Does Google Still Use PageRank?
- March 19, 2022
- Bradley Taylor
There used to be a feature in the Chrome browser which allowed users to see Google’s own patented and trademarked “PageRank’ for any page visited on the web. The number was said to have been derived by Google’s own algorithms and was claimed to be used by them to know how to serve search results.
Back in December of 2013 Google removed the PageRank feature from chrome and there were rumors that Google abandoned the ranking entirely. But this wasn’t true. In 2017, Google’s Gary Illyes confirmed that the company was still using a form of PageRank internally. Current Google SEO Kingpin John Mueller also answered a tweet question about PageRank just a couple of years ago:
Yes, we do use PageRank internally, among many, many other signals. It’s not quite the same as the original paper, there are lots of quirks (eg, disavowed links, ignored links, etc.), and, again, we use a lot of other signals that can be much stronger.
— 🐐 John 🐐 (@JohnMu) February 24, 2020
What Did PageRank Look Like?
Google’s PageRank looked like a little rectangle box. The higher the score the more green there was in the box on a left to right basis. It could be seen in the Google Chrome browser bar or in search results.
The formula for page rank was said to have taken the usual SEO factors into account when creating a score. Those factors are:
- domain/page age
- unique content
- quality of content
- inbound/outbound links
- clean code
- page loading speed
These factors are important in SEO regardless of PageRank’s existence. It’s important to note that PageRank is just one metric system and each search engine has their very own way to determine ranking.
What PageRank Score Should I Have?
The rank was made on a 1-10 scoring basis. The very best websites on the web have ranks in the 7’s, 8’s and 9’s. MSN.com is rated with a score of 7.9. Your favorite popular sports website may have a rank between 4-7. BarStoolSports.com for example has a PageRank of 5.7. A popular blog about smoothies or health food may be in the 4-5 range. And by popular I mean 50,000-100,000 unique visitors per day.
If you are a local business your PageRank may top out at 2-3 because you are focusing your efforts on local results only. If you are a relatively new website of of just one or two years old, having a PageRank of 0-1 is totally normal.
Although Google doesn’t offer PageRank measuring tools anymore there are still ways to see Page Rank. You can check your rank here. In this case it is labelled “page authority” and the scoring is done on a 1-100 scale, You can convert the metric in your head by simply moving the decimal point over. A page authority of 39 would be equal to Google’s PageRank of 3.9
It’s important to check your metrics every once in a while but do not obsess over these numbers. They will fluctuate all the time and people have driven themselves mad obsessing about them. Just keep creating quality content and share it on your social media. If your content is good then people will end up on your site and your PageRank will take care of itself.
