PageRank vs. Search Engine Ranking, Discover the Difference!

As you look into improving your sites search engine ranking you will undoubtedly come across the term “PageRank” or as it is often referred to, PR.

It is important not to confuse PageRank with your web sites ranking within some search results, as they are completely different. Firstly when we use the term “ranking” we are referring to the position your web site, or web page, sits within a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). You not only need to consider the ranking of your “home page” in a SERP, but you also need to think about other pages within your site and how they will perform on a SERP.

There are many factors that can influence the ranking of your site in the SERP, including things like the content of your site or page. To go into specifics here on improving your ranking is beyond the scope of this article, but you’ll find many tips within all our articles.

The term PageRank refers to a distinctly Google concept. To quote Google: “Google runs on a unique combination of advanced hardware and software... The heart of our software is PageRank™, a system for ranking web pages... ”.

Essentially Google’s PageRank system is their effort to create a democratic way of defining a page’s value. It works so that if page A links to page B their PageRank system defines page A as giving page B a vote of confidence. Therefore it stands to reason that the more pages you have linking to a page you want ranking well, the higher PR you will receive. Pages that link to you with an already high PR will be more highly regarded by Google than those of a low PR.

High quality web sites will gain a higher PR, however this alone will not bring you the all-important rankings. If a page has a high PR, but its text does not match a query, then the PR is worth nothing and Google uses sophisticated methods to combine PR with text matching to define your ultimate SERP ranking. You can learn more about optimising the text on your site in some of our other articles.

How do you build your PR?

Obviously you need to get other web sites linking to you, including directory web sites. The are many ways to do this including adding your site to directory sites, link exchange programs and just getting out there and finding related web sites and asking them if they’d like to exchange a link. You’ll be amazed out how much you can achieve for free.

Now you know the inner workings of PR and rankings on SERP!

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