PageRank is the method Google’s founders devised to score the importance of a web page by looking at the links pointing to it. Each link acts like a vote, and a vote from a page that is itself important counts for more. It was the idea that set Google apart from earlier search engines, and it is named after Larry Page, not after web pages.
How PageRank works
The original model, described by Page and Sergey Brin in their 1998 research at Stanford, imagines a “random surfer” who clicks links at random and occasionally jumps to a completely new page. A page’s PageRank is the likelihood that this surfer ends up on it. Pages that many other pages link to, especially well-linked pages, collect a higher score.
Three features of the model still shape how SEO people think about links:
- Value flows through links. A page passes a share of its own score to the pages it links to. This is the idea behind link equity.
- Value is divided. A page with hundreds of outgoing links passes less to each one than a page with a handful.
- Value decays. A damping factor means not all value passes on at each step, so influence fades over a long chain of links.
For years Google showed a public 0 to 10 PageRank score in its browser toolbar. That score was updated rarely, encouraged a market in buying and selling links, and was withdrawn in 2016. The internal calculation was never shown publicly in full.
Why it matters
Google has confirmed over the years that a modern descendant of PageRank is still one of many signals it uses, alongside a vast number of others that judge relevance, quality and spam. Links on their own no longer decide rankings, and Google now discounts links it judges manipulative rather than counting them.
The principle remains useful for a UK business in two places. Externally, a single backlink from a respected, relevant site, such as a regional newspaper, a trade body or a university department, is worth more than many links from weak or unrelated pages. Internally, the way you link your own pages decides where authority flows. If your homepage attracts most of your outside links but barely links to your main service pages, those pages receive little of that strength.
Common mistakes
- Looking for a PageRank number. No public score exists any more. Tools that claim to show PageRank are showing their own estimate, such as Moz Page Authority or Ahrefs URL Rating.
- “PageRank sculpting” with nofollow. Adding nofollow to internal links to steer value no longer works the way people hoped; Google changed how it treats nofollow long ago.
- Counting links instead of weighing them. A big number of low-quality links can do more harm than good.
- Neglecting internal links. Owners spend on outreach while their most important pages sit five clicks deep with almost no internal links.
How to act on it
Start with your own site, because you control it completely. Find the pages with the most outside links, usually the homepage and perhaps a popular guide, and make sure they link clearly to the pages that earn you money. Keep important pages within a few clicks of the homepage and link between closely related pages with descriptive anchor text. That is the practical core of internal linking.
Then build external links the way PageRank always rewarded: by being worth citing: useful local data, a clear guide, a genuine partnership or sponsorship that the partner mentions on their site. Relevance and trust matter far more than volume. If you want help earning those links safely, that is the focus of my link building service.