Google's PageRank Formula Unwrapped
A friend of mine sent me this article. Some parts may be missing, and I don't have a URL to the original article, but it still contains some interesting info. Web developers out there should check this out, especially if you have a web site and would like to be ranked high in Google. Seems like the author did a little hacking himself to figure this out. :) Enjoy.
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Google's PageRank© Formula Unwrapped
...Google's proprietary PageRank© system is used to determine how relevant
your site is. We have uncovered some of what makes Google tick.
First, to view your site's PageRank©, simply download the Google Toolbar
for Internet Explorer, and visit your sites home page. Ironically, while
we researched Google we stumbled upon the formula by conducting a search
in Google.
The original* PageRank formula:
PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))
For math wizards: PR(x) is the PageRank of x, C(x) is the number of
outbound links on a page x, d is a damping factor set between 0 and 1 and
is controlled by Google.
For the rest of us: Your site's PageRank is almost completely dependent
upon links to your site, backward or reverse links, reduced, to some
degree, by the total number of links to other sites on that page. A link
to your site will have the highest amount of impact on your PageRank if:
1) The page linking to yours has a high PageRank. 2) The total number of
links on that page is low, ideally, just the one link to your site. A site
with a high PageRank and a large number of outbound links can nullify the
impact on your PageRank.
(and THAT is how they nullify all of the Link Exchange sites)
To increase your PageRank, simply get as many links to your site from
pages with a high PageRank and a low number of total links. Theoretically
you can obtain a PageRank of 100% . You can also increase your PageRank by
attaining many links to your site, no matter what their PageRank, as long
as they are ranked. This is a good overall strategy since it will help you
across the board.
Another contributing factor to your site's Google ranking is the IR score.
This score relates the relevance of the search query to the actual text in
the linking page and your site. One of IR factors is the anchor text, or
the text in the link to your page. According to a Google's creator,
"Anchors often provide more accurate descriptions of web pages." Thus, for
sites that allow you to add URLs be sure to put a link title with
descriptive keywords. Google also uses your page title, font sizes,
formatting, keyword positions, and proximity. Remember this though:
Computers determine the search results, but it's humans that will, or
won't, click on the links, so be sure titles with keywords make sense.
In Summary: Whether it is Google, other search engines or pay-per-clicks,
the meticulous selection of key-phrases, and descriptions utilizing these
key-phrases, are crucial to successful Web marketing campaigns. The final
piece, probably the most important to determine ROI, is a tracking system
to inform marketing personnel if the clicks being generated with any
campaign result in sales. There are many campaign variables that even
though you produced a 5% click-through rate, might still not result in
sales.
* The formula was located by co-author Pete Freitag. This was the original
formula and it has likely evolved since the Google founders were at
Stanford. But the same premise holds that your importance is dependent
strongly upon what others say about you via how they link to you. It is,
in my opinion, quite ingenious, and Google is one of the most important
tools utilized by my staff for many purposes.
