The drive to maintain a consistent PageRank may sound like trying to win a popularity contest. And the harder you try, the harder the competition gets. But have you wondered why winning this popularity contest is such a big deal?
Before we answer this question, let’s understand what a ‘PageRank’ is? PageRank is a technology that is used by Google to determine the importance of your webpage by looking at the pages that link to your site.
Once your website is indexed, a PageRank is assigned to each page in your website. The score could be anywhere on a scale between 0 and 10. Scoring depends on the number and quality of websites that are linking to your webpage. If you have come across PR N/A, it means that the website is new and a PageRank update will assign a score very soon.
Google assigns higher PageRanks to those sites that have incoming links that are relevant and have authority. That means if you get an inbound link from a high ranking site then your PageRank score will also be affected considerably. This will in turn increase your site’s relevancy. Google will now place your site higher in the search engine results.
Tips to Increase PageRank
- All you need to do is get inbound links from other reputable and credible websites. Although this sounds very simple, it is important to keep a tab on the sites that are linking to you. It will take time and lots of effort to garner good inbound links.
- You should also keep a tight control over outbound links. Google judges your site with the websites you link to. When you link to sites that have low PR, then your own PR may also get affected.
- While trying to accumulate more links, you would do well to try avoiding linking to link farms and reciprocal linking circles.
- To maintain consistent PageRank it is important that you provide consistently good quality content and deliver good user experience.
- Don’t post duplicate content in your website. This is a big No from Google’s side.
- Understand how your site’s content is relevant and useful to those visiting your site. Revise the content on your page, make it more interesting, and avoid keyword stuffing.
- Avoid links to web spammers that are sure to affect your websites PageRank adversely.
- Avoid cloaking and hidden texts and hidden links.
It is ideal to create pages for the consumption of users and not to attract search engines. If the content on your page is good, informative, and original then good sites will link to you. This will help you increase and maintain your site’s PageRank. But maintaining a good PageRank is a never-ending job. You can’t work at it one day, bring it up to your desired level and rest completely.
Getting a good PageRank is a dynamic process that keeps evolving. And it is best if efforts to maintain consistent PageRank are undertaken regularly. Finally, you just have to run as fast as you can to stay in the same ‘high PageRank’ place.
What are your thoughts on maintaining a consistent PageRank for your site or blog ?