You can check your PageRank with a Rank Checker Tool like this one from SEOMoz.org. You an also install a toolbar from Google or Firefox that will tell you the PageRanks of all the pages you look at.
Over the holidays, I read an interesting little essay by Jack Strawman claiming that Google's PageRank is a trap and a snare. Here's his thinking: Google shows searchers pages on the basis of PageRank, which is decided by Google. Since Google makes these decisions on the basis of links, and it is practically impossible to get links by any honest means, webmasters have to go to ads instead of search. Since Google has the best online advertising, that means that webmasters will simply have to advertise with Google. Ipso facto, Google has forced us all to pay for ads through them.
Now, Google does in fact decide which pages to show partially on the basis of PageRank. However, I'm #1 at Google for my main keywords, even though I have only PR3, and I am trailed by quite a few older PR4 websites.
And we know that PageRank is based in part upon links. The thinking is that your page, if it is useful, will naturally get links. After that, Strawman's argument breaks down, it seems to me. The claims that follow are questionable, and the argumentation has holes big enough to drive a truck through.
An essay can be interesting without being convincing.
But I thought of it while I was doing year-end reports. It's fun to do year-end reports. I was sending off word to clients that their formerly PageRank zero pages had climbed to PR3, and that their links had quadrupled, and that really makes you feel like it's time to open the champagne.
How did the PageRank increase? Increased links, yes, and in most cases a rewrite, and in several cases a redesign as well. Had their pages become more useful? Yes. Are they getting better search rankings? Yes. Did they buy ads? No.
In fact, only one of my clients bought ads from Google this year. Their redesign isn't complete yet, they've increased their links significantly, and they've gone -- as many of my clients have this season -- from a PR0 to a PR3. Still worth opening champagne for, but it doesn't support the claim that Google has a cunning plot going on.
If PageRank isn't a cheap trick to make you buy Adwords, what is it? According to Google, "PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results."
Or, according to an early academic paper by Lawrence Page which you can read at Stanford's website, "We assume page A has pages T1...Tn which point to it (i.e., are citations). The parameter d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1. We usually set d to 0.85. There are more details about d in the next section. Also C(A) is defined as the number of links going out of page A. The PageRank of a page A is given as follows:
PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))
Note that the PageRanks form a probability distribution over web pages, so the sum of all web pages' PageRanks will be one."
If they're using 500 million variables and 2 billion terms, not to mention equations which are probably much fancier than this by now, you probably can't guess them all and game them. Why try? Instead, how about making your page trustworthy, useful, and important to human beings?
Because your PageRank is a measure of how well you're doing with your SEO, that's for sure. It's also a measure, though not a perfect one, of how useful your website is. If you don't have the PageRank you think you deserve, then you should contact me and I'll help you fix that. Having a lower PageRank than you deserve means that your website is not being offered to people who are looking for someone like you as often as it should be, so you're not earning as much as you ought to. (I always feel like I deserve a certain market share, don't you?)
PageRank is not, however, a measure of your value as a human being, or even as a company. Nor, in my opinion, is it a cunning plot. It's just a measurement. Measurements can be very useful for telling us whether we're meeting our goals, and for helping us to adjust our strategies if what we're doing isn't working.
An increased PageRank could even be a good New Year's Resolution.
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2 comments:
One of the basic tenets of any kind of marketing is putting your best foot forward and capitalizing on the opportunity to make a good first impression. The first step in formulating a sustainable marketing plan is to understand what the naturally occurring information or opinions are out there about your specific product or service. Next, is to decide if the information paints an accurate picture of you. If it does, you're ahead of the game and you can begin to build upon this. Since the healthcare industry is a little late to the party of web-based and interactive marketing, I expect that most people will find that there is very little information out there about them and their practices. At the very least, you need to be checking to be sure your contact information is accurate and up-to-date. After all, patients can not make appointments if your phone number is wrong. However, all is not lost! The time to think about marketing plan and marketing message is now. As consumers/ patients begin to take a more active role in their own health care, it will become increasingly important to have some sort of web presence. Take action early because it is much better to begin to participate in your web presence early in the game than it is to have to fix huge problems that occur without you knowing. I am a physicist practicing from about 7 years. I was also unaware of such a fruitful resource that can be taken care of. Then I came across a similar blog regarding the website for physicians. I consulted a web designing and marketing company named www.medicalwebexperts.com. They designed my website embellished with a large amount of functionalities which include, learning materials, tests and scans descriptions, information regarding what all we do, blogs where patients can comment on the articles, provide suggestions. And the most important function that was unparallel with every other function was e-Medical Records. They provided the functions to store the details of the test and scans conducted on the patient, hence providing them 24/7 access to the medical details to the patients. And after my website was host and marketed, I am able to feel the outcomes on my income. My patient count is definitely increasing (though not as fast), but quite distinguishing. I would recommend other physicians to create such a website and have an access to a new horizon of opportunities.
In the U.S., there are strong incentives for physicians to create a web presence, and to use electronic billing and record keeping systems as well -- I have a couple of clients who provide those services.
You've described yourself here as a physicist and as a physician. What do you actually do?
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