Google’s order of results is automatically determined by more than 100 factors, including the Google PageRank algorithm. Google goes to great efforts to protect the integrity of the algorithm they utilise so they can always present the user with the most relevant results from a search.

Google stands alone in its focus on developing the “perfect search engine”, defined by co-founder Larry Page as something that “understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want”. To that end, Google has persistently pursued innovation and refused to accept the limitations of existing models. As a result, Google developed its own serving infrastructure and breakthrough PageRank technology that changed the way searches are conducted.

Innovative technology

From the beginning, Google’s developers recognised that providing the fastest, most accurate results required a new kind of server setup. Whereas most search engines ran off a handful of large servers that often slowed under peak loads, Google employed linked PCs to quickly find each query’s answer. The innovation paid off in faster response times, greater scalability and lower costs. It’s an idea that others have since copied, while Google has continued to refine its back-end technology to make it even more efficient.

The software behind Google’s search technology conducts a series of simultaneous calculations requiring only a fraction of a second. Traditional search engines rely heavily on how often a word appears on a web page. Google uses PageRank to examine the entire link structure of the web and determine which pages are most important. It then conducts hypertext-matching analysis to determine which pages are relevant to the specific search being conducted. By combining overall importance and query-specific relevance, Google is able to put the most relevant and reliable results first.

PageRank Technology

PageRank performs an objective measurement of the importance of web pages by solving an equation of more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Instead of counting direct links, PageRank interprets a link from Page A to Page B as a vote for Page B by Page A. PageRank then assesses a page’s importance by the number of votes it receives.

PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value. Important pages receive a higher PageRank and appear at the top of the search results. Google’s technology uses the collective intelligence of the web to determine a page’s importance. There is no human involvement or manipulation of results, which is why users have come to trust Google as a source of objective information untainted by paid placement.

Hypertext-Matching Analysis

Google’s search engine also analyses page content. However, instead of simply scanning for page-based text (which can be manipulated by site publishers through meta-tags), Google’s technology analyses the full content of a page and factors in fonts, subdivisions and the precise location of each word. Google also analyses the content of neighbouring web pages to ensure the results returned are the most relevant to a user’s query.

How can I find out a webpage’s PageRank?

You can download Google’s free toolbar, which has a PageRank indicator,and can virtually eliminate annoying popups too. PageRank, while important, is only a piece of the puzzle. Good coding practices, correct labelling of alt tags and above all good relevant content will really make you succeed in the world of Google. Also, always remember that the toolbar only shows PageRank of the last toolbar update, actual PageRank is updated daily and can differ depending on the Google data centre you are interrogating at the point of query.

Who decides on the PageRank of a website?

Firstly you can be assured that no one at Google has hand-adjusted the results to boost the ranking of a site. Google’s order of results is automatically determined by several factors, including its PageRank algorithm.

You may want to check and see if the number of other sites linking to your URL has changed. This is the single biggest factor in determining what sites are indexed by Google, as we find most pages when our robots crawl the web and jump from page to page via hyperlinks. To find out who links to your site you can type link:www.domainname.com into Google to get an idea of how links to a website. Be warned that Google only shows you what it wants you to see, otherwise this would be an optimisers’ dream!

A word of warning!

There are whispers in the industry that the PageRank system may be on its way out. PageRank was developed when Sergey Brin and Larry Page were still PH.D Candidates of Stanford University, So the original PageRank Patent is owned by Stanford University.

Due to this, Google might be moving away from PageRank and may invent a better way evaluating the quality of a page. Search engine optimisation experts that link-build purely for Google PageRank purposes may find that soon these links are deemed useless and have been a waste of money for the companies involved!