Thread: PR higher on secondary page than main page?

Well I finally got some page rank today. My site went up from 0 to 2. (My backlinks doubled too from 9 to 19 so they must update these things all at once.)

So I went on my site to see if any of my secondary pages got page rank. There were lots of 0's and a couple of 1's which is what I expected... but then a few pages had a PR of 3. Has anyone else ever had a secondary page with a higher PR than the main page? a few of my PR3 pages have their own backlinks but not nearly as many as the main page so I'm confused. A glitch maybe?

Not a glitch...

It is common for internal pages to get a higher page rank than the index page. To understand why you need to Google the phrase "Corporate Information - Technology Overview" (minus the "quote" marks) the top listing in the Google search results will be a page from the Google domain (The exact same domain where the Google search engine is located). The webpage on the Google domain states: (Do not click on a result that is not owned by Google. Google is always the best source about Google.)

PageRank Technology: PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.

PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value. We have always taken a pragmatic approach to help improve search quality and create useful products, and our technology uses the collective intelligence of the web to determine a page's importance.

What has happened is Google appears to feel some of the internal pages of your website are more relavant to the keywords on the specific internal page, than the index page is to the keywords of the index page.

The link I am directing you to above is on the Google domain and is totally controled by Google.

Randisist

Thanks for the info. 500 million variables- wow! I guess I should give up trying to figure it out.

I still feel like something is funny about my sites rankings though.

One of my pages with a PR3 has 6 backlinks all from PR0 pages in my own website.

My main page (PR2) has 19 backlinks, 5 internal and 14 from sites ranging from PR1 to PR6.

And if I do a google search for a 3-word keyword phrase that is the title of the PR3 page I mentioned above, my main page comes up first in the results. I would think that with a higher PR and the search term in the title (which we all know is hugely important) my PR3 page would easily beat my main page??

Glad you liked the info... SEO is the most inexact science known. That is why the SEO is the number one way to scam people on the internet. 10% documented fact and 90% experience and reasoning.

As soon as I get 10 posts I will post the links to "Google - Webmasters/Site Owners Help", "Yahoo! Search Content Quality Guidelines", "MSN - Live Search Webmaster Center Help", "Ask.com - Webmaster FAQ". The links I post will be to what the search engines say about themselves. First hand info. It is not a lot of reading, but (as I preach regularly) this is what you should read and reread periodically, the pages are periodically updated so even I go back about once a month.

Google just published "Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide" it is a .pdf from Google. Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 excellent read.

As far Webmaster tools, Google, Yahoo and MSN have free webmaster tools that are all you need. I use to use WebPosition Gold and have a membership to Wordtracker. Now I only use the free tools provided by the search engines and get all the information I need and more.

Randisist

I like your strategy of going directly to the source. When it comes to SEO, so many people seem to pass assumptions and rumors off as definitive fact.
On the other hand, I wonder though how many former google/yahoo/msn employers out there are now revealing the secrets... actually they probably have to sign some sort of non-disclosure form.

Originally Posted by davidaneff

I like your strategy of going directly to the source.

:1944: Should always be the first stop.

Originally Posted by davidaneff

When it comes to SEO, so many people seem to pass assumptions and rumors off as definitive fact.

You are so, so, so right. 99% of what is on the web is either outdated and no longer relevant or just plain wrong. I pride myself on being one of the few SEO/marketing blog webmasters that promotes reading what Google, Yahoo and MSN have to say FIRST. I like to think that my writings expand on and clarify what Google, Yahoo and MSN say and bring other aspects of website marketing to light.

Originally Posted by davidaneff

On the other hand, I wonder though how many former google/yahoo/msn employers out there are now revealing the secrets... actually they probably have to sign some sort of non-disclosure form.

You do have a good point. Big problem is I have seen 3 times where former employees of Google/Yahoo turned out to never have worked for Google or Yahoo. They just wanted to use the "former Google/Yahoo employee" line as a way to sell garbage SEO software guaranteed to "make you money".

I have had inner pages with same pr as the main one but never come across this before.

Maybe google has just taken a shine to the page concerned.

It happened to my site as well.. It's common thing I guess..