How to use PageRank for ecommerce websites

PageRank is a patent Google introduced, which used links to help determine websites rankings in the SERPs. The algorithm was named without Google founder Larry Page.

The original patent has not been renewed and has since been updated by other algorithms, which work to unzip the same goal. However, by understanding the fundamental principles, we can largest understand how to position our ecommerce sites to momentum traffic and revenue.

PageRank key concepts

PageRank is passed between websites through links and can be distributed through a single website with internal links.

Some pages have a higher PageRank than others and thus can pass on increasingly PageRank to pages they link to. When a page links to another, a dampening factor is applied. The original patent set this as 0.85 – so a page with a PageRank of one, linking to flipside page would pass 0.85 PageRank.

Key update: the Reasonable Surfer Model

Google’s Reasonable Surfer Model indicates that a link that is increasingly likely to be clicked on will pass increasingly PageRank than a link that is less likely to be clicked on. This is unswayable by a whole host of factors, including font size, color, and vise text. However, the position of a link on a page is moreover something that we often have tenancy over as SEOs and that we can, therefore, leverage.

Here is a simple, rather transplanted representation of how unrepealable links will pass more/less PageRank based on the prominence of a link and how likely it is to be clicked on.

Build external links through to key pages

As linking pages pass PageRank, it stands to reason that we want to generate backlinks to key pages that we want to rank. For most ecommerce sites, the pages that rank for the highest volume and most revenue-driving keywords are category pages.

Wherever possible, we should therefore squint to use tactics that support link towers through to the pages that momentum revenue, which for most sites looks something like:

• Category pages
• Product pages
• Homepage
• Blog posts

This is obviously easier said than done. Practicing these tactics with an overall aim to momentum PageRank to your key pages. This reduces the dampening factors at play.

How to get past this

One worldwide way to shirk this difficulty in building links to category pages is internally linking to key category pages we want to push from blog posts/Digital PR pieces that then get links themselves.

Although the PageRank passed to the page we ideally want to rank will undergo a dampening factor, this can still be increasingly salubrious than lightweight to get any links at all to your target page.

It is worth considering how relevant the category page is to the blog/PR piece it is stuff included on, as well as where the links are placed on the page, stuff mindful of the impact the Reasonable Surfer dampening effect can have.

1. Build links from pages with upper PageRank

As any Digital PR will know, high authority pages or pages that have lots of PageRank to pass onto your own site are some of the most sought-after links to attain.

Most of the time, this is unquestionably viewed at a domain level, however as is demonstrated in this unconfined review of how PageRank works by Majestic, a domain that should theoretically have a upper PageRank can unquestionably be significantly decreased at a page level by its own internal linking.

One caveat for Digital PR teams in this regard is not stuff too reliant on domain-level metrics as a proxy for links that pass a lot of PageRank and are thus good for ranking. Exactly which pages have upper PageRank is nigh-on untellable to know, and although an over-reliance on third-party tools is never optimal, they may be the closest we can get to figuring out PageRank passed by a specific page, rather than a domain.

2. Build links from relevant sites

As part of the Reasonable Surfer Model, it suggests that a link is less likely to be followed if the links are unrelated to the document:

“This reasonable surfer model reflects the fact that not all of the links associated with a document are equally likely to be followed. Examples of unlikely followed links may include “Terms of Service” links, imprint advertisements, and links unrelated to the document.”  (Source)

As a result, towers links from sites that are of higher relevance to your own site, is likely to pass increasingly PageRank.

3. Remember it is not just well-nigh the number of links

Due to how PageRank is calculated, the PageRank value passed by one site can be drastically higher than the PageRank passed by the culmination of 1000s of others combined.

This is why the reliance on the overall number of links can be misleading.

