Pagerank is a number assigned to a Web site or page by Google which weights the site’s level of authority and importance. Although not the only factor in the equation, it is one of the many ingredients that Google uses to determine where a Web site ranks in its search results. You can find the Pagerank of your own site by using the Google Toolbar, or the various Pagerank query tools that are available on the Web.
Look up Pagerank with the Google Toolbar
The Google Toolbar is a browser add-on from the search company that, among other things, informs you of the Pagerank assigned to each page you visit.
Download and install the toolbar, then restart your browser. Upon restarting, you will be asked if you wish to enable Pagerank. Google must ask because in order to enable Pagerank, the toolbar must query Google’s servers with information about each page you visit.
Once the toolbar is up and running, visit your site. The green Pagerank meter will report your site’s Pagerank.
Other features of the Google Toolbar include searching, sharing, and bookmarking functionality.
Look up Pagerank with Web-based Tools
The SEO community is very interested in knowing their sites’ Pageranks, and so there are a number of Web-based tools that will query this information.
Seochat’s Future Pagerank tool (via ProBlogger) is a simple Pagerank query tool. Enter your site’s URL, and the Future Pagerank tool will look up that page’s ranking.
dnScoop (via Shoemoney) features a number of site evaluation tools, one of which is a Pagerank lookup. Enter you site’s URL into dnScoop.com, and its Pagerank will be returned.
Take Pagerank with a grain of salt
Although there are a plethora of Pagerank lookup tools, none are 100% accurate. Google has stated that Pagerank is internally updated on a frequent basis, but intentionally published infrequently to the public. Public Pagerank numbers have traditionally changed only once every few months.
