Donna Warren's Writing Portfolio - Sample Technical Writing Article

Google Page Rank
by Donna Warren

As a search engine, google is trying to provide web surfers the most relevant content it can find related to the search terms a user types. To accomplish this, they have developed a set of criteria to determine the importance of each website. There are dozens of factors considered.

Originally keywords and page rank were the only factors in determining where a web site was listed in the search engine. But as webmasters found more and more ways to dishonestly get high rankings (meaning the site content had nothing to do with the search terms), the number and complexity of the criteria increased.

Page Rank is one of the factors Google uses to determine a web page’s relevance or importance. Of course it is only one small part of the overall list of criteria that google uses to rank websites. But, page rank is still an import factor.

Web pages are ranked on a scale from 0 to 10. The formula used to calculate the web site’s rank is actually pretty simple and based on a mathematical concept called distribution normalization. According to a paper written by google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page (http://www-db.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html),

Page Rank= (normalization factor) + (damping factor)* SUM (incoming links/outgoing links)

The normalization factor guarantees that no page is ranked below zero and the damping factor prevents a page from being ranked too high because it has a lot of incoming links. The “SUM” in the formula means that the ratio produced by dividing incoming links by outgoing links for each page on the website is added together.

Page rank is based on the idea that each incoming link to a page is a “vote” of support for that web page and that outgoing link is vote of support for another web page and reduces the influence of the incoming links.

So, now that you understand what page rank is, how does a web site owner increase their page rank?

You can use some or all of the following methods:

Create content pages – Add content relevant to your sites main products, services or information topic. Link all of these pages together using normal navigation links. By normal, I mean html text links so the search engine spyders can read and follow them. If you make sure each page has more incoming links that outgoing links, you will increase your internal page ranks.
Provide one-way incoming links – Create a free product with a link back to your site. For example, phpBB, which is free forum software program, carries a link in the forum footer that says “Powered by pphBB” and contains a hyperlink to their web site.
Write articles – Submit your articles to article directories and allow others to use them on their websites as long as they leave the link back to your site intact.
List your site in resource directories- Register your site with sites that have resource directories that don’t require you to provide a reciprocal link.

Google has recently added a new algorithm that determines the relevance of the incoming links to the web sites main content to decide whether to count them in calculating page rank. This new requirement was adopted to prevent web site owners from buying non-relevant links from other websites solely to increase their page rank.

The criteria keep changing as webmasters discover more ways the “trick” the search engines.

Bottom Line: Tricking the search engines only works for a little while. No matter how you achieve a high page rank, it may only be temporary because the maximum Page Rank of all web pages on the internet changes on the 21st of each month when Google does its re-indexing.

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Google Page Rank by Donna Warren As a search engine, google is trying to provide web surfers the most relevant content it can find related to the search terms a user types. To accomplish this, they have developed a set of criteria to determine the importance of each website. There are dozens of factors considered. Originally keywords and page rank were the only factors in determining where a web site was listed in the search engine. But as webmasters found more and more ways to dishonestly get high rankings (meaning the site content had nothing to do with the search terms), the number and complexity of the criteria increased. Page Rank is one of the factors Google uses to determine a web page’s relevance or importance. Of course it is only one small part of the overall list of criteria that google uses to rank websites. But, page rank is still an import factor. Web pages are ranked on a scale from 0 to 10. The formula used to calculate the web site’s rank is actually pretty simple and based on a mathematical concept called distribution normalization. According to a paper written by google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page (http://www-db.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html), *Page Rank= (normalization factor) + (damping factor) SUM (incoming links/outgoing links) The normalization factor guarantees that no page is ranked below zero and the damping factor prevents a page from being ranked too high because it has a lot of incoming links. The “SUM” in the formula means that the ratio produced by dividing incoming links by outgoing links for each page on the website is added together. Page rank is based on the idea that each incoming link to a page is a “vote” of support for that web page and that outgoing link is vote of support for another web page and reduces the influence of the incoming links. So, now that you understand what page rank is, how does a web site owner increase their page rank? You can use some or all of the following methods: Create content pages – Add content relevant to your sites main products, services or information topic. Link all of these pages together using normal navigation links. By normal, I mean html text links so the search engine spyders can read and follow them. If you make sure each page has more incoming links that outgoing links, you will increase your internal page ranks. Provide one-way incoming links – Create a free product with a link back to your site. For example, phpBB, which is free forum software program, carries a link in the forum footer that says “Powered by pphBB” and contains a hyperlink to their web site. Write articles – Submit your articles to article directories and allow others to use them on their websites as long as they leave the link back to your site intact. List your site in resource directories- Register your site with sites that have resource directories that don’t require you to provide a reciprocal link. Google has recently added a new algorithm that determines the relevance of the incoming links to the web sites main content to decide whether to count them in calculating page rank. This new requirement was adopted to prevent web site owners from buying non-relevant links from other websites solely to increase their page rank. The criteria keep changing as webmasters discover more ways the “trick” the search engines. Bottom Line:** Tricking the search engines only works for a little while. No matter how you achieve a high page rank, it may only be temporary because the maximum Page Rank of all web pages on the internet changes on the 21st of each month when Google does its re-indexing. Copyright 2005, Donna Warren, All Rights Reserved [home] [category index page] [contact me]