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Google Looks at Page rank OR Backlinks?

by zannix
2 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I was always curious about this...

Upon discovering and evaluating a backlink, does Google look directly at the Page Rank or the amount and quality of incoming links to that site?

At first it made more sense to me that it looked at backlinks, because pagerank can be high even after most of the links to that page have been removed, until it drops after next PR update... so why give that page credit for its PR instead of links, right?

On the other hand, why did Google invent the whole "PR" scale anyway, if not for easier and faster assesment of page quality, instead of having to re-check backlinks for each page it comes across?

In other words: would it be the same to get a backlink from a PR3 page which has few shitty links pointing to it and a PR3 page which has hundreds of quality links pointing to it (assuming they're equal in other parameters - dofollow/nofollow, relevancy, age, domain authority, etc.)
#backlinks #google #page #rank
  • Profile picture of the author mindwire
    Exactly this is the thing with Big G.
    They regard quite more factors than those you mentioned... If someone knew how to please Google, he would be better off keeping it to himself. That's also why Google changes the game rules so often and randomly throws various animal names at us.

    Sincerely,
    mindwire
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  • Profile picture of the author Backlinko
    It's a false dichotomy: they look at links AND PR (and a lot of other stuff).

    They invented PR in 1996...and changed the algo thousands of times since then. Keep that in mind.

    Toolbar PR is an artifact left over from the 90s. It still has some value for SEOs like us, but it's not the end all be all of a link's value.

    To answer your question: you definitely want your link on the PR3 page with quality links.
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