Compute PageRank yourself - Which OSE metrics as input

[derderko]

Hi,

we're running a project here where we try to optimize our internal link structure by computing the PageRank ourselves given your existing link graph. Right now we weight all pages the same, which is kind of incorrect given that quite a number of our pages have external links, hence have more LinkJuice.

We'd now like to include a weight that respects the external link power to a page. Anyone got suggestions OSE metric would be good? I was thinking of Page Authority, but I assume this is computed by taking both external and internal links into consideration.

Alternatively I could use sum all PageAuthority values of inlinks to a certain page, but as Page Authority seems exponential, this seems to be the wrong thing.

Anyone out there you who tried the same before?

Cheers,
schuon

[RyanKent]

So you'd say the best approximation of a page's link power is page authority?

I would say Page Authority is a more meaningful metric and it is readily available for you. PA is extremely useful for competitive analysis when you are comparing your client's web pages with other ranking pages.

A discussion I would recommend reading: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-is-pagerank-good-for-anyway-statistics-galore

[derderko]

Hi Ryan,

thanks for your reply! First off, I am aware I won't be able to compute the PageRank, rather my little own approximation of it. Basically OSE does the same (I guess they also tweaked the algorithm quite heavily).

Purpose being to optimize internal linking / link juice distribution. With Page Authority I can't preview the effects of changing internal links.

So you'd say the best approximation of a page's link power is page authority?

[RyanKent]

May I ask why would you go to such incredible effort?

You can use Page Authority along with other metrics which are computed for you.

Even if you perfectly computer PR for your page, it is a meaningless number. The PR you compute for a page will not match the PR Google computes for the same page. Google makes determinations as to whether a link should be considered, discounted entirely (such as link farms), or partially weighted based on their internal guidelines. Google also sees many links that OSE does not, so you would need to use Google's data for the page, preferably from WMT.

The PR formula is copyrighted by Stanford, licensed by Google and then tweaked. There are competing theories on numerous aspects of how PR is actually computed. Does PR drain for each sub-folder encountered and if so by how much? Do sites in Dmoz get a PR boost? Do brands get a boost? etc.

If you compute PR for a page, you can call is "Schuon's PR". It will be a number that will exist for you and you alone based on which links you used, how you counted those links, and how you adjusted for other factors.

There are numerous pages discussing the topic but here is one: http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/lectures-on-the-google-technology-stack-1-introduction-to-pagerank/