Real PageRank vs. Toolbar PageRank

Sometimes people are confused why they don’t rank better in SERPs even when their toolbar PageRank increases. The reason for the confusion is that there are two types of PageRank available.

The first one is the Google Toolbar Page Rank. You can download the toolbar from www.toolbar.google.com. The toolbar will show a little green bar at the top of your browser and the number varies from 0-10 (of course, 10 being the highest). 

This is important to understand that toolbar PR is not the PageRank that Google use in their algorithm. It is only a rough guide to the true PageRanks,  which Google keeps secret. Google toolbar is updated in approximately 6 months(recently it was updated on 27th June 2011). So, you may notice that a  website has no toolbar PageRank but ranks well. Try your own search in Google and you will see pages with “lower toolbar PageRank but more relevancy” conquering pages with “higher toolbar PageRank but less relevancy” in SERPs.

Second definition refers to the Google algorithm for sorting the ranking system. This is real PageRank which is used by Google for giving results in SERPs. The number 1 in the SERPs has higher PageRank than the number 2 result etc. for a given keyword term. This PageRank will be altered for different searches. This is a difficult algorithm, but concisely, the more websites are linking to your website the higher PageRank your site will get and is updated as soon as Google finds new information to change their opinion of the value of site’s inbound links.

Some of the important factors required for high quality links are:

1. Relevancy: The first thing to check is the relevancy of the link. Say, if you have a website related to food, then a backlink from sports website would not be considered as much relevant, as compared to another food-related website.

2. PageRank: A link from a high PageRank site has a greater influence in getting high quality backlinks. The higher the PageRank of the site linking to you, the better the link for you.

3. Link Density: If the page you got your link from is having hundreds of links then it becomes hard to determine if the link is valuable or not. Instead, it is better to have a link from lower PR site and your link is one of the few links.

Social Media Marketing Using Facebook

It would be difficult not to notice the magnificent growth of Facebook over the last few months. It has more than 500 million active users, across the globe. Using Facebook as marketing tool properly, can help you establish a relationship and credibility with a large number of people who in turn may visit your website and purchase your products and services.
If you want to focus on one thing on Facebook, I would highly recommend to create a Facebook page, instead of a group. The advantage of Facebook fan pages (in terms of SEO) is the fact that they are indexed by Google.


Here are few simple steps to take for Social Media Marketing:
1. Create a Fan Page: The first step is to Create a Fan Page. Choose proper category for your business and a relevant title and add a brief but detailed description of what your website/product is all about.
2. Invite People: Next, initially you will have to invite people to your page. Here, either you can select your existing Facebook friends. It is highly recommended that you choose to add a “Personal Message” to your invite and not just with a standard invite notice; it raises the chances of people accepting your invite. Another option is to invite via email, where you can import your contacts and send the invite to everyone in your email address book.
3. Regular Status Update: It is very important to update your status regularly to increase fan base, with interesting and relevant posts, add catchy images, if possible. Ask questions, create quizzes, discussions etc. The main advantage is that if a fan likes or comments on the post, it is posted on their friend’s wall as well, who in turn, may also join your page. And this is the way it goes viral. But remember, do not spam your fans with status updates because it may annoy them and may stop being a fan(which is definitely not good!)
4. Discussion Boards: The other great thing about Fan Pages is the Discussion boards. Create a discussion topic (even if it doesn’t match your page’s content), which people would like to respond to and give them incentive to discuss the topic. Every time anyone talks on a discussion topic on your Facebook Fan Page, it will send a notice to their profile “wall” saying they have participated in a discussion on *topic title* at *Fan Page name*. This also attracts people to your page!
5. Promotional offers and Giveaway: You could also promote your page by providing some sort of giveaway, in case you are not a major brand. Once you get fans, you can send updates about your product.