Raise Your Website’s PageRank
We respect the value of great content. However, ranking power or ranking juice (also sometimes called PageRank) is critical to your success on Google.
There’s plenty of opinion about the key factors that drive top Google rankings. Some suggest domain authority, number of backlinks, trust factor, anchor text, page speed, error free code, and more.
If you look at the biggest trafficked websites via Google such as Apple, Amazon, and others, you’ll discover that most times, it is just raw PageRank that provides top rankings. Some top sites are slow loading, have errors, and thin content that breaks all the best practices guidelines.
Apple.com for instance has millions of websites linking to it, including authoritative ones in the software, technology, and consumer electronics sectors. Millions of backlinks to Apple.com makes for some awesome ranking power.
Consider that a visit to Apple doesn’t last long. It’s all slow loading fashion visuals and once people confirm the product details, they leave quick. Not great engagement, but Google doesn’t seem to care. Apple gets ranked at the top even if their website content is thin and vapid. Apple’s brand created via other media channels carries a lot of weight — to create lots of backlinks to the apple.com website and direct visits too.
All these links to website act like giant pipeline flooding PageRank into apple.com. Wow, so nice. We should all be so lucky!
Low PageRank Websites Are Getting the Bum’s Rush
Other companies whose websites have low PageRank are increasingly finding themselves pushed out of the search results. They may have great content and be an authority on that keyword topic, but Google has a number of issues it’s tending to (spam, excessive weight on topic authority, number of backlinks, and also business preferences). And that unfortunately results in innocent blogs and SMB business sites being pushed down the rankings.
The essence of building PageRank is to create great content that reflects a compelling value proposition, which is exciting for others to read, cite, promote and share. Two fundamental parts: value for readers (great content) and strong promotion (reach/visibility). One without the other is useless.
PageRank Got Talked Down
It wasn’t so long ago that the talk of SEO profession was all about PageRank. Pagerank™ is still a key factor in Google rankings although it has been serving a more specialized purpose in the ranking algorithm.
PageRank was a mathematical calculation of a website’s popularity based mostly on the number of backlinks pointing to a website. And yes there is an actual mathematical equation used to calculate it. Google demoted it as a factor because popularity and backlinks were being gamed by a variety of people including search engine optimizers.
Google had to find something that couldn’t easily be manipulated by SEOs like you know who. In fact, my first book in 2002 was greatly about PageRank sculpting, which I learned from reading and studying Google patents and my sense of applied strategy.
Well, as it happens, they can’t actually stop manipulation of PageRank flow although they try. That’s why they keep the secret sauce very quiet these days (among other potentially political reasons).
Google found PageRank was no longer the “quality indicator” they had relied on since the search engine’s inception back in 1998. It was a simple thing that was ruined when people started selling links on their websites, which they continue to do (guest posting).
PageRank is Dead, Long Live PageRank!
Novice SEOs wolfed down Google’s propaganda Pablum on the “PageRank is Dead” topic and started parroting that PageRank was really gone.
Actually, what was discontinued was the old interpretation of PageRank which was a simple calculation of the number of links times the domain authority of all the backlinking websites.
Google relies heavily on attributing a mathematical value to websites (rankings) and the portions of ranking juice that flow via backlinks to websites. It’s a big pipeline that feeds smaller pipelines all over the web. A site may have a lot of PageRank, however Google decides via its core algorithm how much will flow to the particular site linked to. The PageRank flow is controlled by the keyword topic relevance and trustworthiness of the site.
If Google trusts your site, considers it relevant to the topic at hand, then it should allow all available/allotted PageRank to flow to your pages. That PageRank flow is modified by other factors. Still, if you get a backlink from an authoritative site in your industry, it can give your site a big ranking boost.
The holy grail is links from great websites in your industry, specifically, the most popular and respected ones. And that’s where the challenge begins.
Quantity and Quality
Your rankings will grow if you have hundreds or tens of thousands of relevant and powerful websites linking to your site. Fact is, more links is good, even though Google is picky about which links they will value (relevance) and let PageRank pass through to your site. Spammy sites get most of their PageRank flow cut off.
Use SEO software tools to assess websites for the domain authority (DA which is similar to PageRank) so you can target the most powerful websites in your industry.
But we want to know, how do we scale up our PageRank to really boost our overall traffic?
We’re talking about getting links from powerful sites, the hardest sites to get links from.
10 Ways to Boost PageRank
- spend more time on content that is much better than what is currently available with lots of insightful, original material, such that it’s unique and not available elsewhere
- run a digital PR campaign to build access to top journalists in your industry
- conduct original research and publish the findings
- look for content gaps, and create something that magnifies the gap and provides a perfect solution
contribute to industry magazines - build relationships with industry writers/journalists/association members who need interesting stories to write
- write content that is thorough, authoritative treatment of an important topic
- do outreach via email, social media, Youtube, Instagram, and other marketing channels
- use hashtag words, brand names, company names, and relevant person’s names on social posts to reach more people
- write a book, whitepaper or case study relevant to your keywords and industry
- advertise on specific keyword phrases
- advertise on a specific industry website with ads that promote your key sharable content
- find the highest PageRank media blogs and news sites and pitch an idea to editors and individual writers on them
- conduct a uniquely interesting and engaging social media campaign and paid boost your posts that reach the best audience
- post unique content on your site and link out from that page only to your key sales conversion pages
- have an advanced SEO pro do some PageRank sculpting on your site you get all your PageRank flowing to where it’s needed to maximum ranking results
Increasing PageRank might require hiring a digital PR agency or a link building company since they specialize in this difficult type of work. However, their prices are often outrageous and may make sense only for large corporations or strong funded startups.
If you’re running a full time business, doing a full PageRank building campaign will be difficult. However, if you can create something of impressive, unique value that really excites people, then you might find it easier to promote. In fact, people will share it gladly. Just remember to use your valuable content and exciting ideas to reach those who contribute to powerful, high PageRank websites.
You’re trying to tap into their PageRank. You can create something valuable, unique and offer to give them sole ownership of it.
In the end, the value you create for others will determine what you get back from them. Create quality and build a routine of being generous and sociable.
At the end of the day, you may want to outsource SEO and PageRank building to an advanced SEO consultant. It would taking a big, tough challenge off your plate. Hiring the best people is usually best move for any business.
It might be time to bring in an Advanced SEO consultant who help you build an industry leading presence on Google, and add big value to your full marketing campaign.
Get more fascinating insights on elite level strategy: SEO Company | Advanced SEO | Advanced SEO Strategy | Outsourced SEO | Travel Marketing SEO | Digital Marketing Company | Backlink Outreach | Advanced SEO Consultant | SEO Professional Services | Google Quality Guidelines
