The way search engines work appear to be a mystery to the man on the street. How do they decide which websites are displayed first in the search engine rankings? What makes one website more popular than the next? What can the website owner do to optimize their websites for search engines?
In this article we explore what the PageRank of a website is, why some websites have lower PageRank than others, and what you can do to improve the PageRank of your website.
Some search engines look at the keyword density of a webpage, in other words, how many times a certain keyword is used throughout the webpage. A mathematical equation is then used where the amount of keywords on the webpage is factored with the location of the keyword to determine the ranking of the webpage.
Other search engines look at the number of inbound links (links from other websites) to a webpage to determine how the webpage is rank. This process is called link analysis. Search engines regard an incoming link as a way that one website recommends the other website. An inbound link can be seen as "word of mouth" advertising for a website, much in the same way that a person would recommend a product or supplier to someone else.
Keyword searches and link analysis from part of the procedure called search engine optimization - the art of making a website attractive to search engines. The more attractive a website appears to the search engine, the higher it will rank and in the world of internet searches, nothing is as important as ranking!
Google is currently regarded as the internet search engine preferred and used by most users, with Yahoo! as the second favourite. Therefore it makes sense to focus on getting your website in Google's good books! Google's preferred form or search engine optimization is called PageRank.
PageRank is based on the link analysis algorithm. This algorithm assigns a numerical weight to each individual element (page) of a hyperlink set of documents (website). The purpose is to measure the element's importance with the set. The number (numerical weight) assigned to each element is called the PageRank - the denotation of PR is often used.
The PageRank "system" is in effect a "vote of confidence" system. Each time that a Google sees a hyperlink to a webpage, it is seen as a vote that supports the webpage. Therefore the more votes the page receive, the better for the page's PageRank. If your website has no inbound links it will therefore not receive any votes, which will mean poor performance on Google.
The good news is thus that your website's PageRank is not totally beyond your control! By following the basic rules of search engine optimization, you can improve your website's PageRank and in turn improve your website's performance on the search engines. The search engine optimization basics include proper keyword density, inbound links, and keeping your website content current!
Remember that with search engines, nothing happens overnight… Search engine optimization is a long and interesting process, but with a bit of patience good results are in your reach!
Author Resource:
The website Tailormade4you offers Search Engine Optimisation services to small and medium businesses, as well as Web design and Web Hosting services.
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