Google PageRank and Link Popularity Are Not Inclusive
By Rick Baize

Like many of you I use to require anyone that I accepted a reciprocal link from must have an equal to or higher Google PageRank (PR) then my website had. Many of you may still do this. If you still are correlating PageRank and Link Popularity you may want to read the rest of this article and perhaps reconsider.

Of the numerous web sites my company manages we began coding the home page Google PR of the sites that we accepted reciprocal links from. Then we started to look at what Google was actually recognizing as a reciprocal links and comparing that to the PR's we collected and low and behold what did we discover? The majority of the Google recognized sites had a low or even "0" PageRank.

Take our site www.internet-marketing-one.com and search Google for its links. This site has a home page with a Google PR5. While we have over 225 actual reciprocal links, Google says they recognize 43 links. Now let's look at those links and their PR. Of the first 10 links 7 had a PR less then our PR5:

1. PR0 http://www.wiring-harness-ron-francis.com/SectionD-Grounding/page0001.htm
2. PR0 http://www.wiring-harness-ron-francis.com/SectionB-Accessories/page0004.htm
3. PR2 http://www.seospot.com/links/seo/Computers/Internet/ Web_Design_and_Development/Promotion/ Search_Engine_Optimization_Firms/I/
4. PR3 http://www.fusionwebfx.com/linklist.html
5. PR3 http://www.01webdirectory.com/internet_marketing.htm
6. PR2 http://www.irishis.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=0
7. PR3 http://www.msdetta.com/the_link_list.html

Of the second group of 10 links 9 had a PR less then 5 with two having a PR0 and one a PR1.

1. PR3 http://www.wiring-harness-ron-francis.com/general-automotive.htm
2. PR3 http://www.classiccarpartsfinder.com/advertising_statistics.htm
3. PR0 http://www.apollodm.com/linklist.html
4. PR2 http://directory.primeheadlines.com/Computers/Internet/ Web_Design_and_Development/Promotion/ Search_Engine_Optimization_Firms/I/
5. PR4 http://www.healthyweight-loss.net/yoga.htm
6. PR0 http://www.arnoldaerial.com/links/Marketing.html
7. PR3 http://www.gyanart.com/resources/internetmarketing.html
8. PR4 http://www.10e20webdesign.com/internet_web_promotion.htm
9. PR1 http://www.successpromotions.com/the-link-list.html

Of the third group of 10, 7 had PR's under 5, one with a PR0.

1. PR4 http://www.squareround.com/linklist/linklist.php
2. PR3 http://www.singaporewebhosting.com/resources/internet-marketing.shtml
3. PR2 http://www.blueskywebdesign.biz/internet.php
4. PR4 http://www.classiccarpartsfinder.com/auto_parts_av.htm
5. PR3 http://www.web4now.co.uk/thelinklist.php
6. PR0 http://wwww.myweddingfavors.com/link-other.html
7. PR4 http://www.knobblycrab.co.uk/website-design-links4.html

The same was true of the remaining recognized links and as you can see from the data above the lower PR's seemed to be what Google was recognizing. Approximately 75% of all the Google reciprocal links on all our web sites have a PageRank below that of our website. It seems that Google's ranking formula may actually give a greater credit to linking with a less popular site then you own, or at least that is what this data seems to shows. Most of the other links on our site that Google hasn't recognized have a PR4 or higher.

This is why we changed our reciprocal linking policy for our web site and all our clients where we now accept all related links regardless of the current Google PageRank. To avoid linking to a banned site we do require a site to obtain a Google PR within 4 months. As our data shows, even if a site only picks up a Google PR1 if it's recognized it adds value to our client's site.  This change in policy has brought increased success with more Google recognized links and subsequent higher ranking then previously.

So what value does Google PageRank have? It tells us if the site might be banned if it is an old site and still doesn't have a PR. It tells us how strong Google is crawling the site. For instance if the home page is a PR6 and our link is place 3 pages back, we know Google will probably crawl it since we usually lose 2 Google rank numbers for each page back (sometimes only 1).  Other then this it has very little value.

Conclusion: Don't penalize your link popularity program by tying it to Google's PageRank. Many of the low PR sites you turn away may be the ones that provide the best chance to pick up another Google Recognized link and increase your site popularity and search engine ranking.

Google's PageRank is a minor tool in the puzzle, one which I am sure Google executives laughed over when so many people made PageRank so important. It's just one minor factor out of hundreds used to rank a website.

About the Author: Rick Baize is a 29 year retired United States Air Force Officer, formerly a base communication commander. Before retiring he spent 1-1/2 tours at Andrews AFB and in the Pentagon as the Plans and Programs Division Chief in charge of future development and modernization of all ANG computers and communications worldwide. He currently owns a couple internet businesses, one being an Internet Marketing One.Com. He also substitute teaches at local schools grade K-12.