Toolbar PageRank - Is it Worth Paying Attention?

The dual Nature of PageRank

PageRank is simply a way for Google to measure the relative importance of each web page in its index, based on the frequency they're referred to throughout the internet. A more technical approach defines PageRank as being a link analysis algorithm.

There are two versions of this system which give rise to the expression: the dual nature of PageRank. In the first instance you have the real PageRank, and in the second instance you have the Toolbar PageRank. The Toolbar version (employed by webmasters) uses values from 1 to 10 to "score" web pages and to simulate the real PageRank ratings.

Although both variants operate on a numerical basis, the real PageRank is expressed with larger figures reaching even millions, as opposed to Toolbar PR with the tenth grade being the highest.

What the 11 level toolbar does is sort webpages from 0 to 10, according to the real page each accumulates after launching.

Looking at two web pages, where one has a PageRank of 2 and the other has 4, the difference is not merely 2. In real PageRank scoring, the difference is multiplied many times higher.

Unfortunately no one knows how Google calculates the PR value of a page or where are those breaking points - that determine the 11 grades - built.

Still, there is one insight that Google give us to how it calculates a webpage real PR:

Each toolbar PageRank level is exponentially greater than the one before it, thus being more difficult to achieve. In other words What was sufficient to go from PR2 to PR 3 level, won't be enough to go from PR3 to PR4.
These are some helpful steps to help you understand the mechanism more readily:

1. Google assesses web pages, not websites.

2. The same toolbar PageRank level (say 2, e.g.) corresponds to a wide range of real PageRank. So, even though two pages may show the same PR value, their real PageRank amount could be wide apart, or indeed very close.

3. All things being equal,a considerable quantity of back links emanating from the same web domain will score lowly as fewer back links coming from different domains.

4. In the first instance, a web page is allotted a low PageRank score referred to as "1-d", and where the value "d" can and does change and it is contained by what Google have christened the "damping factor". A newly assessed web page will be given a "d" rating of 0.85, but in real PageRank terms this will result in a value of 0.15. This is the dual nature of PageRank in action.

5. In order to progress to the top of the toolbar scale, you will have to constantly increase the number of inbound links referencing your site.

6. Every third month, the PageRank Toolbar is amended. However,(and this is another example of the dual nature of PageRank), the Real PageRank undergoes real time updating, with the result that Real PageRank is always totally up to date. This sometimes results in web pages being given a higher placement on search engine report pages, than other web pages of higher merit.

7. PageRank is a matter of web popularity - the more popular a page gets the more will be referenced through back links by (preferably) already trusted websites.

The way Google works: After stacking up a considerable number of web pages in its index, Google then rates these pages according to the trust and popularity they enjoy online - expressed by the number of links pointing back to them. Of course there are the on-page factors that should be considered, also.
PageRank Dynamics - The Principles:

- Every webpage receives PageRank as other pages link to it. More and more, nofollow tags seem to be disregarded by some Search Engines like MSN and Yahoo, so there is no restriction to passing link juice.

- PageRank coming from an internal webpage has an equal contribution as PageRank received from a webpage on a different domain as long as these two linking pages have the same PR score.

- Web pages won't lose PageRank because they link to other pages. It's just passed along to the linked webpages. Google appreciates an open policy for relevant outbound linking as opposed to PageRank sculpting practices.

- PageRank passed to other webpages is divided between the total number of links leaving the referring page.

- Because of the damping factor, an inbound link is limited to 85% of its value.