NET WORLD ROVER: April 2008

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Why? - Page Rank

What is Page Rank ?

In short Page Rank is a "vote", by all the other pages on the Web, about how important a page is. A link to a page counts as a vote of support. If there's no link there's no support (but it's an abstention from voting rather than a vote against the page).

How is Page Rank Used?

Page Rank is one of the methods Google uses to determine a page's relevance or importance. It is only one part of the story when it comes to the Google listing, but the other aspects are discussed elsewhere (and are ever changing) and Page Rank is interesting enough to deserve a paper of its own.

Page Rank is also displayed on the toolbar of your browser if you've installed the Google toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/). But the Toolbar Page Rank only goes from 0 - 10 and seems to be something like a logarithmic scale:

Toolbar Page Rank:

(log base 10) Real Page Rank

0 0 - 10
1 100 - 1,000
2 1,000 - 10,000
3 10,000 - 100,000
4 and so on...

We can't know the exact details of the scale because, as we'll see later, the maximum PR of all pages on the web changes every month when Google does its re-indexing! If we presume the scale is logarithmic (although there is only anecdotal evidence for this at the time of writing) then Google could simply give the highest actual PR page a toolbar PR of 10 and scale the rest appropriately.

Also the toolbar sometimes guesses! The toolbar often shows me a Toolbar PR for pages I've only just uploaded and cannot possibly be in the index yet!

What seems to be happening is that the toolbar looks at the URL of the page the browser is displaying and strips off everything down the last "/" (i.e. it goes to the "parent" page in URL terms). If Google has a Toolbar PR for that parent then it subtracts 1 and shows that as the Toolbar PR for this page. If there's no PR for the parent it goes to the parent's page, but subtracting 2, and so on all the way up to the root of your site. If it can't find a Toolbar PR to display in this way, that is if it doesn't find a page with a real calculated PR, then the bar is greyed out.

Note that if the Toolbar is guessing in this way, the actual PR of the page is 0 - though its PR will be calculated shortly after the Google spider first sees it.

PageRank says nothing about the content or size of a page, the language it's written in, or the text used in the anchor of a link!

Definitions

I've started to use some technical terms and shorthand in this paper. Now's as good a time as any to define all the terms I'll use:

PR:
Shorthand for PageRank: the actual, real, page rank for each page as calculated by Google. As we'll see later this can range from 0.15 to billions.

Toolbar PR: The PageRank displayed in the Google toolbar in your browser. This ranges from 0 to 10.

Backlink: If page A links out to page B, then page B is said to have a "backlink" from page A.

Visit us:
http://www.halfvalue.com/top-articles/seo-resources.html

The author is a regular contributor to halfvalue.com where more information about SEO Resources and other more accessories is available.

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

How to Improve Page Rank!

PageRank is one of more than 100 factors Google uses in the ranking of you website and your resulting position on their search engine. You get PageRank (PR) by having backward links from other website pages that have a higher PR rating than your site page the link is to. The PR of your site is updated about once of month when Google updates their database of web pages.

For example if you have a backward link from a site that has a PR of 5, some of that PR be will transfered from their website to your website page they linked to. These links are called backlinks.Sites with high PageRank will get crawled by the search engine bots more often, and the crawls will be deeper.

While Google takes into consideration the PageRank of your site, high PR doesn't always equate to a higher Search Engine Results Position (SERP). You can have high PR and have a low SERP on a certian keyword phrase, while some other site can have low PR but have a high SERP on the same keyword phrase.

In your pursue for a high PR keep in mind that numerous relevant keyword anchor texted backlinks will get you a higher SERP than just raw high PR and that with numerous relevant keyword anchor texted backlinks will come PR.

You aim shouldn't be just for high PR, but for proper backlinks that will bring with them a higher PR.

Page Rank Algorithm:

The following will give you an idea of how many inbound links and what PR those inbound links need to be, for you to obtain the desired PageRank for your pages. The following pagerank algorithm equation is the relationship between two pages A and B, with the below example page A receiving an inbound link from page B.

