PR, Page Ranking, is how search engines, especially Google, decide which pages are ranked high when surfers are looking for information. It also determines whether high paying ads, or $.01 a click ads. It will even determine whether people will pay $5.00 or $500 to advertise on your website.



This makes PR ranking the most important, and most misunderstood aspect of internet marketing.

PR is important for all websites, newsletters, blogs, or ezine publishers. Most webmasters stop once they learn about free article directories, but this is only a small percentage of the information needed to increase PR rank, and earn money from the Internet.

The debunked myth that duplicate content is penalized has opened up the www for major promotion. The only catch to free articles is the resource box. These are 2-4 lines at the bottom of the article. While they are a little price to pay for a free article, the webmaster needs to research them before using the article.

The first considerations should be the page the links point to. Is it a ad copy ?buy now? page, a cheap page that goes on for several feet, full of testimonies and false free offers. A good link will head to an article with similar content to your website.

Index pages can be tricky. Sometimes they have hidden redirects that lead readers to secondary sites, often porn or gambling. This penalizes the site, but also your site.

The next thing to do is check and make sure the link is still live. After a few months of posting articles, several of the sites will go down. The best thing to do is add a no-follow link into the HTML code. This lets visitors still see the link (and click it to a 404 error page) but it will stop the search engines from following the link.

There are many factors that increase page rank. Hits per month, age, and inbound links will bring a Page Rank to PR2 or PR3. Content will bring the rank higher. Combine this with content that is updated weekly, and dozens of other websites that carry the RSS feeds, and a PR4 looms in the future.

But, how do you ask other webmasters to submit to your blog/content management system's RSS feed? This can be tricky. Offering news is one good way, especially if the news is something commonly used, but a little off beat.

Webmasters who can't write, have the time, or don't have the budget to hire a writer should use free content for their website. Copy and paste the article from free article web sites and the job is done.

However, there are better ways. First, if you find an author whose work you like, contact them personally. Ask them if you can use their articles, and if you can post the links ?in? the article. These are called ?executive links.?

Most article writers will gladly let the links be moved into the article, and let webmasters use their articles without adding the directory link. This increases your website's image. Instead of adding free content, you can promote the writers as ?guest writers? for a week, or month.

The main way to increase PR is to increase the number of inbound links. Many businesses host a few dozen blogs, complete with free content, but also including inbound links to the website. Another way is to write ?pre packaged? newsletters for other websites to use, with your links included.

Do not limit the article to one or even one-hundred article sites. Submit to hundreds. Each one is an inbound link.

Most important, don't give up. Keep changing the site every two weeks, and the PR will hit PR4-soon.