The original idea#
PageRank imagined a “random surfer” clicking links forever. Pages where the surfer is more likely to end up are more important. A link from an important page passes more value than a link from an unimportant one, and that value is shared among all the links on the page.
PageRank today#
- Google confirmed it still uses PageRank internally, in an evolved form, as one of hundreds of signals.
- The public “Toolbar PageRank” score (0–10) was retired in 2016 — any tool showing a “PR” score today is estimating.
- Third-party metrics such as Domain Authority and Domain Rating try to approximate link-based authority.
What it means for you#
- Earn editorial links from relevant, respected pages.
- Use internal links to flow value from strong pages to important ones.
- Avoid wasting value through redirect chains and broken links.
- Remember relevance and content quality matter more than raw link counts.
Related: link equity, backlinks.