Building Your PageRank

Google’s PageRank is probably the most observed, mysterious, important, and craved statistic in the entire online marketing field. This might be especially true among the vast numbers of entrepreneurs, Webmasters, small businesses, medium businesses, thriving businesses, struggling businesses, online stores, service sites, and other enterprises not up to the level of clout enjoyed by Amazon.com, eBay, Yahoo!, and other Internet juggernauts. For nearly all online ventures, visibility in Google is a marketing imperative — and PageRank determines a site’s visibility. PageRank is the result of Google’s internal ranking algorithm. (You can view a crude version of any site’s PageRank by calling up that site while running the Google Toolbar.)

 

Although PageRank’s formulas and specific results aren’t publicized, enough is known about it — partly through trial and error, and partly through Google’s sparse proclamations — to catalyze entire marketing niches devoted to raising a site’s PageRank. The value of improving a site’s PageRank lies in positioning: Highly ranked pages appear close to the top of Google’s search results lists. Positioning is determined also by which search page is being displayed, and there are as many unique search pages as there are keyword combinations. The goal is to place your site high on search results pages that closely correlate with your site’s subject. A high PageRank always boosts a site’s position relative to similar sites. Jockeying for position in search engines is not a new sport. To the contrary, Webmasters have engaged in the contest for high search-result positions for years.

 

Google’s increasing dominance in the field has concentrated the most meaningful screen real estate onto a single engine’s result pages, and competition for that space has become ferocious. Winning techniques have become more demanding, precise, and artful. The field of search engine optimization (SEO) covers other engines besides Google, but much more attention is paid to Google’s search results than to those of any other single engine. Competition for Googlespace is cruel. Broad subject areas such as music, news, or baseball are jammed with major industrial sites, and breaking into the rarefied atmosphere clotted with corporate behemoths such as MTV.com, CNN.com, and MLB.com is, for the most part, impossible. Google’s default display setting shows only 10 results on the user’s search page. (This setting can be extended to 100 listings, but many people don’t bother.)

 

Google’s reputation for delivering the best sites, fast, discourages casual searching beyond the first page. So the pressure is on to break into the top 10. The good news is that getting near the top of the list is doable for narrower, precisely targeted subjects. It’s not unusual for sole proprietors of commercial sites to score the top position in a Google search of targeted keyword phrases. Google strives to be, and largely is, democratic. The ranking of Google search results is based on merit and popularity. Any Web site, large or small, can gain favorable positioning by leveraging good content, diligent networking, and smart optimizing.

 

Incoming Links and PageRank

 

One key to higher PageRank is getting linked on other sites. PageRank is a complicated algorithm, and largely a secret one, but Google acknowledges that the number of links pointing to a site is the largest single factor of that site’s PageRank. The two major marketing efforts to undertake when building your business with Google are creating incoming links and optimizing your site. In theory, any single page currently crawled by Google (that is, currently in the index) that links to your page or site is enough to send Google’s spider crawling toward you. In practice, you want as many incoming links as possible, both to increase your site’s chance of being crawled (which sounds a little creepy) and to improve your site’s PageRank once in the index.

The dual role of networking

 

Links from one site to another not only help Google find a target site when it is new but also contribute to the target site’s PageRank. Among other considerations, Google’s ranking algorithm measures each page’s popularity based on the number of other pages that link to it. The theory is that if Page A puts up a link to Page B, there must be something worthwhile on Page B. If 100 sites link to Page B, the target page becomes more worthy in Google’s eyes. If 100,000 links to Page B are scattered around the Web, Page B must really have something going for it. From Google’s viewpoint, Page B must have special value to Google’s users, and therefore deserves higher positioning on the search results page when it matches the search keywords. Google doesn’t rely totally on counting backlinks, by any means. Many other page-analysis calculations take place when determining PageRank. Even the counting of backlinks is more complex than it seems at first, because Google also evaluates the worthiness of the referring pages (the pages linking to Page B) to determine how important those backlinks are.

 

The outcome of all this evaluation, from the user’s viewpoint, is a sense of the living network underlying all Web pages and sites. No single page in the Google index exists in isolation — they’re all embedded in a deeply complex matrix of connectivity. For the Webmaster and online marketer, Google offers a glimpse into the effectiveness of any site’s networking, and the status it enjoys among its peers. Developing incoming links (from other pages to yours) is a major part of the Google optimization process. Online entrepreneurs seeking to drive traffic to their sites through Google spend immense portions of their development time networking. This networking is accomplished the old-fashioned way — by introducing oneself and talking to other Webmasters — and also through more impersonal means. The following section discusses human networking; I cover link exchanges, which are less personal, in the section after that. Human Networking Building a link network by hand, as it were, involves contacting other sites, introducing yourself, and asking to be linked — it’s as simple as that.

