How significant is PageRank?

The significance of any one factor in search engine algorithms depends on the quality of the information it supplies. A factor's importance is known as its weight. To demonstrate how weighting is arrived at, it's easiest to move away from
PageRank for a second and look at Meta tags. Originally, when the Meta keyword tag was new, you could write something like this in your document:

In theory, the Meta keyword tag was a very good indicator of what the page was about. However, as most are well aware - the weighting for the keywords tag is fast approaching nothing. Two things have contributed to this:

1. The ease at which Webmasters can manipulate it.
2. The level of manipulation by Webmasters.

These two things are separate factors, but with human nature being what it is, the easier something is to influence - the more it is manipulated. The combination of these factors determines the "weighting" - i.e., how much we trust the nformation provided by that factor.

So it makes sense to look at these factors in relation to PageRank first.

PageRank is, without doubt, one of the hardest things for a Webmaster to manipulate ethically. However, it is possible to generate links to your site from other sites fairly simply through the use of link farms and guestbooks. Google frowns upon this kind of abuse, and many sites that have tried this have had their PageRank influence blocked. But it must be said that the abuse is still rampant, and that it can have an influence on PageRank. So, whilst not easy to do, PageRank is still subject to manipulation.

The extent to which PageRank is manipulated has also changed. Most people no longer believe Google?s old line of people not being able to influence PageRank and the results based on it. However, there is more information about PageRank available than ever, and people are more aware of manipulation techniques.

So whilst PageRank is valuable, you should be careful not to over-estimate its usage and capabilities. Your final ranking in Google is due to a mix of factors, of 6

which PageRank is only one. We?ll get into more details later by discussing how PageRank is different than the other ranking factors, and thus, when it applies and when it doesn?t. Ironically enough, PageRank's weighting factor is undeniably declining. Since the original version of this paper gave out detailed information about PageRank, in all likelihood it may also have contributed in some small way to the decline in weighting of the very subject it talks about!