Page rank is the position that a web page, blog post or article is listed on a search engine result page (a SERP) when a search query has been carried out.
For example – a visitor types words into the Google search like “what is page rank?“.
Once the search button is hit, a long list of relevant results are displayed on a SERP.
The top organic result is (usually) position 1. On this first page results are displayed through to position 10.
If a web page is positioned at number 4 on this list – its page rank is number 4.
Web pages and posts will be ranked at different positions for different key phrases.
The pages are ordered in rank from 1 to 10 across the SERPs. We don’t usually track anything past page 5 – position 50 – because little traffic is gained past this point.
On Google, it’s possible to gain what we call position 0. This is when an item displays above position 1.
Position 0 is presented in the form of SERP Features which are exhibited as:
- The Knowledge Graph (panels or boxes),
- Rich Snippets (product ratings, star ratings),
- Universal Results (images, featured snippets)
- or Paid Results (ads).
Why is page rank important?
Page rank is really important because of the way a visitor makes choices on search results. Websites on the first result page will gain 90% of traffic.
Ranking with video and images
Both video and images rank independently on search engines. A video with the same subject material as a page often ranks above text results in certain search queries – if the search engine deems a video fit for the search.
Page rank summary
- Search engines use indexing to position pages and posts – what we call Page Rank (PageRank).
- SERPs display results across many pages, in groups of 10.
- A SERP = a search engine result page.
- Anything above position 50 gains little traffic.
- Many factors can harm rank.