 

Offering to link back in return smoothes the way to a reciprocal agreement in many cases, but the willingness to trade links doesn’t mean you should approach other sites indiscriminately. Keeping your network relevant to the topic of your site has two benefits: First, you are more likely to succeed when you have something of value to offer — namely, the relevance of your site. Other Webmasters are more interested in trading links with sites likely to send traffic their way, and that sort of traffic-sharing happens mostly among related sites. Second, placing irrelevant outgoing links on your pages devalues your own site. Diluting the editorial focus of your page (and yes, even a single link undermines that focus) is always a poor optimization move. Google notices, too; the spider examines outgoing and incoming links with remarkable fastidiousness. Irrelevant links tend to lower the PageRank of your page and the pages you link to. Exchanging links is sometimes a simple and courteous agreement. More substantial alliances might include sharing content. If you run a site about dogs and come across a great article about how to train garden-trampling Labradors, you could offer to trade an article of your own in exchange for the right to post the lab article. Each article would contain a link to the originating page. Broadly speaking, you want incoming links to point to your top page, or index page. The danger of requesting that incoming links point to inner pages that exactly match the topical focus of the other site is that you could end up with an unfocused network of incoming links aimed at various pages all over your site. From the PageRank-building perspective, such a diverse backlink situation does you little good. There’s nothing wrong with putting attention on an important inner page and cultivating its individual PageRank.

 

The point is to gather your efforts into a PageRank campaign likely to raise the stature of your most important business content in Google. In most cases, that means getting your main page, the one with navigation links to all your other pages, as high as possible in Google’s search results for relevant keywords. Working the Link Exchanges Link exchange sites offer a formal method of exchanging links, with an emphasis on raising Google PageRank. The best of these clearinghouses function also as topical directories built by participating sites that submit their links. In a nutshell, link exchange sites work by supplying an outgoing link to your site (an incoming link, or backlink, from your perspective) and asking for an incoming link from you in return. There is sometimes no standard of acceptance, application process, or human communication between you and the link exchange. You simply type your site information into a form, and within a short time the link to your site is created. You have an informal obligation to return the favor at your site, which, when multiplied by the many participants in the exchange, helps raise the PageRank of the link exchange site. Most link exchanges operate free of charge to the participants. Although the preceding description covers many bases, the link exchange field is complicated.

 

Two major variations are prevalent:

 

Paid link building.

 

Certain online marketing companies specialize in building incoming link networks for their clients. Ideally, they approach high-quality sites with strong relevance to the client site (in other words, similar sites with high PageRank), and request placement of a link to the client site. Content exchange is usually not involved. These services act as agents on your behalf and work best when your site is good enough to benefit other sites by linking to you.

 

Link farms.

 

These exchanges build vast numbers of outgoing links with indiscriminate disregard for topicality or any sort of editorial policy. Only a fine line distinguishes legitimate link exchanges that accept site information automatically and link farms. Google doesn’t like link farms. Remember that Google’s spider has an inclusive robotic eye with great peripheral vision. It sees the truth about link connections and their honesty. Building your backlink network around link farms can do you little good and might penalize your PageRank. Google claims to distinguish link farms from meaningful link exchanges, and generally discourages using any kind of link exchange site that contains no content besides the links to build PageRank. Choose carefully.

 

The more editorial discretion exercised by the site, the more legitimate it probably is. Use exchanges that maintain a tight topical focus in your field. A general rule is: The more personal the link exchange, the more valuable the incoming link. Link exchanges work on the principle that a rising tide lifts all boats. If the exchange site benefits from a high PageRank (thanks to dozens of incoming links from participating sites), its enhanced stature in Google bolsters the PageRank of each participating site. The best and most honorable link exchanges concentrate their networks in one certain field, in which case the rising tide is lifting the boats of sites that naturally are in competition. The mutual benefit is well and good, but the challenge remains to distinguish oneself from the high-floating crowd and keep ascending on the search results page. When assessing link exchanges, select sites with a reasonably high PageRank — say, 4 or higher. The higher PageRank benefits your own PageRank when Google evaluates the backlink. A high PageRank also provides a kind of Google “stamp of approval,” which might not be forthcoming at a less reputable link farm.

 

Publishing articles Everybody needs content. If you’re in the process of building a site or even optimizing an existing site, you know how difficult it can be to generate sufficient focused editorial content to make your pages interesting. Even hardcore transactional sites, such as online bookstores, surround their product descriptions with a good deal of editorial content. So whatever you have, somebody else probably wants to use it. By the same token, you might be casting a greedy eye on articles you spotted on competing sites. Article trading is a sophisticated type of link exchange. Each article has several potential links that might or might not target the same destination: First, the article’s byline (which tells the reader who wrote the article) may be presented in the form of a link to your site. Second, an attribution link (which describes who the author is and where the author’s site is located) usually contains a link to your site. Third, you may embed links to your site directly in the article text — but don’t do so gratuitously. Link to pages in your site that enhance the article.

 

Even if you don’t have articles to trade, nothing is stopping you from asking to use articles you spot elsewhere. If the other site’s Webmaster is concerned with Google PageRank (and who isn’t?), he or she might be very glad to give you access to get the backlink.

