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PageRank Mambo Jumbo

Since I had promised the blog owner that I’d write him a post, I like to touch on the topic of PageRank.

Part of my job to create a develop a website is to make sure it maintain a standard according to the rules of W3C and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). And many a times, a lot of people would ask me the magical question.

“I want my website to rank #1 in Google. Can you help me make the website gain PageRank?”

“Sure”, I would usually say. But, I also think to myself; what has ranking #1 in search engines have to do with having a high PageRank? If you have been obsessing with PageRank till now, sorry to burst your bubble, but there is nothing to do with PageRank! You can always rank high in Google, Yahoo, or Bing’s search results as long as you built your website right. So, today I will help you demystify once and for all regarding the PageRank mambo jumbo.

Before, we go into why PageRank isn’t important to your website’s ranking factor, we have to back up a bit to: What is a PageRank?

Google PageRank is created by Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, Inc. Because of the rampant rubbish that search engines listed in the 90’s, he devised a method to measure the reliability of websites against the information that they provided. The mechanism to PageRank is backlink. If a website has backlinks from quality sources, it was deemed that the content provided by that website to be reliable, or hence said, the website has authority.

However, PageRank is not your answer to a high ranking site. I have helped numerous sites rank well even when they have PR0. Whereas, sites with PR8 still doesn’t rank well against its competitors. There is more to ranking well to just focus your energy on PageRank. Google has made it clear again and again their PageRank is not your single factor in ranking well.

If you really want to rank well in major search engines, I have one word. RELEVANCY. Make your website relevant to what users are looking for. If you are a website selling pet care services, then create your pages to be relevant to pets and grooming. If you provide the proper content, even without doing much work, you will rank well at any search engine!

The writer is a professional SEO, working for a local media and entertainment company, located in Jakarta.