What is PageRank and how can you improve it?

Many pages on the internet do not receive a single external backlink. This means that two out of three pages exist in practical terms without any authority signal to indicate to Google why they should rank them.

This is not a trivial statistic. It's the reason why your site can have quality content and still not appear in the top search positions. PageRank is the concept behind that gap, and understanding it is the first step to closing it.

What is PageRank

PageRank is the original algorithm with which Google determined, since 1998, the relevance and authority of a web page. It was created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while researching at Stanford University, and its logic is elegant in its simplicity:

A page is important if other important pages link to it.

Instead of evaluating content on its own, Google measured the collective behavior of the web: how many sites considered a page valuable enough to link to it. A link from another site was interpreted as a vote of confidence. And not all votes were equal: a link from a high-authority site carried more "weight" than one from a recent site with no history.

This mechanism transformed search. Before Google, search engines relied mainly on the textual content of the page. PageRank added a social layer: the reputation built by third-party links.

Is PageRank still relevant in 2025?

Google stopped publishing the public PageRank indicator in 2016. However, the underlying concept remains one of the most influential ranking factors within the algorithm.

The algorithm has evolved considerably in twenty years. Today, Google not only counts links: it evaluates their thematic relevance, the authority of the linking domain, the context of the anchor text, and the nature of the link (follow or nofollow). It also penalizes manipulated or low-quality backlink profiles.

But the core logic remains: sites with a solid, diverse, and thematically relevant link profile rank better than those lacking that external support.

The metrics that replaced PageRank

When Google removed the PageRank bar, the main market tools developed their own metrics to approximate that value:

Domain Authority (DA) — Moz: Scale from 0 to 100 that predicts a domain's ranking probability based on its backlink profile.

Domain Rating (DR) — Ahrefs: Measures the strength of a domain's backlink profile compared to other domains in the Ahrefs database.

Authority Score (AS) — Semrush: Combines backlink data with estimated organic traffic and technical site signals.

None of these metrics is an official Google metric. They are useful approximations for comparing domains and evaluating the progress of an SEO strategy, but should not be interpreted as direct equivalents to Google's internal PageRank.

How to easily improve your PageRank

PageRank improves when more authoritative sites link to your domain organically and sustainably. These are the actions with the most measurable impact:

1. Create content worth linking to

Sustainable link building starts with content. The types of content that naturally attract backlinks are:

• Studies with proprietary data or industry data analysis
• Comprehensive guides on a specific topic (like this article)
• Free tools or downloadable resources with practical value
• Original research or surveys of your audience

A generic article about "what is digital marketing" will not attract backlinks. A proprietary analysis of average conversion rates in your industry will.

2. Strategic guest posting

Publishing articles as a guest author in media, industry blogs, or platforms with a relevant audience is one of the most direct tactics to obtain quality backlinks. The key is in the selection: the medium must be thematically relevant and have significant domain authority.

Guest posts on low-authority or thematically unrelated sites add little value and can generate negative signals if done massively and disorganized.

3. Digital PR and brand mentions

Digital public relations seek to have media, journalists, and specialized publications mention (and link) your brand in their content. This can include:

• Providing data or expert perspectives for media articles
• Releasing studies or reports that media want to cite
• Participating in podcasts, events, or interviews with a digital presence

A mention in a high-authority medium can have more impact on PageRank than dozens of backlinks from lesser sites.

4. Repair or remove toxic backlinks

Not all backlinks add value. Links from spam sites, manipulated blog networks, or domains penalized by Google can negatively affect the perception of your link profile.

Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Google Search Console allow you to audit your backlink profile and identify problematic links. In extreme cases, Google's Disavow tool can be used to tell it to ignore those backlinks.

5. Optimize internal linking

This is the most frequently overlooked aspect of PageRank. Internal links also distribute authority within your own site. When you link from a high-traffic article to a service page you want to rank better, you are transferring authority signals between pages of your own domain.

A well-designed internal linking architecture ensures that the most important pages receive more authority signals, not that all the domain's strength is concentrated on the home page. You can delve into these tactics in our SEO strategy guide.

The relationship between PageRank and business results

Improving PageRank is not a technical exercise in abstraction. It has direct and measurable consequences:

• Greater organic visibility: Pages with higher authority compete better in the top positions for competitive keywords.
• Higher quality traffic: High-intent organic traffic has the highest conversion rates of any digital channel.
• Brand credibility: A domain linked by relevant media is perceived as a reference in its industry, reinforcing the purchase decision process.

Domains with diversified backlink profiles (multiple unique referring domains) have on average 35% superior organic performance compared to domains with few referring domains, even when the total volume of backlinks is similar. Diversity matters as much as quantity.

PageRank is built. It is not bought.

There is no sustainable shortcut to building domain authority. Black hat tactics (massive purchase of backlinks, artificial site networks, anchor text manipulation) have a documented history of resulting in manual or algorithmic Google penalties that can destroy years of ranking in days.

Real authority is built with content worth linking to, relationships with relevant media and publications, and an SEO strategy executed with criteria and consistency over time.

If you want to understand where your domain's authority is today and build a ranking plan with real metrics, at Brand Industry we can help you. Talk to our specialists and let's define together the path to better ranking.