I’ve been waiting to see changes created by the update to Google PageRank scores which were schedule for the end of March. On April 2nd I noticed that a dozens of my websites had their PageRank updated so it is a perfect time to revisit how this score can be used for Internet marketing strategies.
I manage a number of websites in the automotive industry and during this most recent PageRank update I noticed my Toyota Recall information website, which has been up for over 3 months, changed from a PageRank 0 to a PageRank 4/10. In this most recent update, my car inventory sales website, Car Dealer Sale website went from a PageRank 0 to a PageRank 3/10.
PageRank Simplified
PageRank is a scale of a website’s overall “score” from Google and some debate the importance of this score. I like to use the PageRank score as a quick reflection on the overall health of a website. This measure us the most accurate right after a recalculation has been completed.
You can use PageRank to perform a quick, high level comparision of multiple websites, or to consider if a website is a good place to post your articles. Biznik has a Google PageRank of 6/10 which is very good and makes the case to participate in this network. If the site had zero PageRank, posting article in the community may not be beneficial.
PageRank is a quick way to see if a website is new or weak. I recommend participating in blogging communities or article directory websites that have a PageRank of 3/10 or higher. Since there are so many choices, investing in proven website platforms makes the most use of your unique content.

Install The Latest Google Toolbar
If you have not installed the LATEST Google Toolbar, I recommend that you do. Download It Here. The screen shot shown below shows you how the PageRank is displayed in the toolbar once you enable it. The small green bar indicates the score and when you hover over the icon with your mouse the score will show.
Do you know the PageRank for your website?
If you have installed the Google Toolbar and the PageRank icon is not visible, you have to enable that feature. Click on the wrench on the right hand side of the toolbar for the Google Toolbar Options, and click on the “options” menu choice. The following screen will appear:

You must check off the PageRank box and save your changes. This will enable the PageRank measurement tool.
What is a Good PageRank?
Most active business small business websites have a PageRank of 3 and very few have a PageRank of 4, 5 or higher. Pagerank scores are affected by inbound links and traffic. Business websites that have high PageRank scores (>5) often have implemented a strong offsite SEO link building strategies or have a highly trafficked website.
According to WikiPedia:
“PageRank is a link analysis algorithm, named after Larry Page,[1] used by the Google Internet search engine that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of “measuring” its relative importance within the set. The algorithm may be applied to any collection of entities with reciprocal quotations and references. The numerical weight that it assigns to any given element E is also called the PageRank of E and denoted by PR(E).”
What is a Low PageRank Score
If your website has a PageRank of 0, 1, or 2 now that the recalculation has been completed, I would strongly encourage you to look at the number of high quality UNIQUE inbound links to your website.
You can get a count of these links by going to Yahoo, and tyeping in this command into the search box:
link:www.yourwebsite.com
Do not type in a space after the colon, and replace your website name for “yourwebsite.com”.
If you website is brand new and is under 90 days old, you would expect to have a low PageRank. However, when the next recalculation takes place, if your score doesn’t jump, then you will need to take some remedial action.
Fixing Low PageRank Scores
If you want to compete in organic search results, you will need to increase relevant links to your websites for the search phrases you want to target in your digital marketing strategy.
For example, if you are a personal injury attorney in New Jersey, you would want to have hundreds of links from other websites with content that has hyperlinked text for the phrases:
- New Jersey personal injury attorney
- New Jersey personal injury lawyer
- personal injury lawyer NJ
- personal injury NJ
You get the idea; diversify the hyperlinked text and the source of those links. They should not be coming from the same website. Ideally, some of the links should come from blogs and websites that have a good deal of content about law, lawyers and personal injury matters. That is were relevance comes into play.
Google updates the PageRank scores internally on a continual basis but a few times a year they make a massive update. Some have said that these major updates happen every 3 months but that is a guess.
If you are not happy with your latest PageRank score, get started with a quality, off-site content writing program that includes links back to your website. It will make a significant impact on your relevance, traffic and organic search rankings.



