Relationship Between PageRank and Number of Backlinks

[Chris]

The following is an article written by Olivier Duffez of the PRWeaver Blog:

On the forums or by email I am often asked the following sort of question: "How many Backlinks do I need to get in order to have PR5?". The answer is simple and always the same one: "This question cannot be answered because the PR doesn't only depend on the number of backlinks, it also and above all depends on the PR of each of those links...". Or to put it differently, a page can have PR5 with a single backlink whereas another one can have 3,000 backlinks and PR5 too.

As a result it seems useless to carry out this type of analysis... Except if one is to compare the results in the long term. That's what I have been doing over the past eight months by analysing tens of thousands of pages. For each data I get the number of backlinks and the PR of the page with those links. The data do not come from a tool using a Google Toolbar crack but from the "MyWri" tools on WebRankInfo which enables each WebRrankInfo member to instantly get the PR and the number of backlinks of 10 chosen sites (many other free SEO tools are also freely provided).

Results

The results are presented in the following table. For example the cell corresponding to column 5/2004 and row PR5 shows that in May 2004, an average of 104 backlinks was required to get a PR5. The number of sites analysed to get this figure appears on hovering over with the mouse (1044 measures in the given example).

Conclusions

- With a few exceptions, whatever the PR is, more backlinks than the month before are required every month to get a given PR.

- As expected, one needs far more backlinks in order to get a high PR than a low one. Even if there may be exceptions, because the study deals with a good number of data, it gives experimental support to the theoretical hypotheses or ideas never proved before but only discussed in forums.

- During this summer (2004), Google changed the behaviour of the link: command which now includes low PR pages. Only PR4 or higher PR pages used to be listed by this command. Conversely since this summer you can also list the low PR pages backlinks, which you can see in the table.

- More and more sites are being analysed in MyWri :-) If you haven't tried it yet, go to www.webrankinfo.com/wri (these tools are only available in french)

I am busy preparing further studies on the subject and I hope to be able to share the results with you pretty soon. Please do get in touch if you wish to make suggestions.

Another study that may be of some interest for you: Google test : hyphen and underscore.

More studies to come!

About the Author: Olivier Duffez

[cbp]

- With a few exceptions, whatever the PR is, more backlinks than the month before are required every month to get a given PR

This is consistent with the 'Limited PR Theory' --- given G have doubled the size of its index ----> maybe big shock for everyone at next PR update

CBP

[strum4life]

One thing you have to take into account is your site's quantity of pages. If your site has only one page, it's much easier to achieve a higher pagerank because your PR is compressed to that single page. If you have thousands of pages, you will need many more links to move your PR because your pagerank gets thinned out over all the pages.

[amabaie]

If your site has only one page, it's much easier to achieve a higher pagerank because your PR is compressed to that single page. If you have thousands of pages, you will need many more links to move your PR because your pagerank gets thinned out over all the pages.

Not at all. If you have an site with a certain numbe rof links and a certain PageRank, and you add a page, the PageRank of the original page will remain identical.

The second page will acquire all the pass-along PR from the original page, often thought to be about 85%.

If you add a third page, linked to only from the original page, then pages #2 and #3 will share that 85% (42.5% each), therfore each one will have much less PR...but that does not change the PR of the original page.

If pages #2 and #3 then link to each other, they boost each other's PR, and there is very little "leakage". This is where it gets really complicated, but this still does not change the PR of the original page.

Now suppose that pages #2 and #3 each link back to the original page. The pass-along PR they send to the original page will actually boost the PR of the original page.

A website with hundreds of properly-linked pages has a much easier time holding PR for any one individual page than a website with fewer pages.

[cbp]

One thing you have to take into account is your site's quantity of pages. If your site has only one page, it's much easier to achieve a higher pagerank because your PR is compressed to that single page. If you have thousands of pages, you will need many more links to move your PR because your pagerank gets thinned out over all the pages.

amabaie is right.
The opposite is the actually the case!!!!

CBP

[FishySteve]

Hiyas all,
I enjoyed this article and think this was a great help CRich Thank you for shareing your results with us I'm sure it will be a great help as well as an interesting read.

An interesting study perhaps but I would hesitate to put too much confidence in figures that show that it takes 80 links for a PR0, 11 links for a PR1, 24 links for a PR2 and 17 links for a PR3. I would suggest that more data is needed before conclusions can be drawn, and even then it is well to remember that the figures quoted are based on the Toolbar PR figures and the formula Google uses to convert those figures from True PR is subject to change from time to time.

So whether the number of links required for a give PR is increasing each month, or if the changes are due to the way which the toolbar figures are calculated is still in question.

I’m thinking maybe the increase of backlinks each month is a coincidence since I don’t know of anyone that isn’t always trying increasing their backlinks anyways.

Kindest Regards
Steve

[Mel]

An interesting study perhaps but I would hesitate to put too much confidence in figures that show that it takes 80 links for a PR0, 11 links for a PR1, 24 links for a PR2 and 17 links for a PR3. I would suggest that more data is needed before conclusions can be drawn, and even then it is well to remember that the figures quoted are based on the Toolbar PR figures and the formula Google uses to convert those figures from True PR is subject to change from time to time.

So whether the number of links required for a give PR is increasing each month, or if the changes are due to the way which the toolbar figures are calculated is still in question.

[FishySteve]

I’m thinking maybe the increase of backlinks each month is a coincidence since I don’t know of anyone that isn’t always trying increasing their backlinks anyways.

That didn't come out as was ment, obviously backlinks are a main key but doesn't it make sense that the results are always going to be growing...
Now I've confused myself..
DOH!

Regards
Steve

[ticketauction]

I have two sites, both have the same pr, but one has 50,000 incoming links and the other 200 (not high quality), I am amazingly confused and am wondering if its because they are on the same server or something...

[ireneherz]

i can't figure out page rank at all. I've got one site that's listed in a zillion directories and has about a hundred reciprocal links -- PR4. The other has a PR5 without my even trying!