Google PR (PageRank) update coming & what is PageRank

Google will be gearing up for another Page Rank (and maybe a back link) update in the in the coming two weeks per Darren Rowse at ProBlogger. This is based on ‘reliable sources,’ but each time the buzz gets around like this, an update seems to happen.

Here’s PageRank explained by Google:

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.”

Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don’t match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page’s content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it’s a good match for your query.

As the comments on ProBlogger reflect, Page Rank is sometimes more of an ego trip than anything else. Your Page Rank does not alone determine the search engine performance of a site.