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What is My Page Rank and How Do I Find It?

What is My Page Rank and How Do I Find It?

If you're reading articles about search engine optimization, PR and Page Rank are terms that come up a lot.  We know what you're thinking: “But what is my Page Rank, and what does it have to do with anything?”  The website Page Rank for your website is actually very critical to how your site does in searches, and this guide will help you become acquainted with it.  Keep reading, and you'll find out not only how to answer your “what is my Page Rank” question, but also how to find the website Page Rank for any site on the web and how to increase your PR value.

What is My Page Rank Used For?

Google uses your website Page Rank for a large number of things.  Perhaps the most important is determining how much link juice gets passed on with each of your links.  Websites with higher PR values start out with more link juice to pass around, and every link on a page dilutes the amount of link juice that it sends to each individual link.  The total amount of link juice you're getting from inbound links is the single biggest determining factor that Google uses to decide where your search rankings should be.

This alone makes it very important for people to ask “what is my Page Rank?” on a regular basis.  What makes it even more important is that tracking your Page Rank can help you understand whether your website is growing or shrinking in traffic compared to the growth of the web.  At any given time, only a set percentage of websites can have a particular PR value.  If your website Page Rank slowly lowers, it's probably because you're stagnating while other people are moving on and adopting successful search engine optimization strategies.

What is My Page Rank Calculated Based On?

According to Google, website Page Rank is based on a huge multitude of factors, and Google engineers are very tight lipped about which factors matter most.  We know that traffic matters, as well as how many links a website is receiving and whether those links come, themselves, from websites with high PR values.

Generally, you can build a high Page Rank website by focusing on contextual, high quality links and original content.  Your website Page Rank will depend in part on whether your content appears to be original or just reposts of things that you have found around the web.  You can think of it like this: higher Page Rank websites are the ones that Google believes people are most likely to find value in.  If you can make your website valuable, your Page Rank will increase.

How Do I Find My Website Page Rank?

Now you're probably wondering: “what is my Page Rank?”  There are several different tools that can help you find out.  The easiest to download and use is probably Google's own toolbar, which is updated only sometimes but can give you a quick and dirty idea of what your Page Rank looks like now.

If your website is relatively new, you may not be able to answer your “what is my Page Rank?” question quite yet.  It takes some time for Google to index new websites and start to assign them Page Rank numbers.  Be patient, and you'll be able to check your PR values within a few days or weeks.

What Is the Website Page Rank of Incoming Links?

If you want to find out the Page Rank of your incoming links so you can tell who is giving you the biggest amounts of link juice, you'll need an inbound link checker program.  Many of these tools now include a Page Rank check as part of the basic inbound link checking service they offer.

When too many of a website's links come from blogs, or from very low PR websites, it's very possible that Google will see this as deserving of an over optimization penalty.  If this happens, don't panic—just ask some of the people who have low PR links to your website to remove them if possible.  Before you know it, Google will stop penalizing you and your website will be as good as new.

What is My Page Rank Saying About My Website?

A PageRank that is increasing shows a rapidly growing website that is managing to outpace its competitors.  Keep in mind that because website Page Rank is a logarithmic scale, it takes herculean amounts of effort to move up in Page Rank once you've already attained a high level.  You may just want to settle for maintaining a PR level.

If your Page Rank level is decreasing slowly, you should step up your SEO efforts.  If it takes a sudden nosedive, you may want to ask Google what's going on—it may be that you have been impacted significantly by a recent algorithm change.

What is My Page Rank Change Caused By?

If you notice that your website Page Rank has changed appreciably since you last checked up on it, there can be several explanations.  One of the first things that you might want to do if you're wondering “what is my Page Rank doing?” is to check up on  your inbound link numbers.  One of the most common reasons for a website Page Rank to increase suddenly is an uptick in viral traffic.  You may have had a blog post or some other content go viral without even realizing it—that's the nature of the viral web world.

If your website Page Rank has dropped precipitously, that is definitely cause for alarm.  Typically, this kind of result comes from being penalized after a search algorithm update.  “What is my Page Rank being penalized for?” you may ask.  Well, that depends.  Have you been automating link building in order to artificially inflate your website Page Rank?  Have you been over optimizing using spam blog comments and non-contextual inbound links?  If you have, Google may see these as violations of Webmaster Guidelines that can be penalized with serious consequences for your website Page Rank.

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