What Exactly is Page Rank & How is it Related to Alexa Rating?

[PhoebeSmellyCat]

I have a new blog that I've been working on for about a month in the 'Search Engine Blocked' mode.

At that time, my page rank was 'Unranked' and my Alexa was 6 million something. While I was working on it, my page rank changed to '0' and my Alexa kept dropping.

I went 'live' about a week ago and now my page rank says '0/10' and my Alexa is around 700,000.

Is there any difference between page ranks 'unranked', '0' and '0/10' or do they all mean the same thing?

I visited other blogs in my niche and some had Alexa ratings in the 15 millions but their page rank is 4.

Are there any connections between Page Rank and the Alexa rating?

[JohnMcCabe]

Originally Posted by PhoebeSmellyCat

Is there any difference between page ranks 'unranked', '0' and '0/10' or do they all mean the same thing?

I visited other blogs in my niche and some had Alexa ratings in the 15 millions but their page rank is 4.

Are there any connections between Page Rank and the Alexa rating?

Starting with the easiest question first, there is no connection between Page Rank and Alexa rating.

'Unranked' means exactly that, that the Google algorithm has yet to assign a Page Rank as of the most recent update. This is very common for new sites. While your page may indeed have a page rank in the algorithm, the Toolbar Page Rank is only updated a few times a year. Last week's update was the first in many months.

Page Rank is an artificial measure conceived by, and named after, Larry Page. It's meant to compare the relative importance of different websites, and more specifically pages. A page rank of 0 means that the page is relatively unimportant, while a PR of 10 means the page is immensely important.

Many authorities believe that the Toolbar Page Rank is actually exponential. That means that a Page with PR2 is not twice as important as a PR1, it's ten times as important. So a PR 10 site would be 10 raised to the 10th power, or 1,000,000,000 times as important as a PR 0 site.

That's why a page with a handful of in-context links from relevant, higher PR pages can outrank a page with a zillion random backlinks from PR 0 pages.

Alexa rank is a measure ranking sites by the amount of traffic they receive. Like a golf score, the lower your Alexa rating the better. The rankings are calculated by monitoring the surfing habits of people who install and activate the Alexa toolbar, then using statistical methods to extrapolate that to the web at large. Since Alexa toolbar users often tend to be more tech-savvy than the general population, some believe that Alexa rankings are not really accurate.

Helps?

[PhoebeSmellyCat]

Thanks, John! Yes, that helps a lot.

I suppose I should stop obsessing about this and work on SEO for my blog.

[SEOChief]

When you get in your car do you check all the fluid levels before you drive somewhere each and every time? Most people would probably answer "no" to that question. But then we expect amazing results from similar tests that we put our Websites through. It isn't realistic.

Page Rank and Alexa are just gauges that help you understand the health of your project. I really don't spend a great deal of time with page rank because it is updated so infrequently. However, my bottom line answer would be for you to build high quality backlinks to your project on a consistent basis and let the rankings take care of themselves.

Building a fortune on the Web is not an overnight experience from what I see. However, you can do quite well if you just keep pushing forward and don't give up as long as you stay focused on the niche you are building.

Sure... checkout Alexa as well as other directories and be aware of Page Rank. They are great indicators of your general overall success. However, relying on them to strongly can keep you away from tasks that need to be completed while stressing you out in the process.