PR-A = (0.15) + (0.85 x PR-B / TOL-B)

PR-A is the PageRank of Page A, PR-B is the PageRank of Page B, and TOL-B is the Total Outbound Links of Page B.

For example if you get a inbound link from a page that has a PR of 6 and on that page there is a total of 6 outbound links (counting the one to your page), a PR of 1 will be added to your page: 0.15 + (0.85 x 6/6) = 1. If that one inbound link adds a PR of 1 to your page, and you wanted a PR of 5 it would take 5 similar inbound links.

By similar I mean pages that have a PR/TOL ratio of 1. That could be a PR of 5 with 5 outbound links, or a PR of 7 with 7 out bound links and so on. A PR/TOL ratio of 1 will add to your page a PR of 1. Using the PR/TOL ratio simplifies the RageRank algorithm equation and makes it easier for you to evaulate what PR a inbound link will add to your page.

When you are looking for inbound links just divide the PR of the page by its outbound links and this will give you a general idea of the PR a inbound link from that page would give you.

Article Sources:

How To Improve Your Profit With A Better Google PageRank

GOOGLE PAGERANK

Every one with a business web site knows that the lifeblood of their business is the traffic that they can get to it, and that the Search Engines are a sure and economic way of getting it...

If...

Your web site shows among the first 20 or 30 results when someone looks at a Search Engine For the keywords of your web site.
Google is one of the biggest Search Engines (or the biggest) and that´s why Google is one of the most used ones.

If your web site has a big PageRank, that´s one of the easiest ways to reach the first places on a Google´s search, so many people think that what you should look for, is to have a BIG Google Page Rank.

And what is the PageRank?

PageRank it´s a measure of a site´s reputation according to the quality and quantity of it´s in pointing links.

How can you get in pointing links from the expert sites on your market?

You can do it with a link exchange campaign, but most of all you can achieve it:

Having good content!

So for the same keyword, the page with higher page rank will rank higher on the searches, and a page with higher page rank linking to your site, will help you more to get a better page rank for your site.

To determine the relevance of a web page, Google looks for keywords in various places of each web page, plus many other things and one of them is the PageRank, meaning that Google has a ranking where the best pages about each keyword have the bigger Page Rank.

So the marketers and search engine optimizers started to manipulate the keywords, in order to have a bigger page rank, and soon the Search Engines noticed it and started to counteract creating extremely sophisticated algorithms to evaluate each web site´s real page rank and banned the the cheater´s web sites.

And this is an endless dance, the search engine optimizers keep studying better ways to optimize the web pages, and the search engines keep evolving and creating evaluation methods that will tell them the truth about each web site´s content and value.

Many search engine optimizers will tell you that they know how Google evaluates the web site, but the real truth is that no one of them knows it! Maybe two or three people at Google really know it, and they will never tell it to any one because that will ruin their business.

And which is Google´s business?

Google´s business is to recognize what each web site is about and how good is at it, because they want to sell advertise, and they do it providing the best results on each search (including the page ads on the results). So their business is to provide targeted surfers to their advertisers.

People find that the results are really related with what they are looking for, they click over the URL (sometimes over the free ones and sometimes over the ads) and they keep on using Google as their favorite search engine.

To recognize what each web site is about and how good is at it sounds reasonable and easy for a human being, but it´s not easy at all for Google´s robots.

So Google creates algorithms to evaluate the sites and from time to time changes their algorithm in what it has being called "Google´s dance". This "dance" of course irritates many people (the ones that try to discover what the algorithm is about) because when they get near to know how to artificially inflate a web page´s value, Google changes the relevancy criteria.

But the fact is that Google does the right thing. The want to be able to recognize what each web site is about and how good is at it, without mistaking good content web pages with well "optimized" web pages.

