Google PageRank

Google's PageRank (often simply abbreviated to PR) is an algorithm developed by Larry Page (hence the name PageRank) for evaluating and weighting a website. It is based on the site's link structure. Not only the number of incoming links (quantity) but also their strength (quality) plays a decisive role.

PageRank and SEO

For SEOs, the PageRank was for a long time the number one metric in link building, following the motto “No high PageRank – no link”. Until 2016, Google displayed a page's PageRank as a value from 0 to 10 in the Google Toolbar. Because this fuelled a veritable trade in links, Google updated the public value less and less often and discontinued the display entirely in 2016. Since then, there has been no publicly available PageRank and no PageRank updates. The principle itself hasn't disappeared, however: Google still evaluates links – just invisibly. For search engine optimisation, this means: it's not the sheer number of links that counts, but their quality, topical relevance and the trustworthiness of the linking pages.
For a link to pass on link equity, it should be a normal link. Links with the attributes “nofollow”, “sponsored” or “ugc” signal to Google that they are not an editorial recommendation.

Can PageRank still be measured today?

The real PageRank has not been retrievable since 2016; browser extensions that still display a “PageRank” deliver their own estimates. Instead, SEO tools calculate their own metrics modelled on the PageRank principle – such as Domain Rating in Ahrefs, Authority Score in Semrush or the link metrics in tools such as Sistrix or Majestic. They are well suited for comparing link sources, but are not official Google values.

Internal Google documents that became public in 2024 recently confirmed that links and PageRank-like signals are still important to Google: they mention several variants of PageRank that Google uses to evaluate pages.