What is Google Pagerank and How Do I Interpret It?

Google Pagerank is Google’s 0 to 10 score for a website that provides a rough guide to how authoritative it appears to Google. You’ll see Pagerank abbreviated as PR, so a PR5 website has a Google Pagerank of 5.

If you don’t know it, check your own Pagerank using the page rank checker below and come on back when you have finished.

Check Page Rank of any web site pages instantly:

This free page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service

If you use Firefox, you can install the SearchStatus addon to see the pagerank for the current website at the bottom right of your browser. If you use IE, you can switch to Firefox or use the Google Toolbar for IE.

So once you know your Pagerank, what does it all mean?

Well, first of all keep in mind that the Pagerank scale doesn’t work in a straight line, it is logarithmic. That means the step up from 1 to 2 is less than the step up from 2 to 3, which is itself less than the step up from 3 to 4. There are very few websites with a PR 10 - only about 17 in total. There are untold zillions without any pagerank at all.

Pagerank is recalculated by Google quite frequently, but they only publish the ‘visible’ Pagerank once every few months (used to be around 3 months, but is changing a bit faster these days). So your Pagerank will sit at a constant level most of the time, only changing when Google update the visible Pagerank (which will occur for all websites over a period of a few days).

Ok, so that is what it is, but what should you aim for? What is good, what is bad? Here is a real world guide to Google pagerank for small to medium business.

Pagerank	Sleep well at night?
0 / Unassigned	If your site has been live for more than a few months and you have a 0 or unassigned Pagerank, you have a problem. Very hard to get any search visitors at all with a PR 0
1 or 2	A start. Maybe only a few links to your site. You will benefit from publishing relevant content and earning some links to lift your pagerank.
3	Ok for a small business websites. You’ve established reasonable authority, and will be able to rank for niche searches.
4	This is a very good base for a business website. It is very achievable, and means you will probably rank well for relevant niche keywords.
5	Excellent authority, very strong base for organic search. You probably had to pay for some high authority links from major directories to crack this.
6 or 7	You’ve done something exceptional here, with significant investment of time and money. Probably not warranted for a small business, as you have either had to pay for some serious link building or done the hard yards yourself.
8 or higher.	Wake up, you’re dreaming. Not for mere mortals like us.