nPresence Resources - PageRank Algorithm

PageRank is one of the imperative factors that decide on a web page position in search results generated by search engines. PR rates a page from 0-10 depending on the inbound links that point to that page. It is easy to say that web page A is a PR4 or that web page B is a PR8, but how does Google arrive with 4 and 8 ranks? This question will be answerable with algorithm and mathematical procedures.

How a Page Rank is Calculated

Below is an illustration of the original PageRank algorithm as described by Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin and this is the formula that was published during the time when PageRank is just being developed:

PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))

References
PR(A) is the PageRank of page A
PR(Ti) is the PageRank of pages Ti which link to page A
C(Ti) is the number of outbound links on page Ti
d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1

Web Page A’s PR = 0.15+0.85 ( “share” of the PR of pages that links to A)

What does “Share” stands for? Share refers to the PR of the page casting the link divided by the total number of outbound links present on that page. Each inbound link that a certain page has corresponds to a certain amount of PR. However, the PR value is separated equally to each link. So say, the linking page has a PR 5 value and it has 50 outbound links on the page, each page will get a mere 5/50 PR value. Remember that the more outbound links the linking page has, the lesser the PR value that you will get from it.

One important thing to consider in PageRank understanding is that the page casting the link is not actually giving away its own PR – remember that inbound links is not a transfer of PR. It just more like a vote or a recommendation for the page it linked to.

To start the process, the existing PR of a certain page is discarded completely while a new calculation is done. The calculation depends on the PR voted for by its current inbound links. This must be done since the inbound links may have already changed since the time the page’s PR was calculated.

A web page comes up with a PR value after thorough calculation. This may be a complicated and a trivial process, nevertheless, it pays to know how your web page ends up with a particular PR value.

What is your page’s PR? Need to increase it? Please see our SEO Services or contact our SEO Specialists.

PageRank Algorithm

How a Page Rank is Calculated

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