Search engines as Google need to recognize reality and to give the proper page rank to each web site, and how do they do it?

They check the on-page criteria and the off-page criteria...

* On-page criteria evaluates the content of a web page (keywords, title, meta tags, body, images, alt tags, etc.)

* Off-page criteria evaluates how the people react about it:

what URL gets the click

how much time people spends reading each web page

how many URL link to that page, and how relevant (how big is the PageRank) are the pages that link to it

etc.

And there´s only one way to generate off-page criteria: with good content!

It´s you who know your business, and you are the best suited to write your web site´s content and this is the basic idea.

1) Create web pages with excellent content about your topic. This will tell the search engine´s robot what your page is about.

2) Once you create a professionally designed web page as the ones that "How to Sell on the Web" helps you to create, don´t loose your time tweaking it to reach better places with the search engines, use your time to create more good content web pages. Keep on creating good content web pages until you have 20 or more.

3) Submit your web page to the search engines
4) Start a links exchange campaign. This will not only help you reach a higher pagerank but some search engines do not allow you to submit your web site to them and will only be able to find you through your inbound links

This plan works as a snowball...

* You write 20 or more good content web pages
* You exchange links with some good content web pages
* The search engines find that people is linking to your web pages and give you a page rank
* You write more good content web pages
* People find that your web site is a really good one and start asking you to exchange links
* Search engines find that you have more good inbound links and give you a higher pagerank for more of your easy to win keywords (without tweaking your pages)
* The higher pagerank gives you a better position on searches, this brings more visitors to your site, some of them buy your products or services and some others ask you to exchange links with them as the snowball keeps on rolling and growing you will get higher pagerank for your most competitive keywords too and without having to tweak your pages

Is this an easy and fast process?

It should be easy for you to write about your topic, but it might take months to get a decent pagerank. You will find yourself writing pages and exchanging links without noticing any results...

Don´t worry!

* Keep on building good content pages
* keep on looking for good inbound links
* Keep on building good content pages
* keep on looking for good inbound links

Don´t worry, persist...

And you will succeed for sure!

If you want an automate reciprocal link exchange program like the one I use to build my Easy Home Business Ideas site, you can download your free copy of from here: http://newsletter.easy-home-business.com/hts/zeus.html

And if you want to "Make Your Links Work" and grow your site to the first 3 % download this Google PageRank Profit free ebook:
http://value-exchange.sitesell.com/RB.html

Written by Dr. Roberto A. Bonomi

Catalogue: Internet Business | Seo
Title: How To Improve Your Profit With A Better Google PageRank By: Dr. Bonomi

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Free Web Traffic Through Page Rank

Many surfers use the Google or Alexa bar that integrates into their web browsers which consequently makes it easier for them to search and navigate through Internet. However, how many have the "overall page rank" indicator on these bars which shows either a ranking or the importance of the page?

The overall page rank in directories like Google, Yahoo or Alexa is the key factor while doing a search. It decides which website or page deserves the top places in the results of the search of a keyword. The search engine basically calculates the importance of the webpage.

For example, let's say that you prepared a webpage supplying the users with focused, detailed and understandable info. You think your page deserves a high importance, therefore when you search for the theme of your website, you believe it should be shown in the top 20. Well, sometimes life is cruel. If you don't optimize your webpage for a specific keyword, if you don't get enough inbound links directing the user to your site, you would be disappointed by the 1/10 importance rating in Google. Don't give up! It's still worth fighting for. There are several factors which decide the page rank of a website.

First of all, Internet is not like the streets of a city: if you put your "shop" in a busy street, people will drop by your place. No visit on Internet is a coincidence. You have to create your links from other sites (inbound links). You also have to increase the internal linking of your website so that visitors can just "hang around" in your site. So your first factor for the page rank is the linking of your page.

Secondly, pages which attract more users (i.e. number of unique daily users) are obviously more important in the "eyes" of the search engines. This, being the dependent variable in our equation, grows directly proportional to the inbound links. So, page rank also increases with the number of unique users.

