Page Rank - Google Juice

You wouldn't think computer gurus at Google would care about popularity. It's ironic, but they do. Site popularity is the number one factor determining where you rank at Google.

Google uses a popularity measure called Page Rank. Google ranks every site on the Internet, from the most popular page to the least popular. Page Rank is not traffic. It's a measure of how connected a site is - how many incoming links it has. Google loves popular sites. They also love sites with links from popular sites.

When a high Page Rank site links to you, it's like being invited into the in-crowd in high school. A single inbound link from a high Page Rank site (like CNN for example) will send you rocketing up in Google. A quality inbound link is called Google juice. If you want juice with Google, score the quality inbound link.

Google includes a Page Rank indicator in their Google Toolbar. The Google Toolbar installs in your browser. You'll find Google Toolbar here:

http://toolbar.google.com

If you are a marketing professional, Page Rank (a green bar on the toolbar) is important. When the green indicator is full, Page Rank is high. When it's empty, Page Rank is low. You want to put time and effort into procuring incoming links from high Page Rank sites. If you can get one, it's a major marketing coup.

We're back in high school trying to get into the in-crowd. We need to become part of this group. That's how Google see it. You wouldn't think gurus would buy into this popularity thing but they have. All we can do is play the game. The game is Page Rank.

Put your time into getting links from high Page Rank sites. Don't waste time or money on low Page Rank sites. It's Google's world and this is how the game is played.