PageRank is the algorithm Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed at Stanford University to rate a page's importance by the number and quality of the links pointing to it, on the idea that each link works as a vote.
What reaches the lower basin depends on the one above
The real difference between the PageRank algorithm, which Google still uses, and the visible PageRank bar that disappeared from the Toolbar in 2016, and what that means for link building today.
What reaches the lower basin depends on the one above
What PageRank means
PageRank is an algorithm Larry Page and Sergey Brin built while working on their PhDs at Stanford University. They described it in a 1998 research paper titled "The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web," co-authored with Rajeev Motwani and Terry Winograd. The name doesn't come from "web page." It comes from Larry Page's surname. The core idea borrows from academic citation analysis, where a frequently cited paper counts as more influential than one almost no one references.
The core idea is simple. A link from one page to another counts as a vote of confidence, and that vote carries more weight when it comes from a page that itself receives many important votes. A page linked from a hundred irrelevant sites can end up worth less than a page linked from a handful of sites with real authority.
That calculation was one reason Google outperformed earlier search engines such as AltaVista, which ranked results mostly by how often a keyword appeared in the page's own text, without checking who linked to it.
PageRank the algorithm versus PageRank the toolbar display
Time period
Visibility
Current status
PageRank, the algorithm
In use since 1998, evolved since then
Never shown as an exact public number, only inferable indirectly
Still active, part of Google's core ranking systems
PageRank, the toolbar display
Visible roughly from 2000 until April 15, 2016
A 0-to-10 bar in the Google Toolbar, visible to any user
Officially retired, no longer exists
Mixing up these two leads to a common mistake: assuming that once the bar disappeared, the algorithm stopped counting too. Google has said otherwise more than once.
How it works
The original algorithm calculates a score for every indexed page, based on the incoming links it receives and the score of the pages sending them. The calculation runs iteratively across the entire link graph of the World Wide Web and repeats until the scores settle. The more relevant links a page gets from sites with authority, the more weight it gains within the system. A page with a handful of high-quality links can end up carrying more weight than a page with hundreds of links from weak sources.
For a link to count, a Crawler first has to find it and follow it through to the destination page. Not every link passes the same value: a Dofollow link passes authority normally, while a Nofollow link carries an attribute that, since Google's 2019 change, counts only as a hint rather than a strict instruction. In practice, a nofollow link usually passes little or no authority.
While the toolbar display was still public, a practice called "PageRank sculpting" took hold: linking internally in a calculated way to concentrate visible PageRank on a site's most important pages. Once the number stopped showing in 2016, that practice lost most of its point, since there was no longer a public figure to optimize in isolation. Google never officially recommended the practice, even though it spread widely across the SEO industry for years.
Why it matters
Google has repeated, through its own documentation and through spokespeople such as John Mueller, that PageRank remains part of its ranking systems, now folded into more than 200 different signals. It isn't the isolated signal it was in 1998, but it didn't disappear along with the toolbar either. That confirmation matters, because plenty of SEOs assumed after 2016 that link building had lost its relevance altogether.
That changes how link building should be understood today. Earning links from relevant sites still carries real weight for organic search, while chasing a public number that no longer exists, or piling up links without judgment, does nothing. A site's authority today comes from a mix of signals, including structured data and behavioral metrics such as CTR, not from a single figure.
Understanding that distinction avoids two opposite mistakes: writing off link building as obsolete, or still judging a link campaign's success by a number Google stopped publishing a decade ago.
Best practices
Earn links from sites relevant to your industry, not from generic directories with no connection to your content.
Use the nofollow attribute on links to sponsored or unverified content, as Google's guidelines ask.
Check with web analytics tools which pages receive the most internal and external links, then adjust your internal linking to match.
Weigh the quality of the linking site over the raw count of links earned.
Link your most important pages from other pages with real authority within your own domain.
Be skeptical of services that promise to "raise your PageRank": that public number no longer exists, so there's nothing they could show as proof.
Common mistakes
Confusing the PageRank algorithm, which is still active, with the toolbar display, which was retired in 2016.
Assuming a nofollow link never carries any value, when Google treats it as a hint rather than an outright ban.
Buying links in bulk expecting them to pass authority, a practice Google's guidelines penalize directly.
Applying "PageRank sculpting" tactics today that were built for an era with a public number to optimize.
Measuring a technical SEO campaign's success by link count alone, without checking the relevance of the linking site.
Manuel Riveiro RodriguezCEO & Digital Strategist
A technical audit covers this and everything else in one pass.
Yes. Google confirms in its own documentation that PageRank remains part of its ranking systems, now folded into more than 200 different signals. What disappeared in 2016 wasn't the algorithm, but the public bar in the Google Toolbar that showed every user a score from 0 to 10.
Why was the PageRank bar removed from the Toolbar?
Google retired the public PageRank display on April 15, 2016. Its stated reason: the isolated number confused users and webmasters about its real weight inside a ranking system that had grown far more complex than a single visible score in the browser bar.
Where does the name PageRank come from?
The name comes from the surname of Larry Page, one of Google's two founders, not from the word "page." Page built the algorithm with Sergey Brin while working on his PhD at Stanford University, describing it in a research paper published in 1998.
Do nofollow links pass PageRank?
Since Google's 2019 change, the company treats the nofollow attribute only as a hint, not a strict instruction. In practice, a nofollow link usually passes little or no authority, though Google reserves the final call on a case-by-case basis, weighing context such as the linking site's overall trust.
What was "PageRank sculpting"?
A practice from the years when the PageRank bar was public: linking internally in a calculated way to concentrate the visible score on a site's most important pages. Once the display ended in 2016, the tactic lost most of its purpose.