At last, relative, focused content increases the importance of your page (page rank). Initially, every page you add to your site increases the overall page rank of the whole before you start adding in-context hyperlinks; "in-context" hyperlinks because according to Google authorities, the hyperlinks that you place inside the content of the page are accepted more valuable.

One of the best things you can do is add a Site Map. Google and other search engines love them! It their robots/spiders find your pages and properly index them. I have found an easy and free way to do this. Download Google's Free Site Map Generator here.

http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/sitemap-generator.html#download

Briefly, on the web, there are no lucky days, no coincidences or no serendipities. If you want traffic on your page, you have to create it yourself. You have to put quality, focused and original content, you have to increase the number of the inbound links. The traffic on your site will increase automatically depending on the other variables. Finally, one day you will look at your site and see that the page rank has jumped from 1 to 4 or even higher. Then you will understand that "La vita e bella."

------

Dan is offering a free report, "Amazing Traffic Formula" that is a viral tool to generate free and targeted web traffic. To get your copy go to:
http://www.1st-affiliate-marketing.biz/atf.htm

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Page Rank - A Quick Overview for Beginners

What is a Page Rank? No need to be ashame to ask! Here goes the outline...

Page Rank (PR) is a specific value for a website page given by Google. It is Google's measure of the importance of a certain site page. The scale is between 1-10. Google gives your website high PR if it is popular. It's based on the number of votes other websites give for your website.

Those websites give votes to your site by putting a link to it on their websites. When you link your site to another website, that means you vote for it.

From this information, if you want your site to have a high PR, then you have to get as many votes as possible from other websites. In other words, make as many links as possible to your site and you will have higher PR!

This is important because PR is one of the many factors that Google takes into account when ranking websites.

If you want to find out your site's PR (and others' too), you must download and install Google's Toolbar to your browser. Go here to download the toolbar for free:

http://toolbar.Google.com

After installation, then you will see a small white and green bar. That is the Page Rank indicator. If you run your mouse pointer over it, you can see the PR of the current page you are opening. A PR of 6 is considered good for a website.

About the Author

Farid Aziz is a full-time Internet Marketer. He gives FREE tips and strategies on Internet Marketing. If you want to know How to Make Money Online with Your Hobby, grab the FREE strategies here >>> Internet Marketer Sells

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Monday, April 21, 2008

Increase Web site Traffic:Increase Your Traffic And Page Rank in These Easy Steps

I want to honestly tell you that there are no hidden secrets to internet marketing.Do not listen to the gurus who tell you that there are hidden secrets for you to learn.

However, there are some tools and proven steps that you can use to explode your traffic and make tremendous amount of money.

Now you might have been frustrated simply because you don't have enough traffic to your site. Well, no need to worry.Follow the instructions and see your traffic increase at the speed of light.

Here are some steps to put you through.

Create a Blog

One of the most effective way is to create a blog.You can create one at blogger.com. Then you would have to post some useful content there.Make sure that what you post is relevant to the topic of your blog.

Submit Articles

As soon as you create your blog, you will have to write articles related to the topic of your blog and you have to submit this articles to article directories or article banks.

Write a Keyword Rich Content

When you have finished writing your articles, check through for spelling mistakes and correct them. Next, check your article for available keywords. You might have to re-write some sentences so that they fit to the keyword you want to use.

Submit Articles to high traffic article directories

It is better to submit more articles to a high traffic site than submitting to hundreds of directories.

Do all these and see your traffic explode to the roof.

Get more information now to help you grow your traffic using articles.
See mytips for article writing blog for more information.

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Increase Page Rank with Search Engine Optimization

Utilizing effective search engine optimization techniques will improve the page rank of your website.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process by which webmasters or online business owners utilize strategic copy to increase their website’s popularity. Given that the internet has grown so rapidly over the past decade, the competition for the best search engine position has created an enormous market focused on how best to position a website for better rankings on Google, Yahoo and other prominent search engines. Therefore, understanding the fundamental elements of SEO is critical to online business’ success.

