What is PageRank?

Back in the dim, dark ages of the internet, (1998), Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented an article at the World Wide Web Conference outlining a new way of analyzing websites based on their link relationships. They called this PageRank (based, believe it or not, on Larry Page's surname, not for the fact that it ranks web pages), and it still forms the basis for Google's search algorithms.
The fundamental idea of PageRank is: if we link to your site, that is like us making a recommendation for your site. We're saying your site is good. The more people you have recommending your website, the better your website must be. It's democracy in action — many people can't be wrong! 

Our Guide to PageRank

These are some of our observations and recommendations when it comes to working with PageRank and things we've found that have worked for us, or have shown up in our tests.