Google officially removes Toolbar PageRank

Google has confirmed with SearchEngineLand that it will remove the Toolbar PageRank in the coming weeks.

What is the Google Page Rank?

The PageRank was created by Larry Page and Sergei Brin in 1997. It is an algorithm that evaluates the importance of a webpage based on its inbound links. The more inbound links a page has, the higher it is weighted and the better its PageRank is.

Figure 1: PageRank display in the Google Toolbar

Initially, the PageRank score formed the basis for the ranking algorithm. With time, other factors became more important for the analysis. These were integrated in the algorithm, and the PageRank gradually lost its significance.

The green status bar in the Google Toolbar has always made most website operators consider the page rank a constant key figure for a page’s ranking. However, Google no longer updates the PageRank score regularly. The update intervals kept on increasing. As it stands, Google hasn’t updated the PageRank display in the Google Toolbar in over 10 months.

OnPageRank: Google PageRank’s little brother

The OnPageRank (OPR) is used by OnPage.org to show the importance of a page within a website.

Figure 2: The OPR in OnPage.org Zoom

The OPR reflects a page’s internal link juice within the website. The higher the OPR, the more interlinked the page is within the website.

In addition to inbound internal links, OnPage.org also takes into account internal nofollow links, inbound canonical tags, and rel next/prev references in order to easily identify and outline the strongest and weakest URLs in the domain.

Figure 3: Factors considered when calculating the OPR

How to optimize the link juice distribution on your website

Many inbound links and other references are usually the key to a well-linked page and, hence, a high OPR. Visitors on a website are more likely to view pages that are well-linked. Pages that have a much lower OPR due to their low number of inbound links are much harder to find.

In general, it is advisable to ensure a strong internal linking. You should make sure that the most important pages have a high OPR. To improve the OPR of your pages, simply add links or references from other strongly-linked, thematically-relevant pages.

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A solid internal linking has the following advantages:

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• Search engines are able to find well-linked content more easily

• Users are more likely to find well-linked content

• Your rankings will improve in the long term

The best way to monitor improvements in your rankings is with the new OnPage.org Keywords Module.

Conclusion

The PageRank was the original concept that the Google Algorithm was based on. And even though the Google PageRank status will soon be removed, one can only assume that Google will continue to use the PageRank internally.

You can use smart tools, such as OnPage.org ;), to find out how strong your pages are and keep track of the link distribution on your website.

Log in now and check the OPR of your webpages!