How many sites would you need to 'create' pagerank

just a theoretical question

[oldskool79]

I'm pretty sure I have a solid understanding of the way page rank works, but I'm a little hung up on one aspect of it.

If you were to create 5,000 different websites on different domains and linked them all together (in an natural way...not every site links to every other site, etc.) BUT those 5,000 sites have zero incoming links from anywhere else...would these sites have PageRank or even get indexed in Google for that matter?

The point I'm getting as is whether or not every site in Googles index can be traced back to every other site by following links....or are there "islands" of sites, if you will, that have no links with other "islands" of sites.

[DerekH]

That's an interesting question.
Off the top of my head, I'd think that once Googlebot had visited - perhaps because you used its addurl page, I can't see how it would find a way back for its next visit.

Of course, with 5000 sites, I'd imagine someone would link to them one day, and that's the end of your experiment.

But why do you think 5000 is a good number. Surely one site is adequate to test your hypothesis? People think PageRank is SiteRank.
I'd have thought one site with a dozen pages would tell you all you wanted to know, and more easily set up too!
DerekH

[diamondgrl]

Yes, in theory they will have PageRank. In fact, every page (at least ones that haven't been zapped) has some PageRank according to the originally published formula, even if it's too small to show in the toolbar.

Cumulatively, in theory, you should be able to get to some visible with no incoming links to the island.

[vincevincevince]

In theory, every page carries page rank. There are popular theories of 'pagerank chains' and 'pagerank magnifiers' which work to some extent, by 'focusing' through a treelike network page rank, either natural and free, or from (even a single) external link.