PageRank: Google’s original algorithm for judging a page’s importance by the links pointing to it, weighted by the importance of the pages they come from. Google still uses link-based signals, but the public PageRank score was retired years ago.
How it works, in one paragraph
Imagine a reader clicking links at random, occasionally jumping to a random page. The share of time they would spend on each page is its PageRank. Links from pages that are themselves often visited count for more, and a page’s vote is shared among the links on it. That was the idea in Brin and Page’s original 1998 paper, which Google’s guide to its ranking systems links to, adding that PageRank has evolved a lot since and remains part of its core ranking systems.
What it means for internal links
Your own links are part of the graph. A page linked from your home page, your hubs and dozens of related posts is, by this logic, more important than one reachable only through page 20 of an archive. That is why inbound internal links are one of the few ranking levers entirely in your control.
A personal-finance blog whose best-earning comparison post sits four clicks deep with three inbound links is, in PageRank terms, telling Google it is a minor page. Linking it from the budgeting hub and five related posts changes that message.
The public PageRank score — the 0–10 bar in the old Google Toolbar — no longer exists, and nothing has replaced it. Third-party scores such as Domain Rating or Authority Score are each tool’s own estimate, not Google’s numbers.
What not to do with it
Old “PageRank sculpting” advice — adding nofollow to internal links to steer value — does not hold up: Google has treated nofollow as a hint since 2019. Link for readers, and make sure your most important pages receive the most contextual links. The internal links per page guide covers how many to add.