{"id":21318,"date":"2020-01-28T12:01:47","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T12:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/page-rank"},"modified":"2026-09-14T10:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T10:41:15","slug":"pagerank","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/pagerank","title":{"rendered":"PageRank"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"page rank\" class=\"boxpad alignright wp-image-14713 size-full\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/page_rank.png\" style=\"margin-top:0;\" width=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/page_rank.png 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/page_rank-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><strong>Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>PageRank<\/strong> is a link analysis algorithm that estimates the relative importance of a page within a network of linked pages. Developed in the early days of Google, its name refers to Larry Page, one of its co-founders. Its operation has evolved, and it remains part of Google&#8217;s ranking systems.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/seo-agency-spain\">SEO<\/a>, PageRank is not the same as a page&#8217;s position in search results. For example, if a website specialising in cars appears among the top five results for the search &#34;cars&#34;, that position is not its PageRank. Rankings depend on the query and on multiple systems and signals.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Factors that affect PageRank<\/h2>\n<p>The calculation is based on relationships between pages established through links. To understand how it works, it is useful to distinguish these elements:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Importance of incoming links:<\/strong> not all links carry the same weight. In the original model, a link from a page with a higher PageRank can pass more value than one from a page with a lower PageRank.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Number of incoming links:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/backlink\">backlinks<\/a> contribute to the calculation, but their number alone does not determine the result. The value passed by each linking page also matters.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Outgoing links on the linking page:<\/strong> in the original model, the value a page distributes is divided among its outgoing links. Receiving a link therefore does not mean receiving all of the linking page&#8217;s PageRank.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Site structure:<\/strong> internal links also connect pages and contribute to the distribution of PageRank. A site&#8217;s architecture determines which pages are linked and how they relate to one another.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Content quality and updates can encourage other pages to link to it, but they are not direct variables in the original PageRank calculation. Likewise, dwell time, bounce rate and click-through rate are not part of that calculation.<\/p>\n<h2>The usefulness of PageRank in SEO<\/h2>\n<p>PageRank helps explain why links matter to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/search-engine\">search engines<\/a>. However, it should not be confused with a complete measure of a page&#8217;s quality, relevance or ability to rank.<\/p>\n<p>Google stopped displaying the public PageRank indicator that was available through its toolbar. Removing that indicator did not mean the system had disappeared: <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/appearance\/ranking-systems-guide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PageRank remains part of Google&#8217;s ranking systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The authority metrics offered by SEO tools are those platforms&#8217; own indicators, not Google&#8217;s internal PageRank. They can help compare link profiles, but they do not reveal its exact value or guarantee a particular ranking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Definition: PageRank is a link analysis algorithm that estimates the relative importance of a page within a network of linked pages. Developed in the early days of Google, its name refers to Larry Page, one of its co-founders. Its operation has evolved, and it remains part of Google&#8217;s ranking systems. In SEO, PageRank is not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[1249],"class_list":["post-21318","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-search-algorithms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/21318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=21318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}