Page Rank Explained
PageRank is a numeric value which is the measure of importance Google assigns to a Web page on a scale of 1 to 10. PageRank represents how important a page is on the web. Google figures that when one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page. It is like a site is referring to another site. The more votes a page gets through link, the more important the page must be. Google calculates a page's importance from the votes cast for it. Each vote's importance is is considered when a page's PageRank is calculated.
PageRank is Google's way of deciding a page's importance. It matters because it is one of the factors that determines a page's ranking in the search results. It is one of the most important factors along with many others that Google uses to Rank pages. You can check the PageRank value of every page you visit by downloading the Google Toolbar.
Google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, formulated a Search Engine algorithm that shifted the ranking weight to "off-page" factors. They developed a formula called PageRank, in which the algorithm counts the number of sites that link to a page and then assigns the page an importance score on a scale of 1-10. The higher the number and importance of sites that link to your page, the higher the PageRank of your Web site. However, not all links are counted by Google. For instance, they discard the links from known link farms. Some links can cause a site to be penalized by Google.
This algorithm has helped provide authentic and quality information. With this formula, it has become very tough for web masters to use dishonest ways and get their pages to get a good rank. Webmasters who use incorrect methods to get links can infact get a lower rank.
Read more about Google's Page Rank here: Google's Page Rank
and Page Rank Explained BY webworkshop.
