I get asked PageRank related questions all the time, so I guess it is time to answer them in writing. PageRank is Googles way of assigning a value to your real estate blog or website based upon its perceived authority. While Google calculates PageRank continuously based on complex algorithms, it only updates the Google PageRank toolbar (data centers) about every three to four months. Want to find out what your current PageRank is, what it should be at the next toolbar update and when that update will be? Read on!

According to Wikipedia, PageRank is a link analysis algorithm which assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set. The algorithm may be applied to any collection of entities with reciprocal quotations and references. The numerical weight that it assigns to any given element E is also called the PageRank of E and denoted by PR(E).

Google uses a complex algorithm to determine the value or PageRank of each web page on the Internet. Google ranks pages from a value of 0 (zero) the lowest, to 10 (ten) the highest with large authority sites like Google itself, MSN and Ebay having the highest page rank. Once you reach a PR 6, you are considered an authority site. Page Rank for is mostly determined by the total number of outside links coming to the site. The higher your PR, the more often your blog or website will get spidered and indexed.

Shout out of the day goes to this Matt Cutts Q&A post on Page Rank

How often does Google update PageRank?

PageRank is updated about every three months, but that is not a hard, fast rule. Thus far, the longest wait between updates has been 122 days. The last major PageRank update was reported in late September 2006. An indicator of a major PageRank update is that Googles various data centers report varying numbers for a single sites PageRank. Some data centers will report 0s when they are being reset for the next update. 

To see if your site is reporting fluctuation in PageRank across data centers, visit Ezer.com.

Want to see what your real estate blog or website is predicted to rank at during the next PageRank update? Check out this cool PageRank predictor from iwebtool.

Check out this site that predicts the date of PageRank updates and chronicles all past PageRank updates. They predict that on January 28, Google will update its PageRank.

Does an update in Page Rank affect SERP?

No. According to Matt Cutts, "By the time you see newer PageRanks in the toolbar, those values have already been incorporated in how we score/rank our search results. So while you may be happy to see that the Google Toolbar shows a little more PageRank for a given page, its not as if that causes a change in search results at that point. So, you wont see any search engine result page (SERP) changes as a result of this PageRank exportthose changes have been gradually baking in since the last PageRank export."

How can I increase my Page Rank at the next Update?

Its all about the quality and quantity of quality backlinks. Just build them and PageRank will come. For example, since the RSS Pieces launch in August of 06, we have built our backlinks to almost 10,000 which puts us securely at a PR 6 at the next update.  Quality backlinks are considered links from other pages back to your that have a comparable or higher PageRank than your own site.

Read also: Ultimate guide to building backlinks

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