PageRank — Measure of Authority of web page
Exhibit 18.21 Authority (PageRank = size of face) of a page is proportional to the total size of faces pointing to it. (Source: Wikipedia)
Named after Larry Page, PageRank is a measure for the “authority” of a web page. It is one of Google’s key metrics for ranking webpages.
Similar to citation-based criteria for assessing importance of academic research, PageRank is based on the notion that inbound links determine the “authority” or importance of a web page. Importantly, PageRank is not merely a numeric count of inbound links; recursive in nature, it weighs the importance (link equity ≈ PageRank) of the page that contains the link. As depicted in Exhibit 18.21, links arriving from pages with higher PageRank have more weight than links from pages with lower PageRank.
This evokes the notion of link equity, which is a function of PageRank as well as elements specific to the link itself, such as the traffic through the link, page relevance, and independence of source.
Link Equity
Link equity is the value or charge a link imparts in raising the web page’s authority. With reference to Exhibit 18.22, it is a function of:
- Authority: The linking site’s (site A) authority (≈ PageRank).
- Relevance: The extent that the page A’s content is of relevance to page B.
- Traffic from A to B via the link.
- Diversity: Links from 10 different sites are more valuable than 10 links from one site.
- Independence of the source: Links from independent sources are more valuable.
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