PageRank For Sale

(August 19 2002, update August 21) fantomaster reports that SearchKing has started selling text ads on its network of independent portals, with prices based on Google PageRank.

PageRank (PR) is Google's measure of the popularity of a Web page, calculated on the basis of the number, popularity and relevance of pages pointing to this particular Web page. PageRank is an important part of the algorithm deciding search result rankings at Google.

The Google toolbar can be used to measure the PageRank of a page. It shows a scale from 1 to 10, 10 indicating the most "authoritative" Web pages. SEO experts believe a PR8 site is 6 times as much worth optimization wise as a PR7 site.

Webmasters have for a long time tried to get links from sites and Web pages with a high PageRank. This is the first time, however, that someone has started pricing ads on the basis of PR.

SearchKing asks for a US$299 monthly fee for a 5 word title + 10 word description on a PR9 Web page. A similar ad on a PR7 Web page costs US$169. (Come to think of it. Pandia has a PR7! Ads, anyone?)

If this becomes a popular practice, it might actually undermine the efficiency of the Page Rank system. In the search engine forums, several options have been proposed. Google may for instance remove the "PR-meter" from the Google toolbar or they may punish sites taking part in such ad schemes by banning them or reducing their Page Rank to zero.

See also The PR Ad Network. (Note that SearchKing fails to mention that the effect of a link from a a page with high PR is reduced proportionally with the number of outgoing links from that page. Hence the search engine promotion value of a PR7 text ad may vary a lot.)

Read Pandia's SearchKing interview for more information...

The Pandia Post is our free bimonthly newsletter on Internet searching, search engines and directories.

We will give you the latest news from the world of Internet exploring, useful tips on how to improve your searching skills or search engine ranking, as well as information on the development of the Pandia Search Central.

We will never give your address to any other company or organization.