The effect of new page placement on Page Rank

How altering a website's navigation tree affects Page Rank

This article shows how altering a website's navigation tree affects the Page Rank of all pages on the site.

Page Rank is described by Google as follows:
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves 'important' weigh more heavily and help to make other pages 'important'
Source http://www.google.com/technology/

In other words, the Page Rank Algorithm it is a circular calculation. If two pages start with the same page rank and are only linked to each other the effects have to cancel each other out.

However if the pages are not equal, interesting things begin to happen. Because scores affect scores which in turn can affect the scores of the original pages a feedback loop develops. Therefore where you add your new content can have unforeseen consequences to the Page Rank of other pages on your site.

We can use this knowledge to manipulate the boost in page rank produced by the addition of new pages. We can decide in advance if our new pages should boost the homepage or any other page or collection of pages.

Let us imagine a small idealised website with 10 pages (imaginatively named a.html, b.html, c.html, d.html,e.html,f.html,g.html,h.html, I.html and j.html).

Here is a sitemap for such a site.

Here is the current ranking of the pages on this site.

Page	Rank
A.html	1.8896
B.html	1.8896
C.html	1.8896
D.html	1.4724
E.html	0.6100
F.html	0.6100
G.html	0.6100
H.html	0.6100
I.html	0.2093
J.html	0.2093

This ranking was derived by applying 20 iterations of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s page rank algorithm to the pages.

Now suppose we add another eight pages to the site. we decide on three options for ways in which they might fit into the site.

Option 1
We could add them all as extra pages at the same level as e.html to h.html

Option 2
We could add them as a completely new level all below e.html like this

Option 3
Or we could spread them as a number of sub pages like this.

By calculating the estimated page rank for all of these options we can choose which will serve our SEO purposes best.

Again by applying 20 iterations of the basic page rank algorithm to the pages we get the following results.

Results table

Page	Rank	Option1	Option 2	Option 3
A.html	1.8896	2.0500	2.7718	2.5649
B.html	1.8896	2.0500	2.7718	2.5649
C.html	1.8896	2.0500	2.7718	2.5649
D.html	1.4724	2.0500	2.7718	2.5649
E.html	0.6100	0.7142	0.9865	0.9085
F.html	0.6100	0.7142	0.9865	0.6910
G.html	0.6100	0.7142	0.9865	0.6910
H.html	0.6100	0.7142	0.9865	0.6910
I.html	0.2093	0.6145	0.7092	0.7163
J.html	0.2093	0.6145	0.7092	0.7163
k.html	n/a	0.7142	0.2777	0.4157
l.html	n/a	0.7142	0.2777	0.4157
m.html	n/a	0.7142	0.2777	0.4157
n.html	n/a	0.7142	0.2777	0.4157
o.html	n/a	0.7142	0.2777	0.4157
p.html	n/a	0.7142	0.2777	0.4157
q.html	n/a	0.7142	0.2777	0.4157
r.html	n/a	0.7142	0.2777	0.4157

Results narrative

Option 1 had a weaker effect on homepage and top level category pages (a.html, b.html, c.html, d.html) but the newly added pages were ranked well.

In Option 2 the boost to the homepage and top level category pages (b.html, c.html,and d.html) was most marked. However with this option the new pages themselves scored poorly.

Option 3 is a compromise. Apart from the one page directly above the new pages (e.html), which does quite well out of the arrangement, all the other pages get a moderate boost.

Conclusion

With this knowledge we can decide where to place new pages depending on our needs. For example, if a boost to the homepage is our primary seo requirement we should add new pages as a completely new level all together and crosslinked with each other.

However if the new pages need the traffic we should add them according to the map described by Option 1.

Of course page rank is not the only factor in search results placement and page rank itself is strongly influenced by external links as much as internal links. Nonetheless, when looking for that extra edge that is needed to achieve an SEO goal, this information should prove to be of real benefit.

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