PageRank

PageRank is a ranking algorithm patented by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google's co-founders, which forms the historical foundation of the search engine. The principle is simple: each link to a page is a 'vote' of confidence. The more links a page receives from pages that are themselves highly ranked, the higher its PageRank. The algorithm distributes 'link juice' through the web graph, with a damping factor of 0.85. Although Google stopped publishing the visible PageRank in the toolbar in 2016, internal PageRank remains a fundamental element of the ranking algorithm. The concept remains central to understanding link building: a backlink's value depends on the source page's PageRank, the number of outgoing links from that page, and topical relevance.