Note: I thought about calling this post "Page Rank for Dummies." But you are not a dummy, are you? This article is a simplified, non-tech explanation for those who are new to blogging (or to the more technical aspects). If you want more thorough explanations, there are thousands of other sites to choose from. I’m just sharing what I’ve learned so far.
Your page rank is one major factor in your blog’s relative importance in a search engine’s rankings.
Does page rank matter? It depends. I have pages that get search engine hits despite being unranked (zero ranking). Why? Specific searches—if someone happens to search a specific term related to some of these pages/posts, my site is high on the list (in some search engines, my site/article maybe the only match).
I’ll explain further.
Placing #1 in Google is pretty simple. Just create a blog or post entitled "suicidal alien chiwawa." Give it a couple of weeks. Next time that term is searched, you have a good shot at being number 1.
The problem, of course, is the obscurity of the term. Not many will do a search about your depressed, extra-terrestrial dog.
Here’s where page rank comes in: a high page rank helps you compete in search engines for more common searches.
Here’s a simple graph which visually explains page rank:*
So how do you improve your page rank? Well, there’s a couple of things I’ve figured out so far:
1. Time: Search engines tend to "like" older sites (generally speaking). Here’s the idea—an older site is less likely to be someone just posting a spammy ad blog.
2. Backlinks: The more links there are to your blog, the higher your page will rank. It also helps if your link is on high-ranking blogs. I’ll explain more as I keep learning.
My advice: work on building your page rank, but don’t obsess over it. Page rank, like SEO, isn't an exact science. It's a little bit complicated, and I run across conflicting information.
Remember, you should be thinking long-term and focusing on high quality content.
By the way, I am trying some things to improve my page rank--I'll eventually let you know what I'm doing and if it is working.
By the way, you can check your page rank HERE.
*Graph is from http://www.smashingmagazine.com
