Hi Clare ~
From the way your question is worded, I suspect you may have some
misconceptions about Google's PageRank. Pardon my saying so, but I
find it a bit incongruous, inasmuch as one of the links you have on
the site it "Optimising your site for Google".
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Understand Google's PageRank
=============================
PageRank is determined by the number of links TO your website -- but
not just "any old links", either. It is determined also by the
"importance" or "relevancy" of those links to your site.
Google explains it precisely in "PageRank Information", which
describes its PageRank, how it comes about, why it may change from one
crawl to the next and answers some other common questions.
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html
Google says,
"Google's order of results is automatically determined by more than
100 factors, including our PageRank algorithm. Please check out our
"Why Use Google" page for more details. Due to the nature of our
business and our interest in protecting the integrity of our search
results, this is the only information we make available to the public
about our ranking system."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html
and in it's "Page Rank Explained",
" PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by
using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's
value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a
vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer
volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page
that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves
"important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages
"important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google
remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages
mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google
combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find
pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes
far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines
all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages
linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query."
- ://www.google.com/technology/index.html
Notice the reference Google makes to "important" and "high-quality
sites". In other words, a link from highly-ranked site to your site is
weighed more heavily than a link from a FFA (free for all) link site
(which is probably a link farm) or from another site's guest book.
Cultivating links from important sites to your own starts with having
a well-designed site yourself that is rich in content. There are
several things you can do with your own site with regard to design and
information to make it attractive to other sites you may want to link
to yours.
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Links to Your Site & PageRank
==============================
In "How Do I Get My Site Listed On Google?", Google explains
"Submission is not necessary and does not guarantee inclusion in our
index. Given the large number of sites submitting URLs, it's likely
your pages will be found in an automatic crawl before they make it
into our index through the URL submission form. We DO NOT add all
submitted URLs to our index, and cannot predict when or if they will
appear."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html
Google also states, "The best way to ensure Google finds your site is
for your page to be linked from lots of pages on other sites. Google's
robots jump from page to page on the Web via hyperlinks, so the more
sites that link to you, the more likely it is that we'll find you
quickly."
There are many practical ways of establishing links which are
beneficial to you in your endeavor to get respectable position
placement on search engines. These methods may take time, but they
also help in establishing credibility and help with your page rank.
Approach like-minded or complementary businesses about linking to your
site (with a reciprocal link from your own). This works without
harming search engine positioning or page rank.
Articles on Link Popularity
===========================
A couple highly recommended articles on how to establish the right
kind of links are available in Traffick's "Ten Steps to Building Links
to Your Site", Craig Fifield - 5/3/2002
- http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=77
and "The Right Way to Improve Link Popularity", By Paul J. Bruemmer -
4/14/2002 -
- http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=41
Notice both articles offer suggestions which can be easily adapted for
use on any website without resorting to link farms. They both point
out the differences and offer easy ways to get started to the kind of
linking search engines prefer.
So to answer your question, good design, relevant content and
cultivating important links will help increase your PageRank.
But remember, too, Google says, "Webmasters who spend their energies
upholding the spirit of the basic principles listed above will provide
a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking
than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can
exploit." (See Google's Quality Guidelines - Specific Recommendations)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
In other words, design for your visitor's optimum experience,
including the inclusion of good content, and links and PageRank will
follow.
If you have any questions about PageRank, feel free to ask.
Good luck!
Serenata |
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