How Google calculates your Page Rank

The buzz of excitement – and disappointment – around the blogosphere these few days are so real that whenever you’re blog hopping, the subject of Google PR Update keeps popping out. You’ll hear all the “cheers” and the “moans”. Some argued that whether it’s really worth the excitement.

To each his own, for me getting a PR is a recognition of all the hard SEO work I have done to my blog. It’s not as if the cash register is going to ring anytime soon but it’s that sense of satisfaction that what you have learned and applied does pay off finally.

It’s sure a boost to your ego a little bit with the new status but when the excitement is over, the real task is much harder later. I’m in the belief that getting a PR is easy but maintaining it is a different ball game altogether. A good friend of mine, Mr. Piss Biscuit (you’ll love this guy) wrote how not to screw up and lose your PR.

One notable example is One Mans Goal which has been slapped with PR0 and I’m feeling bad about it as I’d like to see Marc doing well after all the ridicules he has received when he first bought the site. If you aren’t in the know who Marc is, here’s an interesting article about how Marc is fighting back (you’ll love her too).

If you are new to the blogging arena and wondering what’s the buzz about this little thing called Page Rank, read on.

Google Pagerank or PR is a measure of any sites popularity based on Google kept-secret algorithm. The PR is an indication of certain authority to your site. One thing is certain is that your link popularity has the most significant importance in determining your PR. The theory is that the more backlinks you accumulate, the higher your PR is.

How it works is that Google will count how many external and internal links pointing to your site usually your main page and assign a rank from 1-10. The higher the rank, the more authority your site is. In case you have missed it, here’s the best places you can get quality backlink to jump start your link building and join the rank on the next update.

Jim from The Net Fool said 

This ranking metric is very important for blogs for many reasons, including reader participation, advertising rates and industry reputation.

The table below illustrates the approximate dependence of your page’s PR on the PR and quantity of pages that have links to it, and equivalence of a different number of pages with different PR.

* Approximate no. of links you need from pages with PR

[TABLE=2]

Source: TNX.net

For example, to get PR of 6 you need at least 555 links from PR 4 or one hundred links from PR 5. With the correct system of links to internal pages and main page within a site, you’ll get that PR much faster.

Disclaimer: The table above may be the most accurate calculation of how many backlinks you need to get that coveted PR but it’s sure a good benchmark to use for your link building.

Please remember as Jim from Jim Boykin’s Blog said

Getting a few of the right links, from the right places can be more valuable than getting 100 links from the wrong places.

Google Page Rank Formula:

PR(A) = (1 – d) + d * SUM ((PR(I->A)/C(I))

Where:

• PR(A) is the PageRank of your page A.
• d is the damping factor, usually set to 0.85.
• PR(I->A) is the PageRank of page I containing a link to page A.
• C(I) is the number of links off page I.
• PR(I->A)/C(I) is a PR-value page A receives from page I.
• SUM (PR(I->A)/C(I)) is the sum of all PR-values page A receives from pages with links to a page A