PageRank is the algorithm that started Google. Named after co-founder Larry Page, it was the core innovation that made Google's search results dramatically better than every competitor in 1998 — and despite being over 25 years old, its fundamental principles still underpin how Google evaluates the authority and importance of web pages today.

Understanding PageRank is not just historical trivia. It explains why backlinks matter, why some links are worth more than others, and why your internal linking structure has a measurable impact on your rankings.

The Core Idea Behind PageRank

PageRank treats every link on the web as a vote. When page A links to page B, it is casting a vote for page B's importance. But not all votes are equal — a vote from a highly trusted, authoritative page carries more weight than a vote from an obscure, low-authority page.

This creates a recursive system: a page's authority is determined by the authority of the pages linking to it, which is itself determined by the authority of the pages linking to those pages. The algorithm calculates a score for every page on the web simultaneously, iterating until the scores stabilise.

The result is a relative measure of importance: pages that many authoritative sites link to score highly, pages that few sites link to score lower, and pages with no links score lowest of all.

How PageRank Distributes Through Links

When a page links out to other pages, it distributes its PageRank among those links. A page with high authority linking to only two pages passes more authority per link than the same page linking to fifty pages.

This is the mathematical basis for everything we covered in our guide to link equity. The "link juice" concept is simply PageRank in plain language — authority flowing from one page to another through links.

It also explains why the number of outbound links on a page matters. A link from a page with 200 outbound links passes a fraction of the equity that a link from a page with 5 outbound links passes, assuming equal authority.

The Damping Factor

PageRank includes a damping factor — originally set at 0.85 — that models the probability of a random web surfer continuing to click links versus stopping and starting fresh. This prevents authority from accumulating infinitely at highly-linked pages and ensures that every page on the web has some base level of potential PageRank regardless of its link profile.

The practical implication is that PageRank never reaches zero — even completely unlinked pages have a tiny base score. But the difference between a page with strong backlinks and one with none is enormous in practice.

Is PageRank Still Used Today?

Google stopped publishing public PageRank scores in 2016 — the green toolbar score that used to be visible in the Google Toolbar was retired. But internally, Google confirmed as recently as 2020 that PageRank is still a core part of their ranking system, running continuously across the entire web.

The third-party metrics that SEOs use today — Moz's Domain Authority and Page Authority, Ahrefs' Domain Rating and URL Rating, Semrush's Authority Score — are all attempts to estimate a site's PageRank using observable link data. They are approximations, not the real thing, but they correlate well with actual rankings in practice.

What PageRank Means for Your SEO Strategy

Build links from authoritative pages. A single link from a high-PageRank page is worth more than dozens of links from low-authority pages. As we covered in our guide to checking backlink quality, authority and relevance together determine a link's real value.

Control your internal PageRank flow. Your homepage typically has the highest PageRank on your site because it receives the most external links. Your internal linking structure determines how that authority flows to your other pages. Use our internal link checker to map where your authority is flowing and ensure your most important pages receive strong internal links from your highest-authority pages.

Fix broken links immediately. A broken link is a PageRank leak — authority flows toward it but cannot continue further. Use our broken link checker to find and fix these leaks across your site.

Summary

PageRank is Google's foundational link authority algorithm, still active today despite no longer being publicly visible. It explains why links matter, why link quality varies enormously, and why your internal linking structure directly affects your rankings. Build authoritative backlinks, manage your internal link structure carefully, and fix broken links to keep your PageRank flowing efficiently.

Missed the previous article? Read: How to Check If a Website Is Worth Getting a Link From