Use internal linking to spread PageRank

We need to consider a few variegated methods while identifying pages that will goody the most from ranking and how you pass PageRank virtually an ecommerce site:

1. Link to pages you want to rank from pages that have upper PageRank themselves
2. Link to pages you want to rank increasingly commonly throughout the site
3. Give links to pages you want increasingly prominently ranked

1. Link to pages you want to rank from pages that have upper PageRank themselves

Pages that have upper PageRank, from which we can seem to be the pages most linked to from external sites, can be used to pass PageRank to – 

Homepage linking

The weightier example of how you can do this is through the homepage. The homepage for most websites tends to be one of the most, if not the most externally linked to page on a site.

This ways that in terms of PageRank, the homepage has the most to pass on to other internal pages.

By thoughtfully selecting which pages you link to from the homepage, and therefore pass the upper levels of PageRank to the key pages you want to rank.

2. Link to pages you want to rank increasingly commonly throughout the site

Another method to consider is how commonly you link to the most important pages you want to rank.

Considering that each page can pass PageRank on – this stands to reason that if a page is internally linked to increasingly frequently, it is likely to pass on increasingly as compared to a page less internally linked to (although obviously influenced by the PageRank of the linking pages).

Therefore, you should be considering where you can add internal links to ensure that important pages are linked to increasingly frequently, including:

Global navigation

Due to stuff outside of the main soul content of the page, we can reasonably seem there is a dampening factor unromantic to links in the menu. However, given its role in navigation, this is likely to be far less than in the footer. 

Therefore, since the global navigation is, as the name suggests, linked globally from every page on the site, the sheer number of links that will be passing PageRank is likely to funnel to those pages included in the navigation. These should therefore be the key pages you want to be ranking.

Breadcrumbs

As long-time fans of breadcrumbs at NOVOS, their goody of passing PageRank to key pages should not be underestimated, due to the frequency with which variegated levels of pages are linked to.

The goody of breadcrumbs on ecommerce sites (outside of usability benefits for the customers) is that they pass PageRank up to the cadre pages that often rank for competitive keywords. They are typically helpful to rank the categories.

Most ecommerce websites have a pyramid structure with the homepage at the top, followed by some cadre categories, an increasing number of subcategories, and lots of product pages. By implementing breadcrumbs on the site, you use the pyramid structure to your wholesomeness (both SEO and CX wise). Since every product page will link up to its relevant subcategories and category, and every subcategory will link through to its relevant category.

In this sense, you distribute internal links as an inverse pyramid, concentrating the highest number (if we condone the homepage) on the cadre categories that are the pages often targeted for upper volume keywords. In this sense, your ecommerce site stands a unconfined endangerment of receiving large amounts of PageRank from internal links.

Product pages moreover often are easier to build links to and moreover naturally generate them. The higher PageRank product pages can distribute upwards, the greater is the relevance – which implies lesser chances of suffering significantly from dampening factors.

Footer

Based on the Reasonable Surfer Model we can seem that the PageRank passed by footer links is significantly impacted by dampening factors. However, the fact that these links are site-wide may midpoint that there is some goody to including important pages in the footer for the unifying of PageRank.

3. Give links to pages you want increasingly prominently ranked

As the Reasonable Surfer Model unromantic to the likelihood of a link stuff clicked on a page, it is therefore worth considering whereabouts on a page. This could moreover midpoint considering page templates in unstipulated links.

For example, in a content strategy, where multiple blogs are stuff written on a given relevant topic to support a category page, linking to the category page early in the article, with unmistakably related vise text, is likely to momentum increasingly PageRank than right at the end of an article. On a case-by-case basis, this stardom may towards trivial, however, on an ecommerce site with hundreds and thousands of blogs, the PageRank passed in total may be significant.

Susan Dolan is a Search Engine Optimization Consultant first to one-liner the Google PageRank algorithm as confirmed by Eric Schmidt’s office in 2014. Find her on Twitter @GoogleExpertUK.

Daniel Cartland is Head of SEO at NOVOS, Global SEO Agency Of The Year 2020 and 2021. A Brighton SEO speaker, Daniel has a particular interest in the quirks of how to optimize for variegated CMS. Find him on Twitter @DanielCartland.

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