Search engines are sophisticated pieces of technology that allow users to quickly find relevant websites by searching for a simple word or phrase (e.g. “day spas”). While there are many tricks that can be used to increase page rank, the most effective methods must include providing consistently high quality online articles. This seems like a simple concept, but there are many websites that fail to provide content that visitors find interesting. If you can set your website apart from these boring, lifeless sites, then you’re already a step closer to achieving high page rank via search engine optimization. Sites that provide articles that are informative, well-written, and regularly updated create highly engaged online visitors who are more likely to return to the site I the future.

The second critical component of effective search engine optimization is to include key words and phrases within your articles. These keyword phrases should mirror the phrases that website visitors use when traversing the web. Visit your site’s traffic report to determine what keywords are drawing visitors to your site already, and make an effort to incorporate those words into your articles. Alternatively, study your competitors’ websites to determine what words they use to attract traffic. Be sure to use simple titles that clearly state what the article is about, and try to include a keyword or two in the title if possible. The more key words you use in your articles, the more likely it is that visitors will find your site when they conduct a search with those words. If you are consistent with these methods, your overall search engine optimization will increase, which will in turn boost your page rank.

Next, when writing articles to post on your site, make sure you develop a clear means of organizing their content. This can often be done by simply adding a new page to your site. This will allow room for more articles to be added as you write them, and allow you to develop an archive of articles that will continue to draw unique visitors. Be sure to include your archived articles in a directory that is near the root web of your site, to ensure that search engines effectively index your online articles. Don’t forget to add the pages to your site navigation, and include links to and from the main page and the articles page. Creating an articles page that is easy to find not only makes your content more readily accessible, but also allows spiders searching the web to tag a larger percentage of your sites’ information.

Finally, consider allowing others to link to your website. Not only does this provide free advertising for your site, but it creates the impression that your site is important because of its affiliated links. Just be sure that you avoid linking to pages that have a lower page rank than your own; it actually could reduce your site’s popularity within the rankings.

Search engine optimization strategies are important in developing your site’s popularity. Therefore, write high quality, keyword rich content and link your site to and from a strategic family of other sites. In so doing, you will help improve your site’s popularity and, hopefully, drive increased business through your online business.

Online reprint rights granted as long as the article is published in its entirety, including links and resource box. © John Doetsch 2005.

John Doetsch is SEO specialist at Websition.com where you will find additional articles and free web site content written by the Internet's most gifted authors.

Visit his site http://www.websition.com .

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Google Page Rank Explained

Page Rank (PR) is an algorithm used by Google to compute the relative importance of a particular webpage on the internet and assign it a numeric value from 0 (least important) to 10 (most important). This value is calculated through an iterative analysis of the backlinks to the webpage. If webpage A links to webpage B then webpage B would receive 1 "vote" towards their page rank.

Fact: Page Rank is calculated on a webpage by webpage basis not on a website by website basis

The importance of the webpage casting a vote and the total number of outgoing links on the webpage casting a vote are the primary factors which determine how much "voting share " this webpage will transfer to each of the outgoing links on them. Google calculates a webpage's page rank by adding up all of the "voting shares " for that webpage through an iterative calculation.

Page Rank is one of the factors Google utilizes to help determine their Search Engine Ranking Positions (SERP's). It should be noted that this algorithm is only one part of their overall ranking scheme and not necessarily the most important one as many website's would have you believe. The general internet user has no idea about the concept of page rank and are unable to tell what a particular page's PR is unless they have the Google Toolbar installed (or use an online page rank checker). Since page rank is part of Google's search ranking algorithm an understanding of the concept is still important for any webmaster concerned with getting traffic to their site.