Article submission sites provide another venue in which your content can easily be published outside your own site, creating backlinks. Some of these sites are article farms, which accept every article posted to them and freely redistribute all articles it publishes. Check out the terms of submission, if you don’t want your article being reused elsewhere. Some submission sites exist for the main purpose of making posted articles available to other visitors; they are sites you visit to get content as well as give it. Another type of submission site presents articles as information, not as available content. Keep a log of your article submissions.

 

Submitting the same article to one location twice is frowned upon, even if done unintentionally. If you’re branded a spammer at a submission site, you might be barred from submitting to that site again. E-zines are fertile ground, too. Don’t count on getting paid for an e-zine acceptance; that’s not your purpose, anyway. Most e-zines are published as Web pages, even if they’re also produced in alternative, non-HTML formats. So your published article would most likely get crawled, and your attribution link and byline would add to your backlink network.

 

E-zines do not generally offer automated submission and acceptance. They are human-run publications for the most part, with editorial guidelines and standards. Human-run sites are always the best bet. The more prestigious the site in its field, the greater value there is in being published on that site. Shoot for the top, even if multiple submissions and rewrites are required to get an article accepted. Improving your articles makes your own site better, and when your site improves, high-quality sites are more willing to link to it. Nothing stops you from submitting rejected articles to less demanding sites while you continue to strive for prestigious publication.

 

Posting messages with linked sig files

 

A sig file is an enhanced signature that appears at the bottom of e-mails and publicly posted messages. The most elaborate of these digital calling cards contain the sender’s name, e-mail address, Web URL, phone numbers, postal address, IM screen name, a favorite quotation, and some clever ASCII art. Voluminous sigs are frankly annoying. But short sigs that convey the sender’s essential coordinates are accepted everywhere, and they serve the added function of creating backlinks to your site from wherever you post them. Any Web-based bulletin board is fertile ground to plant a linked sig. But for the well-being of the Internet community, and for the sake of your good standing with the Google spider, remember these points:

 

Stay on topic. Few online behaviors are worse than spamming, which, in this context, means posting identical (or even differing) messages to multiple boards in utter disregard of the topicality of the boards. Doing so damages your optimization goals, spreads ill will about your site, and gets you flamed. Find the community sites in your field and join them — not just to plant links but to engage in the flow of conversation. Don’t post ads, even if they are topical. Posting good content is the best way to get people clicking your sig link.

 

Usenet doesn’t count. Usenet newsgroups, the native bulletin-board structure of the Internet, can be fun, informative, and good builders of traffic. But they are not part of the World Wide Web, and Google’s Web spider does not crawl them. There’s nothing wrong with spreading your link sig around Usenet, but it’s not a PageRank strategy. True, Google maintains a Web-based archive of Usenet newsgroups (called Google Groups), but current wisdom has it that Google doesn’t crawl its own Google Groups for the Web index.

 

Check the host’s PageRank. One consideration when choosing communities in which to get involved is PageRank. (Use the Google Toolbar to see any page’s rank on a 0-to-10 scale.) Of course, low-ranked message boards might offer other values that appeal to you.

 

Don’t submit message pages to Google. Google accepts URL submissions for inclusion in the index. Some marketing professionals suggest submitting every single messageboard page that contains your link, in an effort to hasten the inclusion of your entire backlink network. Don’t do this. You’ll drive Google crazy, and you’ll drive yourself to the grave.

 

Meaningless backlinks Ideally, a link from one site to another is an endorsement. This ideal harks back to the Web in its infancy, when most pages (created by college students, naturally) were simple link lists — personal bookmarks shared with the world. Google’s PageRank algorithm starts with this ideal. The formula supposes that if Page A links to Page B, Webmaster A endorses the content of Page B. This ideal is alive and well on millions of sites but has also degraded to the point of becoming meaningless on other sites. Even when an endorsement is genuine, new page-generating technologies have challenged Google’s algorithm through massive replication of linked endorsements. One example is found in Weblogs (blogs). Blogs often carry suggested links to other blogs, which in turn link back, and all blog sites in this mutual admiration network generate new pages at astonishing rates. Gigantic, incestuous backlink networks result from blog exchanges. This situation has caused Google to tweak its algorithm, and it now weighs Weblog backlinks with a sensitivity to the automated technology involved. (Google owns Blogger.com, one of the most popular Weblog hosts, so the company is clearly not anti-blog.) Meaningless backlinking can be seen also in sites that generate their own backlinks. This tactic is accomplished by creating hundreds of content-poor pages that link to the site’s main pages. Naturally, standard navigation design creates ingrown backlink structures, as inner pages link back to top pages, and vice versa. Google’s spider tackles this phenomenon by using sophisticated content analysis and can identify in-house link farms fairly easily. Google takes PageRank integrity seriously and does not hesitate to ban a site from the index if it tries to cheat the honest link-building process.

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