One way PageRank is calculated is by the number of incoming links (also called backlinks) a site has. These are links on other sites that point to the site in question. The more "natural" links a site has, the higher the page rank will be. Search engines determine how natural a link is by many factors. One is how many links there are from one domain point to the page. Another factor that influences how important links are is from how many different servers the links come. The more widespread your incoming links are, the more natural they will appear. This is because, in some cases, people create websites just to manufacture artificial links to another website that they own. Often, the sites are located on the same server.
Incoming Links
One way PageRank is calculated is by the number of incoming links (also called backlinks) a site has. These are links on other sites that point to the site in question. The more "natural" links a site has, the higher the page rank will be. Search engines determine how natural a link is by many factors. One is how many links there are from one domain point to the page. Another factor that influences how important links are is from how many different servers the links come. The more widespread your incoming links are, the more natural they will appear. This is because, in some cases, people create websites just to manufacture artificial links to another website that they own. Often, the sites are located on the same server.
Page Age
A big factor for Google is the age of the page and the age of the website itself. An older website that has many links typically will have a higher page rank. That's because, in theory, the search engine programmers believe that this represents a more trustworthy site. While that may be true, it does not always lead users to the best pages. Google and other search engines realize that an older page is not always as relevant, or even up to date, so the page rank also considers another factor--content updates.
Updated Content
Search engines love new content. Every time your site is updated with a new page, the search engines get to crawl that page and index the contents. If you constantly update your pages, the search engines will notice this and return to your page more often. When you continuously update your blog or website, it often results in a higher page rank, as long as other factors like valid, natural links exist.
About the Author
Steve Smith has published articles on a wide range of topics including cars, travel, lifestyle, business, golf, weddings and careers. His articles, features and news stories have appeared in newspapers, consumer magazines and on various websites. Smith holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and journalism from University of New Hampshire Durham.
