Google Says No PR from Internal Pages ?

[bobmutch]

Seems like the Google rep at the Search Engine Strategies 2004 Conference & Expo in Stockholm yesterday noted the following.

Q: How are internal links weighted?
A: Google says that it wont get you more "PageRank" but that doesn't mean its not useful, he says. Google said its good because people can navigate to your site, and more accessible to the pages.

You can read this over at the http://www.seroundtable.com (http://www.seroundtable.com/) blog. Check out Oct 27th and the entry called Link Building Basics.

[Marcia]

bobmutch
Google says that it wont get you more "PageRank" but that doesn't mean its not useful, he says. Google said its good because people can navigate to your site, and more accessible to the pages.
Interesting, there are a few articles out there that disagree on that very point.

Maybe we shouldn't interpret it and take it farther than just that it won't increase total PR for the site itself. Do we know for sure that PR is *not* passed from one internal page to another within a site? That would mean pages could only get PR by being linked to from external sites and we've never seen any evidence of that. It doesn't sound like that's what's being said.

If PR is not passed between internal pages, then most interior pages would not have any. There are people who believe, however, that total PR for a site can be generated and increased by use of internal links - and others who have disagreed with that premise.

Here's an article on PR by

Ian Rogers (http://www.iprcom.com/papers/pagerank/)

And here's the part of Phil Craven's article about

PR and Internal Links (http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html#internal_linking)

The maximum PageRank in a site equals the number of pages in the site * 1. The maximum is increased by inbound links from other sites and decreased by outbound links to other sites. We are talking about the overall PageRank in the site and not the PageRank of any individual page. You don't have to take my word for it. You can reach the same conclusion by using a pencil and paper and the equation.

[bobmutch]

Marcia: Well if you noticed I put a ? in the title. It seems that Google is represented here as saying you won't get more PageRank from internal links. But I wouldn't take that to mean that PR is not passed on internal links. We know that it is, there is really no questioning of that. When it comes to PR voted there is not difference between internal and external links. PR works with pages not sites.

I have read the Inn Rogers, Phil Craven, Chris Ridings and Markus Sobek articles, and of course the Brin/Page paper a number of times, so I think I am pretty straight on the basics of PR and the PR equation.

If we look at the question it seems to be a Ranking question not a PageRank question. When they ask "How are internal links weighted?" I would think they are asking how are internal links weighted for Ranking. As in if I have a 200 pages sites and I do a fully meshed link structure what kind of Ranking weight will those 199 inbound links going to the home page get.

Then it seems Google cames back and says, you don't get any PR for the internal links but they are good for navigate of the site. Seems strange to me. If the converstion is recorded right, which need to be checked on, it seems to be that Google is saying that by having extra links, by going fully meshed that is not going to increase the PR of your site. So if that is what they are saying, then that is right.

I just thought it was a funny way for Google to answer the question and I make the title inviting but put a ? on the end of the title at the same time.

[Marcia]

I just thought it was a funny way for Google to answer the question
hehe.. that's kind of how Google seems to like to answer questions, Bob. It's always "do what's good for the user" - nothing wrong with that, they're right. But it's so typical. ;)

I make the title inviting but put a ? on the end of the title at the same time.
I noticed the question mark - and a good thing, too. I understand there are some people around who think they can generate PR for sites with just site pages and absolutely no onbound links. I had mail a while back from someone asking about just that.