Google Ranking
What is a Google Ranking and why is it important?
A Google Ranking or more accurately a Google Page Ranking is a number between 1 and 10 that tells the reader how important Google thinks the page is in relation to the search term that was used.
Logically you would think that the higher the page rank the higher the listing would appear on the Google search list. Well actually that doesn’t happen. In fact many pages are considered so ‘unimportant’ they never actually even given a Google Ranking at all. What’s more the ‘Page’ in ‘Page Ranking’ refers to one of the original designers of the World Wide Web, Larry Page, and not the actual written web page.
So are you chasing a Google Page ranking or a Google Ranking?
A Google Page Rank is a score given by Google based on an algorithm and that algorithym is extremely complicated. Only about 3 companies have ever been given a perfect 10 and for a long while Google was not one of them (go figure). So a solid page rank is considered to be 4-6. Anything above 3 is not bad and below 2 is poor. Despite this pages with a Page rank of ZERO still appear first on many search lists? [image_frame image="http://bsmart.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Page-Rank-150x150.png" zoom="" alt="" width="" height="" float="right" ]
To understand why you need to understand why the Internet was first begun. Originally it was an academic exercise for scientific groups to share research data and results. In scientific circles when a key paper is produced many other researchers are given new ideas on how this ‘landmark’ research might apply to their particular area of interest. For example if a drug is found to have a good result with say ‘Breast Cancer’ a researcher interested in ‘Ovarian Cancer’ may see possibilities for its use also. As part of their research findings they will ‘reference’ the work done by the individual or team who made the original discovery relating to Breast Cancer. Obviously if the drug has potential for a great number of other cancer treatments then the original Breast Cancer research will be referenced hundreds or even thousands of times.
So whilst this is a great way to rank the importance of a scientific paper (i.e. how many researchers refer back to it) over time, the original research becomes less important. For example a researcher may still commonly reference a paper done 20 years ago as it was a ‘landmark’ discovery, but now (20 years later), several new drugs may have been found that have the same or better results with fewer side effects.
Understanding how the Google Ranking works is vital to getting your pages found!
For a small business getting a high page rank is a lot of work and thus a lot of money. Whereas gettin a great Google ranking is much less of a problem.
Even if you can get a higher Google Page Ranking you may still not rank in one of the first 3 places of the Google Ranking searches you wish to top. Assuming that you do get a great Page rank and assuming that does give you a top three spot in your chosen Google Rank you will still have to deal with competitors who are going to try to beat your page spot.
But how can your competitor possibly beat you high Page Rank with a page rank of ZERO?
How can they possibly beat you from the top spot given you have a great page rank of 4-6? The answer is relevance. What Google Panda did was establish relevance as one of the major contributors to the position your page will appear on its list. Google now acknowledge that a well referenced (a page with many backlinks) may not be the best page because ‘links’ can be bought, sold or simply created using a myriad of cheap and effective methods from computer programs to low paid workers in third world countries.
The great shortfall of Page Rank is in theory it should take years to build up because it is based on what the web was originally designed to do (i.e. recognise great scientific research). Unfortunately by the time a page scores a great rank it is often out of date. In addition you can’t update the page without impacting on the Page Rank so once you have a great ranking you really just have to leave it alone.
Worse still for Google links can be created in the thousands in literally seconds using:
- Money to simply pay ‘link builders’ to manually visit websites and add links.
- Computer programs to send out data.
- When a page goes ‘viral’.
The first two Google wants to stamp out. The last one, Google wants to find fast because that is the popular one everyone is looking for (e.g. Justin Bieber). Out of necessity it will therefore want to give the ‘popular viral’ page a top Google ranking. The problem for Google using ‘backlinks’ as a measure for it to use as a Google ranking tool is how can a computer program pick the difference between a ‘hot viral page’ and just an annoying ‘viral page’? [image_frame image="http://bsmart.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/google+-150x150.jpg" zoom="" alt="" width="" height="" float="right" ]
