By Monique Martin
If you’re interested in tracking the PageRank of various Web sites as you browse, you’re in luck. There are quite a few ways for you to track a Web site’s Google PageRank without interrupting your browsing session. Depending on your browser, you’ll need to download a plug-in, add-on, toolbar or a small utility.
Firefox
The leader of the add-on pack, Firefox users have quite a few options for tracking PageRank.
- Search Status – This handy little add-on displays PageRank, Alexa rank and more. It even has a keyword density tool.
- Live PageRank – This gives you a little movable widget that displays the PageRank for the URL you’re viewing.
- SEOpen – You can add this to a toolbar or just right-click within your browser. It displays PageRank, checks for inbound links and has a few other handy features.
- Google Toolbar – Displaying PageRank is just one of the many features Google’s toolbar has to offer.
Internet Explorer
Google Toolbar – For IE8, download the toolbar, go through a few reboots and voilà! You have the toolbar installed. Right-click on the toolbar and select “add buttons.” Near the bottom of the list is the PageRank button. Select it. The bar icon will be added to the toolbar. Simply hover your cursor over the green bar to see the PageRank of any page you’re visiting. For previous versions of IE, see the Firefox link above.
Chrome
You’d think you could simply use the Google Toolbar in conjunction with Google’s Chrome browser, but there’s no toolbar for Chrome. Google claims that Chrome gives you most of the features of the toolbar already. And it does with a few exceptions including the PageRank feature.
PageRank Status Checker – This is basically a toolbar extension. After installation a link will appear in your toolbar. Click it and a pop-up will display Google PageRank and Alexa rank for the page you’re viewing.
Safari
There are some questionable plug-ins out there for Safari, but nothing reliable yet. As a Mac user who prefers Safari, your best bet is to install Apple’s PageRank Viewer utility. This little utility gives you the ability to search for the PageRank of multiple Web sites at once, but it’s not integrated into the browser. The trial version is free.
Opera
Google PageRank Button – Click on the button and add it to your “My button” collection. Click on it during browsing and a pop-up will appear with PageRank information. This is best with Opera 9 or earlier.
PageRank 2.0 – This widget isn’t as seamless as other add-ons, but it’s simple and gets the job done.
About the Author
Monique Martin served as chief operating officer for a successful online insurance marketing firm for five years.