increased naturally, that means relying on people finding your site on Google, and deciding to link to your work.
Of course this is not ideal, so in some cases you need to artificially boost your page rank, at least until people find your site organically and link to it.
To artificially boost your page rank you can do things such as
- Create internal links
- Create new sites and create an external link network
- Create accounts on free sites such as Hubpages, Blogger, She Told Me, and This is Freelance, and create backlinks on them.
- Submit you site to several Do Follow websites
Before you know it your PR, and Traffic, will be on the increase.
If Page Rank is Important, Should I Buy High PR Links?
Link Buying is an often practiced way of boosting page rank, however my real advice is 'Don't Do It'.
Buying Links can often have adverse affects on a website, and if you do decide to buy links to improve your page rank and increase website traffic then you must make sure that they are from non-spam websites.
I would also advise against using link building services, which also can put your website in to a 'bad neighborhood'.
