Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Google Page Rank

"What is Google Page Rank and how do I find out what my page rank is?"
This is a question that I am asked on every third or fourth meeting I have with attorneys that are trying to increase traffic to their website.

First, Google Page rank is a proprietary ranking done by Google which determines the "power" of a certain website. A lot of what goes into this ranking is the idea of incoming links to your website. On a basic level the more incoming links you have (other websites, blogs, or forums that reference your website address) the higher your Google page rank. The ranking of a site that references your site has a lot to do in your own Google page rank. For instance, if your site is referenced on the Yahoo! home page (Google page rank of 9) this is worth a lot more towards your page rank than your cousin's reunion website (Google rank of 0).

Second, in my opinion, lawyers get too caught up with page rank. My advice is to get your website listed on other legitimate sites. Do not cut corners and get your site listed on a less than reputable site. This can do more harm than good. Incoming links is only one aspect of getting listed high on the search engines.

Third, how do I find out my legal website Google page rank? Very simply, down load the Google toolbar. This toolbar will let you know the page rank on every page you visit. I personally use this toolbar for other stuff as well such as an easy search, autolink, and pop up blocker.

By the way, the only website that has a ranking of 10 (1 to 10) is Google. Funny how they would rank their website the highest...

Until next time,

Donald

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good post, I fell into the "page rank" trap myself