What does it take for a website to get to the coveted top page on Google for a keyword? The team at Google is remarkably skilful at revealing a little information whilst concealing many key facts.

1. HomePage PageRank (HPR) is the top factor in the Google algorithm: Compelling and readily verifiable evidence has recently been published that demonstrates this (G-Factor-1). The PageRank (PR) of the webpage we are browsing appears in an indicator on the Google toolbar (Internet Explorer or Firefox only). A pop-up appears by the indicator when we hover the cursor over it informing us that "PageRank is Google's view of the importance of this page" followed by a number/10. The author believes that we should read this more fully as - "PageRank of the HomePage is Google's view of the importance of this page - number/10".


2. Google gives a boost to the effective PageRank of a HomePage that is competing for a keyword; this is the second factor in the Google algorithm (G-Factor-2).


3. We are only shown integer values of PageRank and not the decimal places known to Google (PR 4 rather than 4.6788834 for example).


4. As we are provided with integer readings of PR only, we see changes in PageRank as major steps that happen infrequently. As PageRank has many decimal places, changes to PageRank as far as Google is concerned, are usually no more than a small upward or downward slide along a continuous slope. If a webpage has an HPR of 6.00001 we will see it as PR6. Even if the total value of incoming links to the page stays constant, the Google index of webpages is expanding and this page may slip to a PR of 5.99999 but we will see it as PR5 at the next PageRank update. In terms of positioning on the SERPs, there would be no change because, from Google's perspective, there has been virtually no change in PR.


5. Google frequently updates PR information for itself but only releases updates to the public at intervals varying between a few weeks to many months.


6. When PageRank updates are released, they are already out of date by at least three months.


7. Google tells us that 'Page' in PageRank relates to one of the two Google co-founders - Larry Page. Whilst this is undoubtedly true, it also refers to the webpage.


8. If all the other factors (there are at least 200) of two webpages competing for a keyword are identical, the one with the higher HPR would be listed above the other in Google's search engine results pages (SERPs).


9. Google does not keep us fully informed about those links to a website that it recognises. A 'link:URL' search on Google will return only a few of those revealed by other search engines.


10. The best indicator of keyword difficulty is the average adjusted HPR (allowing for the G-Factor-2) of the webpages on the top Google search engine results page (SERP) - HPR-KD. These tend to be in a narrow range.

PageRank
Google determines PageRank of a webpage in two stages.

1. It summates the value of all the incoming links to the webpage. The value of each link is dependent on the PR of the linking page divided by the number of outgoing links on that page.


2. Every page indexed by Google is ranked according to the total value of its incoming links. This is derived mathematically and is independent of such factors as relevancy or anchor text. The webpages are not in 11 groups (PR0 -10) but in a continuous league because of the decimal places known to Google.

The most popular webpages have PR10. PageRank is on a logarithmic rather than a linear scale. Experts are divided as to the base number of the log scale but one group with good quality data, suggest that it is to a base somewhere between 8 and 9. If it is 8 this would mean that for every webpage with PR10 there would be 8 with PR9, 64 with PR 8, 512 with PR7 and 858,993,452 pages with PR0.
Google moved ahead of its search engine competitors by incorporating user signals into its positioning algorithm. Initially this focused on PageRank but the recent Panda updates take into account additional signals such as time spent on a website. Reassuringly, published keyword difficulty data analyses before and after Panda have demonstrated that the average HPR-KD for a cohort of 1000 keywords has remained stable. Those webpages that were demoted by Panda have been replaced by others with similar HPR.
The majority of respected search engine optimizers have come to the opinion that PageRank has lost most of its earlier importance and many regard PageRank these days as irrelevant. It is impossible, retrospectively, to evaluate the importance of PageRank when it was first introduced into the Google algorithm more than a decade ago. The literature, however, would suggest that the PageRank of the individual page played a major role in determining positioning on SERPs at that time.
There are many examples of internal web pages with PR0 having top page positioning on Google for extremely competitive keywords. Clearly, PageRank of internal pages is not currently a major factor in the Google algorithm. It is this observation that has led so many SEO experts to give little import to PageRank in webpage positioning.
HomePage PageRank is the top factor in the Google algorithm.
The internal webpages with PR0 on the top page of Google for high difficulty keywords, however, are invariably found on websites with HPR of at least 4 and often 6 or more. It became apparent that whereas the PageRank of an internal webpage has no major influence in the Google algorithm, the HomePage PageRank of the website is the top factor.
There are also examples of webpages with HPR0 having top page positioning for medium difficulty keywords but careful observation shows that it is the HomePage itself that is competing. This observation formed the basis for the conclusion that Google assumes that the HomePage of a website has the greatest authority and Google is providing a boost to its competitive PR. HomePages with HPR0-4 have their effective HPR boosted to 5. There is no visible increase when the HPR is 5 or greater.
Average adjusted HomePage PageRank keyword difficulty - HPR-KD
The average adjusted HPR of the webpages on the top Google SERP for a keyword is the best indicator of keyword difficulty (HPR-KD). This can be easily missed as the range of values is small.
The HPR-KDs for a series of keywords on Google.co.uk are:-

• website 7.2
• design 6.3
• website design 5.5
• website designer 5.4
• website designer London 5.1
• website designer North London 4.8
• website designer Wembley 3.6.

HPR-KDs are in a narrow range because;
· PageRank is allocated logarithmically; an HPR of 4 equates to about 2,500 average value links, HPR5 to 75,000 and HPR6 to 250,000.
· The G-Factor-2 boost for HomePages competing for a keyword to at least PR5 means that the average adjusted HPR of the top webpages on the Google SERPs is rarely less than 3.5.
All the webpages on a new Wembley website designer's website when indexed would have PRs of 0. In practice, only the HomePage of the website could compete for any worthwhile keywords because of the G-Factor-2 boost. Experience shows that initially only keywords with HPR-KD 4.3 or less are within range. This Wembley website could from the beginning target 'website designer Wembley' and with appropriate on-page optimisation should reach the top page of Google. The keyword 'website designer North London' would be out of range as the HPR-KD is 4.8. Internal webpages on a new website will have HPRs of 0 and will not be able to compete for any worthwhile keywords.
Guidelines have been produced to indicate the minimum HPR a website requires to have any chance of top page positioning for keywords on Google depending on their HPR-KDs. These guidelines differentiate between the required HPR according to whether it is the HomePage or an internal page that will be competing. The guidelines have been produced to show when at least two webpages with equal or lower HPR than the planned competing webpage are likely to be found on the top page of Google.

David Viniker MD FRCOG is a doctor trained to practice evidence based medicine. He has 30 years experience with computer applications for medical education and he has applied the principles of evidence based practice to SEO. David is convinced that HomePage PageRank is the top factor in the Google positioning algorithm and that Google provides a boosting adjustment to HomePages that are competing for a keyword. He has developed a new, essential keyword tool - http://www.KeywordSEOPro.com which calculates keyword difficulty based on HomePage PageRank. Visit his website for further details.
His website http://www.firstwebsitedesign.com provides valuable information for beginners and intermediates in website design and search engine optimization.

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