About PageRank

PageRank is a computer algorithm developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google) for improving the quality of search results. It was developed as a response to the need for ranking web pages based on the authority of linking websites. Whenever any website links to another, some of its authority is handed down as PageRank.

Before PageRank, existing search engines made use of keyword density as the ranking metric. If a website contained a particular word multiple times, search engines would automatically rank that website.

This approach led to keyword stuffing where webmasters included specific keywords as many times as possible. They did that, so the website would rank for the keywords even if the pieces of content were not relevant to the keywords.

So the Google founders proposed a different method of ranking websites which targeted ranking based on authority. And that's what led to the birth of the search engine giant called Google and its first search algorithm.

The PageRank point of every web page ranged from 0 to 10 which was a measure of the quality and quantity of the page. And if a web page with a PageRank of 8 links to 4 other pages, it transfers 2 PageRank points to them all.

A web page can only transfer as much PageRank points as it has, nothing more. Google provided a toolbar or extension for webmasters to view their PageRank but that was stopped in 2013.

And since then, Google has continued to update its search algorithms to improve the quality of search results that it displays.