Once you understand PageRank, you may be wondering how your Web site's PageRank affects your site. Your PageRank is a single piece of the Google algorithm that determines your ranking on the search engine results page. It affects your Web site in a few ways:
- A good PageRank can contribute to your Web site placing higher in search engine results.
- You can evaluate the PageRank for each page of your Web site to determine which ones other people have found valuable enough to link to.
- You can use it as a motivation to provide rich informational content that others will want to link to.
It is important to note that PageRank does not equal traffic to your Web site. While there has never been a strong link between Web site traffic and PageRank, that relationship was distanced further in October 2007 when Google devalued the PageRank and links of certain Web sites. The search engine targeted Web sites with high PageRanks that sold links to other Web sites (thereby passing on some of their rank).
While Google's changes caused a stir among the Webmaster community, most agree that the metric no longer carries much weight. As long as you follow a good linking strategy, there's no reason to believe that a lower page rank will negatively affect your site or site traffic.