How PageRank works

PageRank is democratic and uses its vast link structure to indicate how valuable a page is on a particular website. It works on a voting system which looks at the volume of votes each Link on a pages receives while analyzing the actual page which casts the vote too. If a vote was cast by a page that is considered important, then the vote carries more weight. The reason for this voting system is to help make pages on website become important, helping increase their popularity resulting in more traffic and hopefully more business.

PageRank is the result of a ballot which has been cast among other pages on the web. A hyperlink also counts as a vote. If a page is linked to by many other pages who themselves have a high ranking, then the page is given a high rank. If a page has no links, then no vote is given to that page.

Numeric weightings are afforded each page which tells us how important that page is in the eyes of the seach engine. PageRank is also influenced by other factors such as the relevance of the search words used and how many visits a page gets.
PageRank is the probability that represents the liklihood that someone who randomly clicking on a link will land on a particular website. This probability is expressed in numeric terms with a value between zero and one which are in turn expressed as percentages. In other words a 0.5 chance would be expressed as 50%.

PageRank is not above manipulation though and extensive research is being done in order to identify ways that it which links from inflated PageRank can be ignored. Falesly inflated PageRank is also being investigated.