Fact: Not all links pointing to a webpage are counted as votes for that webpage

As soon as Google introduced the concept of page rank unsavory webmasters developed ways to manipulate the rankings. These webmasters began creating web pages with the sole purpose of increasing the amount of incoming links pointing to their website.

Common Black Hat SEO Techniques:

Link Farms - pages containing long lists of unrelated links set up for the sole purpose of manipulating search engine rankings and page rank
Doorway Pages - orphaned webpages either on the same website or distributed throughout the internet stuffed with keywords containing links to the offender's site. Used to artificially inflate the back link count for a website.
Free For All Links Pages - a type of link farm where, as the name implies, anyone is free to post their link. Once a valuable way to spread the word about your website, abuse through auto submissions has rendered these sites worthless and are now viewed as search engine SPAM.
Automated or Hosted Link Exchanges - sites that offer to provide "hundreds" of back links to your site instantly. Generally you will have to install some html code on your website to display their directory and in return anyone else who has this code installed on their website will be displaying your link. This is a case where "if it sounds too good to be true it is". The search engine's are wise to this technique and watch for unnatural "spikes" in the number of backlinks pointing to a website. In actuality it is possible to inflate your page rank with this technique but if the search engine's wise up to your practices (and they always do eventually) you risk being dropped from their index or black holed in their rankings.

How is Page Rank Calculated?

When Google introduced the concept of page rank they published the algorithm they were going to use to calculate it. The formula in it's current form is known only to the engineers at Google but it is fair to say it closely resembles the following formula.

PR(A) = (1-d) + d(PR(t1)/C(t1) + ... + PR(tn)/C(tn))

While at first glance this equation can seem daunting, in actuality the concept is not that hard to understand. Let's take a minute to break down the formula and see what conclusions can be drawn.

PR(t1)...PR(tn) - the page rank (PR) of each page from page t1 to tn. (each value of t represents 1 link to webpage A)

C(t1)...C(tn) - the number of outgoing links (C) on each page from page t1 to tn

d - damping factor

Quoting from the original Google Page Rank white paper:

The parameter d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1. We usually set d to 0.85.

Knowing what these parameters mean and knowing the value of the damping factor we can simplify the formula from above:

PR(A) = 0.15 + 0.85*(A "share" of the PR of every webpage linking to page A)

The "share" each webpage passes to webpage A can be computed by dividing the Page Rank of the webpage linking to page A by the number of outgoing links on that page. Each outgoing link on that page would receive an equal voting share from the total available page rank of the page containing the outgoing link. The total available page rank each webpage has available to transfer to outgoing links is a little less than the total page rank of that page (PR of page * 0.85) which can be easily derived when the damping factor is known.

Implications

Having a basic understanding of the algorithm we can now draw a few conclusions about page rank and it's implications to your website. For instance, it is very possible to have a link on web page X that has a high page rank transferring less page rank voting shares to your website than a link on web page Y with a lower page rank.

How is this possible? Let's analyze an example:

Page X - page rank 4, outgoing links 10

Page Y - page rank 8, outgoing links 100

Page X would transfer 0.85(4/10) = 0.34 page rank voting shares to each outgoing link

Page Y would transfer 0.85(8/100) = 0.068 page rank voting shares to each outgoing link

Even though Page X has a much lower page rank value, due to the fact that the number of outgoing links on Page X is so much smaller than on Page Y it actually transfers more page rank voting shares to each outgoing link than Page Y .

Pages with no links back to them would still have a modest page rank value of 0.15 derived from the (1-d) portion of the equation. It is important to note that while this value holds true according to the equation, only Google engineers are privy to the knowledge of whether actual page rank voting share is transferred in this scenario. Google could easily say that pages with no incoming links transfer a page rank voting share of 0 with a click of a mouse and no one would know for sure except them.

