PageRank is an algorithm that scores a web page based on the links pointing to it, weighted by how strong the linking pages are. Larry Page and Sergey Brin published it on Google in 1998. The public score disappeared in 2016, but the underlying maths is still running.
How the maths works
Think of a person clicking links at random forever. PageRank is the probability that this random surfer lands on any given page. A page linked from many places gets visited more, so it scores higher. A page linked from pages that are themselves heavily linked scores higher still, because the surfer is more likely to pass through them.
Two details do most of the work. First, a page’s score is divided among the links it gives out, so a link from a page with 5 outbound links passes more than a link from a page with 500. Second, a damping factor around 0.85 represents the chance the surfer gets bored and jumps to a random page instead. That is what stops the whole thing collapsing into loops.
What survives today
Google removed the Toolbar PageRank score because people optimised for the number rather than the user. The internal signal stayed. Google confirmed in 2017 that PageRank is still used, and its documentation still describes links as a core ranking input.
What has changed is the surrounding machinery. Links are now assessed for relevance, topic, placement, trust and whether they look earned. A link from a page about your subject is worth far more than an equally linked page about something unrelated. Raw quantity stopped working a long time ago.
What it means for how you build links
- Fewer, stronger links win. One link from a genuinely authoritative, relevant page beats fifty from directories nobody reads.
- Internal links move real weight. PageRank flows through your own site too, so a page buried five clicks deep receives almost none of it. Linking to it from your strongest pages costs nothing.
- Outbound links are not a leak worth fearing. Linking out to good sources is normal. Hoarding links by no-following everything was discredited years ago.
- Redirect chains lose value. Each hop can lose signal and slow crawling. Point old URLs straight at the final destination.
Understanding where link equity sits, and where it is stuck, is one of the first things we look at in any SEO engagement.
Common questions
Can I see my PageRank score?
Google retired the public score in 2016 without any replacement since. Third-party metrics such as Domain Rating and Domain Authority estimate something similar from their own link indexes. They are useful for comparison between sites, but they are not Google’s numbers and should never be reported as if they were.
Does nofollow still block PageRank?
Since 2019, Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than a strict rule, so it may or may not pass value. In practice, assume a nofollowed link passes little or nothing and treat any effect as a bonus. Sponsored and UGC attributes work the same way.
Do links from the same site count more than once?
Additional links from a domain you already link to give diminishing returns, which is why referring domains matter more than total backlink count. Ten links from ten sites beat fifty from one. That said, a second link from a strong, relevant site on a new page is still worth having.
See our glossary entry for PageRank.
