How we achieved Google PageRank 4
I had a pleasant surprise present from Google over the last few weeks. Google did the toolbar PageRank update recently and The Quartz Effect jumped from PR2 to PR4.
I started the blog in January 2010 and published the first article shortly after that. I then achieved PR2 in an October PR update by Google. So to jump to PR4 with this latest Google PR update is very surprising and feels like a great achievement. So it got me thinking about steps I have taken, steps that you can take, to get your blog site to be ranked PR4 by Google in a short period of time.
What is Google PageRank?
Google PageRank is one of numerous factors Google uses to determine the importance of a blog/website and it is based on the value of your inbound links. Google evaluates how many links there are to your blog from other pages, and the relevance and quality of the linking sites. DigPageRank can help you check your own PageRank. Here is the wiki for PageRank.
I would like to think that the following factors have contributed towards Google assigning The Quartz Effect Blog with a PR4:
Inbound links
- Putting my link out there by commenting on relevant and high-profile blogs,
- Being part of social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and FriendFeed, and using the millions of blog posting apps that come with those platforms.
- Posting useful answers in relevant forums.
I would recommend taking time each day to work on your blog promotion. Comment on relevant articles, discuss on relevant topics in forums/social media, and in other ways try to get your blog name and URL out there.
Check your PageRank backlinks and see the value of each of them and the anchor text they have linked to you with.
Guest posting
I wrote two guest posts at the Bizsetup Group thanks to an invite by Max Soutter. Each of these has given my blog a high-quality, relevant inbound link as it taps into exactly my target market, so it brought in a lot of traffic.
Its worth noting that Links from related high ranked websites transfer more PageRank value than links from non-related sites.
Guest post 1: Mike Tashaya on “The Importance Of Branding”
Guest post 2: Small Business Myths & Getting Beyond Them – Mike Tashaya
Calculate the value of an incoming link by looking at the PR of the linking site, and dividing it by the number of links on that page.
I highly recommend writing guest articles for relevant blogs that are ranked with equal or higher Google PageRank.
Blog onsite PageRank factors
- Content is not taken into account when PageRank is calculated but writing useful and keyword-rich articles that makes people link to, comment to or submit via Facebook, Twitter and other social media gives you inbound links.
- I regularly updated the blog writing a minimum one article per week, and at times up to 4 articles a week.
How is your blog doing with Google PageRank? What did you do well to get where you are? What did you do bad to not be where you want do be? Would love to hear from you by commenting below. If I have forgotten some reason that you think definitely help increase PageRank please let me know and add them to the comments below.