Fact: The Google Toolbar displays Page Rank as a base 10 log scale that is not the "actual" result of the Page Rank calculation

The average page rank of all pages in the index is 1. It is possible to have an "actual" page rank value in the millions or much smaller than 1 using the page rank formula but the Google toolbar only displays integers from 0 - 10 on it's pr meter. Only Google knows how the scale is split up and where the basepoints for each level are. For example, it may take an actual page rank of 10,000 using the formula above to achieve a page rank of 4/10 on the toolbar scale.

Page Rank Voting Share - A simple example

Pages that have only a few inbound links to them have little or no page rank voting share to transfer to outgoing links. To calculate the page rank voting share of a webpage with no incoming links to it we need to focus on the second part of the page rank forumula. Assuming a damping factor of 0.85 from Google's whitepaper our calculation would have the form 0.85(0.15/# outgoing links) which will always equal something close to zero. The 0.15 in the equation was found using this calculation 0.15 = (1-0.85) + 0.85(0). As the number of outgoing links on this page increases the webpage will transfer even less page rank voting shares to each outgoing link.

Understanding this makes it clear why links from link farms and free for all links pages don't help your page rank. Since no one is linking to these FFA pages they will have a "low" page rank value with a small page rank voting share to distribute. Busy free for all links pages have several hundred or thousand outgoing links on them. If we perform some quick math (being generous and giving the ffa page a pr value of 0.25)

Calculation of Page Rank Voting Share Transferred to each outgoing link on an FFA Page

Number of Outgoing Links On FFA Page: 50

PR Voting Share Calculation: 0.85(PR FFA/Outgoing Links FFA) = 0.85(0.25/50) = 0.00425 PR Voting Shares Transferred to each outgoing link

Number of Outgoing Links On FFA Page: 100

PR Voting Share Calculation: 0.85(PR FFA/Outgoing Links FFA) = 0.85(0.25/100) = 0.002125 PR Voting Shares Transferred to each outgoing link

Number of Outgoing Links On FFA Page: 500 (common for FFA pages)

PR Voting Share Calculation: 0.85(PR FFA/Outgoing Links FFA) = 0.85(0.25/500) = 0.000425 PR Voting Shares Transferred to each outgoing link

Number of Outgoing Links On FFA Page: 1000

PR Voting Share Calculation: 0.85(PR FFA/Outgoing Links FFA) = 0.85(0.25/1000) = 0.0002125 PR Voting Shares Transferred to each outgoing link

From the calculations it is easy to see that there is negligible page rank voting share being transferred from FFA links pages to their outgoing links and you would need several thousand links from pages of this type to see any actual page rank value! That is assuming that Google does not blackhole these pages in their index and actually allows page rank voting shares to pass from these pages in the first place, which is by no means a gaurantee and solely at the discretion of Google.

Page Rank in Complex Networks

The example above does not actually duplicate a real world example since it is only computing the page rank "voting share" of the ffa page in an idealized situation where the page rank of the page is already known. In complex networks with links in and links out of webpages the actual page rank for a webpage cannot be known due to the interdependencies each web page has on one another to calculate their page rank.

Think of it as a "chicken and the egg" situation. The problem can be solved by taking a best initial guess for the page rank value of each webpage in the network and plugging it into the page rank formula. The results of these calculations are then used to calculate the next incremental page rank values for the webpages in the network. This calculation is repeated over and over again until the page rank value approaches a limit. This limit is then the actual page rank for that page. In a complex network like the internet finding the page rank for all webpages can take millions of iterations.

Click here for more detailed examples and an online page rank calculator

It is also worth noting that when a webpage transfers page rank voting shares to another webpage the page rank of the contributing page is not reduced in any way. There is no actual page rank transfer, only a weighted "vote" is passed to the outgoing links.

Links on webpages with a high page rank and little or no other outgoing links on them but yours will provide the best opportunities to improve your page rank (if that is your goal and it shouldn't be, link for traffic not pr). Make sure to work on your site content and design before approaching other webmasters for links. The bottom line is you need to have a site worth linking to in order to get people to link to it.

