The Professional’s Guide To PageRank Optimization Contents Introduction.......................................................................................3 PART I - Understanding the Theory behind PageRank Optimization ....3 What is PageRank? ...................................................................................................................... 3 Who Invented PageRank?............................................................................................................................................................................... 3 What is the purpose of PageRank? ................................................................................................................................................................. 3 How does PageRank affect rankings? ......................................................................................... 3 How is PageRank measured? ...................................................................................................... 5 Toolbar PageRank vs. Real PageRank ............................................................................................................................................................. 5 Assumptions about PageRank ..................................................................................................... 8 PageRank is Still a Measurement of Importance ............................................................................................................................................ 8 PageRank Still Doesn't Measure Relevance .................................................................................................................................................... 8 PageRank is Still a Relative Measurement ...................................................................................................................................................... 8 Pages Don't Vote for Themselves ................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Each Page Can Only Vote for another Page Once ........................................................................................................................................... 9 The Damping Factor is Constant ..................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Calculating PageRank ................................................................................................................ 10 Introducing the PageRank Function .............................................................................................................................................................. 10 Accumulating PageRank vs. Distributing PageRank ...................................................................................................................................... 12 Iterative Calculations and Convergence of PageRank ................................................................................................................................... 13 PageRank Behavior.................................................................................................................... 15 Maximum PageRank per System .................................................................................................................................................................. 15 Site PageRank vs. Page PageRank ................................................................................................................................................................. 16 Add Links to Important Pages ....................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Subtract Links from Unimportant Pages ....................................................................................................................................................... 17 Add Content ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 18 Subtract Content .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 Ideal PageRank Distribution ...................................................................................................... 20 Natural Distribution from a Hierarchical Structure ....................................................................................................................................... 20 Site Architecture Definitions......................................................................................................................................................................... 21 Depth of Content on a Website .................................................................................................................................................................... 22 PART II - Tools and Techniques for Sculpting PageRank ..................... 24 Introduction to PageRank Sculpting.......................................................................................... 24 Natural vs. Unnatural Linking ....................................................................................................................................................................... 24 Link Level PageRank Controls .................................................................................................... 24 rel="nofollow" .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 25 JavaScript...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 25

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Header Page: The following HTML code represents the external file that we reference in our iframe tag. In other words, this is the content that we view through our iframe "window." The HTML code for the "badlinks" div element has basically been cut from the original example and pasted into a new page, but with some necessary tweaks added to it:   The meta robots tag has been added to prevent Google from indexing this page. The body tag has been styled to remove the default spacing that would otherwise change the appearance for users. Each link now includes the target attribute to maintain the original functionality for users.  Now, instead of Google seeing our unimportant links on every page, it only sees the iframe src URL. One thing to keep in mind is that Google will still parse the src URL from iframe tags, and it will add that URL to its list of pages to crawl. It is uncertain whether or not Google would treat the iframe URL reference as a link to the header page, but we do know that Google will crawl and index the header page, just as it would any other webpage. For this reason, you may want to consider taking some of the following precautions, depending on your specific needs:    Add the rel="nofollow" attribute to the unimportant links in the header navigation. Add the Meta robots tag to your header page, and set it to "noindex" or "none". Disallow the header page URL in your robots.txt file. Flash Since Google has announced that they have improved their ability to read Flash content, using Flash for PageRank sculpting is not the reliable tool it once was. Chances are that Google's primary goal concerning Flash files is to find new content contained in them, effectively negating Flash’s usefulness as a means by which to hide content. Since it is possible to build an entire site using Flash, and then embed the Flash file on a single URL, this raises questions about how Google would index such a site. Despite the fact that Google continues to improve its understanding of Flash content, we will still assume that Flash links do not distribute PageRank. Just like JavaScript and Flash, forms are not the foolproof "spider blockers" that they once were. Google has announced that they are trying out new methods of crawling through forms. Presumably, Googlebot would test various combinations of input parameters and analyze the resulting pages for unique content. However, using the test URLs for discovery doesn't mean Google distributes PageRank to them. In this guide, we assume that PageRank does not flow through forms. Summary Chart of Link Level PageRank Controls The following chart summarizes the functionality of the PageRank controls discussed in the previous section. These controls can be used at the link level, meaning you can use them to block the flow of PageRank through specific links on a page, while still allowing the remaining links to function as usual. Does Google see these links? rel="nofollow" JavaScript Flash