PageRank - It's All About the Links

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization the most common buzz word used is "PageRank".  PageRank is at the core of Google Technology and ulitimately attaches a value or "PageRank" to each page within a web-site.  This term can often get confused with the actual ranking of a page on the search engine.  So just to be clear, when someone speaks of PageRank they are referring to the Google assigned value to that page on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) independant of how it may rank on Google for a specific search phrase.  You can find a web page's PageRank by downloading the Google Toolbar and activating the PageRank button or using an on-line tool that will fetch it for you.  The picture to the upper left is a screenshot of NewHomeSource.com with the PageRank Toolbar located in the upper right. 

Here is a blown up picture of the little PageRank Bar that will be displayed once you install the Google Toolbar.  If you mouse over it, it will actually give you a Google snippet where it will tell you the score or PageRank out of ten.  PageRank is essentially derived or computed by the number of Inbound links a site has from other websites on the Internet.  These links are seen as citations or votes for that page for the anchor text associated with that link.  What is anchor text one might ask? Anchor text is the clickable text that contains the link. Examples of anchor text above would be "PageRank", "Google Toolbar", and "on-line tool that will fetch it for you", because they are all clickable.

Now a high PageRank alone will not guarantee you a top ranking for competitive terms but it is a very powerful indicator of the potential for a page or website to rank on a search engine.  It is then the search engine marketers job to optimize those pages to take advantage of the high page rank in order for it to show up in Google for the appropriate search queries.