Page Rank 2.0

Page Rank no longer depends solely upon the number of links directed at a webpage and the Page Rank of the linking webpages. Google's employees, Jeffrey A. Dean, Corin Anderson, and Alexis Battle, noticed the flaws in the original Page Rank scoring model. They decided to invent a new method of determining Page Rank. Although Google seems not to have updated the name, I call it Page Rank 2.0. Page Rank 2.0 goes beyond the original Page Rank scoring model by including visitor behavior, attributes on the source document, and attributes of the linked document. By the end of this article, you will have a basic understanding of some of the weighing factors incorporated in Page Rank 2.0.

User-based Page Rank Factors

  • Did the user visit the webpage via browser bookmark, typing the URL into the browser address bar, or via a link on another webpage?
  • Did the user need to use a language translator to read the webpage?
  • Did the user conduct a search via a search engine?
  • What was the query term into the search engine?
  • Which links did the visitor not click on the source document?

Source Document Page Rank Factors

  • Page Rank of the source document
  • Heading tag text of the Web page or section within the Web page
  • The semantic matching of the link and the Web page or section contents
  • Topic of the Web page or section within the Web page
  • Is the link part of the boilerplate navigation or part of the Web page content?
  • Position of the link within the Web page presentation (e.g., header, top content, middle content, bottom content, footer, left gutter, right gutter)
  • Is the link located in a position more likely to attract clicks?
  • Is the link above the fold in an 800x600 screen resolution?
  • Position of the link within a list
  • Does the target page reside within the same domain?
  • Does the target page reside within another domain?
  • Does the target page reside on the same IP?
  • Is the target URL relative or absolute?
  • Is the source URL longer or shorter than the target URL?
  • Does the target URL contain many hyphens?
  • Does the target domain contain hyphens?
  • Type of link (e.g., image or text)
  • Size of the image for an image link
  • Font size of the anchor text
  • Font color
  • Attributes of the link
  • Background color behind the link
  • The anchor text used for the link
  • The number of words in the anchor text
  • The words used in the anchor text
  • The commerciality of the anchor text
  • The words preceding and/or after the anchor text
  • The total number of links within the source document

Target Document Page Rank Factors

  • Is the target URL search engine friendly?
  • Is the target URL user friendly?
  • The number of redirections prior to reaching the target document
  • Is the target URL longer or shorter than the source URL?
  • Words in the URL of the target document (not the domain)
  • Does the domain contain many hyphens?
  • Does the URI contain many hyphens?
  • Is the content language the same as the browser's default language?

Your Page Rank 2.0 Takeaway

Page Rank scoring no longer solely depends upon the Page Rank of the linking document. Although the original Page Rank algorithm remains a part of the new algorithm, you can no longer depend upon having the easily calculated value passed to your webpage. This new method allows for Page Rank based upon keywords associated with the webpage. You should note the absence of a click on your link combined with bounce rates, which I mentioned in 6 Ways to Reduce Bounce Rates, can cause your webpage to fall out of the search results to never be seen again.