Why does this person have a better listing?

[Mercenary]

Hi all,

Just curious to know - Am i right to say that the higher your page rank is - the higher listing your search result is?

If so - if u guys did a search for '<kw1 kw2 kw3>' in google, and have a look at the PR of the first result - which is only a 4/10 and then have a look at say the fouth result - which is <company2> - that has a PR of 5/10.

My question is shouldnt the <company2> website come before the firt result? It even has more backward links to it then the first result does?

Cheers :)

[edited by: rcjordan at 2:18 am (utc) on Mar. 13, 2003]
[edit reason] sorry, no specific sites as examples, please. [/edit]

[deejay]

PR is only one factor in about a hundred that Google uses to determine your position in the SERPs (search engine result pages).

If it were solely down to PR, The top results for any search would be PR10 sites, regardless of whether they actually contain your search word or not.

If all it took was the presence of the search word and the highest PR, then Merriam Webster with its PR8 would probably rule nearly all searches. It is a dictionary after all.

PR is an important factor, but it's not the only one by any means.

[Marcia]

It's not only PR and number of links, optimization of the site is also taken into consideration. You also have to look at the links themselves, the internal navigation of the site, and the words in the search term and how they're used in forming phrases throughout the different site and page elements. Sites with decent optimization can beat sites with higher PR and more links that aren't optimized.

[chiyo]

>>Am i right to say that the higher your page rank is - the higher listing your search result is?

Nope.

Most important is relevant text on your page and titles/headings to the query and hyperlinked incoming relevant text. PR is very secondary.

For an example I maintain a great interest in the ranking of our sites against others and I hardly ever have the Google toolbar installed.. A quick reading of Google forum threads relating to Pr will confirm that PR is only one factor in SERP positioning, and definately not the most significant.

[chiyo]

and by the way Mercenary, if nonone has welcomed you yet them welcome to WebmasterWorld - the most useful webmaster forum on the internet!

[Mercenary]

thx for all the quick replies.....its been a pleasure being here :)

ive just been working a new design for my site and what my goal is - is to be number 1 in the search results when someone does a search result for '<kw1 kw2 kw3>' at the moment I havent put the site live yet but would u guys be able to take a quick look for me and tell me if im heading in the correct path?

the link is - <oops> (and the news page isnt working at the moment)

also do u guys think this would be an achieveable goal?

Cheers, :)

[edited by: rcjordan at 2:45 am (utc) on Mar. 13, 2003]
[edit reason] sorry, no references to your site, please. [/edit]