| Google likes to offer all kinds of neat little tips and | | | | partially covered in green. The green represents your |
| clues regarding how it views sites. Google PageRank | | | | PageRank and is out of ten. You can run your cursor |
| is one such tool, but with questionable value. | | | | across it and the actual PageRank number will appear. |
| The Red Herring that is Google PageRank | | | | Most sites have a PageRank of 3 to start off with. |
| Google is a highly secretive beast. If you are trying | | | | Google gives itself a rank of 10, while Yahoo and |
| to optimize your site to obtain high rankings, Google | | | | MSN each get a 9. If your bar is grey, it means you |
| will provide you with little or no information. It even | | | | have been banned by Google for doing something |
| fails to show all of the links it is counting to your site, | | | | they don't like in your optimization efforts. If the bar |
| a negative step that no other engine takes. What | | | | is blank, it either means your site has not been |
| Google does provide, however, is the Google | | | | indexed yet, is relatively new or Google is updating |
| PageRank for sites. | | | | its rankings. |
| In my opinion, Google PageRank is a bit of red | | | | So, what does the Google PageRank really mean? |
| herring. I don't believe it tells you much about how | | | | Not much. Originally, it was thought to be a measure |
| Google views your site. Instead, it is a bit of bait | | | | of value compared to other sites. Google still touts |
| designed to get you to download the Google Toolbar. | | | | the tool as this, but this claim appears a bit dubious. |
| Yes, you can only see your PageRank if you | | | | A site with a PageRank of 5 will not necessarily |
| download a Google program on to your computer. | | | | outrank a site with a PageRank of 3. You can |
| And you thought Microsoft was bad! | | | | perform a search on Google for practically any |
| Assuming you have downloaded the toolbar, the | | | | keyword and see as much by looking at the top 5 |
| PageRank is the little bar in the middle that should be | | | | returned listings. |