Google’s page rank is a popularly used term amongst SEO experts, website owners and online entrepreneurs. In simple terms Google page rank is the method Google evaluates the importance of a web page in producing search engine results pages (SERP). But this is not the only evaluation Google uses in producing the order of search results. So a higher page rank does not necessarily mean a top search rank on corresponding keywords for a web page.

What affects the page rank?

Google page rank is a yardstick to measure the links and the quality of them to a particular web page. In fact, reverse engineering of the previous statement is an established method in modern SEO techniques. Since pages with higher page ranks are more likely to be positioned well in SERP’s, a link building strategy is a must to achieve better SERP positions.Quality of the links matters

Many developers and site owners believe that quality incoming links are the secret for higher page ranks. Furthermore some believe that it is useless to have thousands of links from page-rank-nil web sites. The common belief is that quality yet natural links from authority sites are the ultimate key factor for Google to higher the page rank of a web page. Nevertheless, it is safe to assume that the number of links too have a certain impact on the page rank.

Undisclosed Algorithm

The problem with Google page rank is that nobody knows the algorithm behind this technology. In fact this was meant to safeguard the ethical site owners and developers, so Google’s undisclosed algorithm is more of a nuisance only for the black hat developers. Legitimate entrepreneurs might not bother with short cuts, although they might utilize link building strategies in optimizing their web sites.

Page rank scale

Google gives a rank of a number from 0-10 for each page that it indexes. For example a page rank of 10 being the maximum 0 is the lowest that Google assigns. However there are pages which have a nil page rank. In this case 0 is ranked higher than the nil ranked pages.

Natural approach

In the early days it was just the number of incoming links that used to determine the weight of a page. Gradually it came down to number of links plus the quality of incoming links to a page. Currently another condition has been added to the list, which is the natural factor of the links. This apparently pushes software generated artificial links out of the equation. As the Internet grows at the speed it is now, Google page rank and SERP technologies are best kept a secret in favor of the future of the Internet. Google page ranking methodology also ensures an advantage for the established websites in certain niches as new comers having to link back and refer to authority sites in their particular niche. However the Google’s page rank might evolve into a more sophisticated technology in the future.