Resources

Google Page Rank Whitepaper

Complex Page Rank Examples including Calculations

Article Sources:

Sunday, April 20, 2008

SEO Versus PPC: What is More Useful?

There has been a continuing debate on the efficacy of Search Engine Optimization(SEO) versus that of PPC Advertising Management.

My two cents on the topic...

SEO Positives:

More visitors to search page are likely to click on these links than sponsored or paid links (we have observed that the ratio is 2:1) Since, this involves a lot of website tuning and making the website search friendly, the website that ranks high on organic listings(through SEO) normally has (arguably) a higher relevance and greater chances of conversion.

The long term costs are lower. The only cost involved is the (other than the obvious time cost) SEO consultation fee (typically, $50,000 to $200,000 for a 25 page SEO work). If averaged out over 24 months, this would mean $3000-$4000/month(average).

SEO Negatives(cons):

SEO takes time. Even the best SEO in business would take a minimum of 4-6 months to get your site up on the search listings for an averagely competitive category.

Unpredictability: This is the BIGGEST NEGATIVE. There is no guarantee that a top position site would retain it’s top position for a sizable time span. Google changes the logic for compiling and displaying the search results once a year (approximately) and keeps updating its index(regular since mid-2003). (Useful articles: http://dance.efactory.de/; http://www.webworkshop.net/florida-update.html)

Ethical Search Engine Optimization firms: This again poses a big challenge to the industry. The ratio of ethical SEO’s who know their trade to the unethical ones who indulge in unethical practices to get the site up in the organic listings, is 1: 1000!

Good SEO is NOT CHEAP - it CAN NOT be CHEAP: Typically, SEO means a lot of hard - continuous - effective work to get the site up on the listings. NO ONE can guarantee a position within a definite time period. Typical engagement fee ( annual) starts from $50k and depends on the number of web pages being optimized and the number of keywords these are being optimized for. Also, this is continuous work... it has to be, because of the regular changes that Google does in the way that it compiles and displays sites for keywords.

Pay-Per-Click(PPC) Search Advertising -Positives:

PPC is IMMEDIATE: The website ad can be up in Google sponsored links (https://adwords.google.com/select/) within minutes. In Yahoo Search(Overture) the ad is live within 4 days(max).

PPC is MEASURABLE: The click and the resultant action can be tracked back to cost,

PPC ad is more useful to an online buyer: The websites that advertise here pay to get listed. Normally, any website would do this only if they can SELL SOMETHING to the visitors. ROI matters.

PPC results CAN BE CONTROLLED: It’s hard work - it’s 24*7 work - however, it is far more controllable and predictable than organic listings. PPC impacts the "brand profile". This is a statement that is being tested for veracity. I believe in this because: If I am searching for widgets using certain keywords and one particular website’s ads pop up for each keyword and when I click on the ad it takes me to the relevant location on the website... I tend to form a connect between visibility - relevance - usefulness - all these impact the website/brand profile.

PPC Negatives(Cons):

PPC Can be EXPENSIVE if not managed well

PPC is threatened by CLICK FRAUD (something that can burn budgets very quickly if the campaign is not managed rigorously)

PPC space is very competitive and the bid prices are rising, literally every month

Only 1 out of 3 "search page visitors" are likely to click a sponsored link/paid ad

Like in SEO space, there are many firms that promise more than they deliver. Fortunately, the results are easily measurable and thus the ineffective firms can be sorted out.

I would not like to bias the reader with "what I think is better". Every business owner has a need - or at least should have a need - to get her site listed on the search engines.

Based on the pros and cons of SEO and PPC, it’s up to them to make the decision.

Tulika Bose is a Director in NetElixir Inc. NetElixir specializes in Real Time Paid Search Campaign optimization. The firm is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. NetElixir manages campaigns for search advertisers in travel, telecom, retail, and financial services sector. The firm has consistently lived up to its claim of delivering a 20% higher performance rate than any comparable service or tool available today.

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