What Is PageRank? Google's Link Algorithm Explained

PageRank is an algorithm that measures how important a web page is, based on the links pointing to it. This guide explains the idea in plain words. It walks through the formula with a tiny example, then shows how PageRank still matters for SEO today.

Updated 26 Oct 20268 min readChecked against the original 1998 paper

Quick answer

PageRank treats a link as a vote. A page linked by many important pages gets a high score, then passes some of that score to the pages it links to. Larry Page and Sergey Brin created it at Stanford in the late 1990s. Google still uses it today, as one of many ranking signals.

Written by Usman AliGrowth and SEO specialist · 7 years in SEO

The basics

What Is PageRank, in Plain Words

Think of the web as a giant school election. Every link is a vote, but votes from popular students count for more.

Before PageRank, most search engines judged pages mainly by the words on them. That was easy to fool. A page could repeat a keyword hundreds of times to jump to the top.

PageRank added a new question: who links to this page? A link from a respected site suggests the page is worth reading. The idea came from academic papers, where a study cited by many other studies is seen as important. It became the foundation of Google, then a core part of search engine algorithms in general.

Count matters

A page with many incoming links usually earns more PageRank than a page with few.

Better links

Quality matters more

One link from a highly ranked page can be worth more than dozens from unknown pages.

The math

The PageRank Formula, Made Simple

The formula looks scary, yet each part has a simple meaning. Here is the common modern version.

PR(A) = (1 - d) / N + d × ( ~~PR(T1) / C(T1)~~ + ... + ~~PR(Tn) / C(Tn)~~ ) PR(A) the PageRank of page A T1..Tn the pages that link to page A C(T) how many links page T has in total d the damping factor, usually 0.85 N the total number of pages

Part	What it means in plain words
PR(T) / C(T)	A page splits its score evenly across all its links. More links means a smaller share each.
Damping factor d	Imagine a surfer clicking links at random. 85 percent of the time they click on, 15 percent they jump anywhere.
(1 minus d) / N	Every page gets a small base score, so no page is ever exactly zero.

The formula is run again and again across the whole web. Each round, scores move a little closer to their final values, until they stop changing.

Worked example

PageRank on a Tiny Web of Three Pages

Let us run the formula on a web with only three pages. The result shows why link structure matters.

APage A: 0.388Links to B and C. Gets one link, from C.

BPage B: 0.215Links to C. Gets half of A’s vote.

CPage C: 0.397Links to A. Gets votes from both A and B.

We start every page at the same score of one third. After the formula runs many times with d set to 0.85, the scores settle at the numbers above. Together they add up to 1.

Page C wins because two pages link to it. Page A comes a close second, since its only link comes from the strongest page, C. Page B is last, because it receives just half of A’s vote. The lesson for your site is clear. Pages that get links from your strongest pages tend to rank better.

Real-world case

The Rise and Fall of the PageRank Score

Case study

How a public number started a link market

PageRank built Google, but showing the score in public caused real trouble.

1996Larry Page and Sergey Brin build a search project at Stanford, first called BackRub.
1998They publish the PageRank paper, then found Google the same year.
2000The Google Toolbar shows every page a public score from 0 to 10.
2000sA market grows for buying or selling links from high-score pages. Google fights back with link spam rules.
2013 to 2016Google stops updating the toolbar score, then removes it for good.

PageRank never went away inside Google. Only the public number disappeared, because it encouraged people to chase links rather than build good pages.

Lesson: earn links by being worth linking to. Bought links break Google's spam policies, which can cost you rankings.

Use it today

How PageRank Affects Your SEO Today

You cannot see your PageRank, yet you can still put the idea to work.

Link to key pages

Link your most important pages from your homepage or popular posts. They pass the most value.

Internal links

Earn real links

Useful guides, tools or original data attract links naturally. One trusted link beats many weak ones.

External links

Avoid orphan pages

A page with no internal links gets almost no PageRank. It may not even be found.

Site structure

Canonical tags help here too. They gather links that point at duplicate URLs onto one page. Our canonical tag guide explains how. For the full list of other signals, see our guide to Google ranking factors.

FAQ

Questions About PageRank

Does Google still use PageRank?

Yes. Google lists link analysis systems, including PageRank, among its ranking systems. Today it is one signal among many, not the main deciding factor.

Can I check my PageRank score?

No. Google stopped updating the public Toolbar PageRank in 2013, then removed it completely in 2016. Third-party authority scores are only estimates.

Who invented PageRank?

Larry Page and Sergey Brin created it as Stanford University students. The name comes from Larry Page, though it also fits the idea of ranking pages.

Do nofollow links pass PageRank?

Google treats nofollow as a hint. In most cases these links do not pass ranking credit, so they add little PageRank to the target page.

Do internal links pass PageRank?

Yes. Links between your own pages share value too. That is why important pages should get links from your homepage or popular posts.

Wrapping up

Final Thoughts on PageRank

PageRank changed search forever. It turned links into votes, then used those votes to sort the web by importance. More than 25 years later, the same simple idea still lives inside Google, working next to many newer systems.

You do not need the formula to use it well. Remember three points. Links from strong, relevant pages count most. A page shares its value across every link it has. Pages with no links pointing to them get almost nothing. So build a clear internal link structure, point your best pages at your most important ones, then earn outside links with content people want to share. That is PageRank working for you, without a single calculation.

Keep learning

Where to Go Next

/ranking/Search engine rankingHow results are ordered./ranking/google-ranking-factors/Google ranking factorsEvery signal, grouped./ranking/search-engine-algorithms/Search engine algorithmsFrom PageRank to BERT./indexing/canonical-tag/Canonical tagKeep link value together./search-engines/history/History of search enginesWhere PageRank came from./resources/glossary/Search engine glossaryEvery ranking term, defined.