Improving the PageRank of a webpage would enhance its status in Google’s search engine listing. You can improve the PageRank of a particular webpage by increasing the number of inbound links to the page. The more inbound links would mean higher PageRank and therefore greater chances that a random surfer would visit the webpage.However, it makes sense to understand how Google calculates the PageRank of a webpage in order to understand how we can manipulate link building to improve the position of a webpage. According to the founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google uses the following formula to calculate PageRank: PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + … + PR(Tn)/C(Tn)) Sure, the formula looks intimidating. But it’s explanation is quite simple. It’s far easier to understand it when you split it up to understand the essentials. PR(A) – This simply means ‘the total PageRank of a particular webpage A equals’ (1-d) – This represents the initial PageRank of a particular page as assigned by Google. d here is the dampening factor, which is the probability that a surfer will click random links till he reaches this particular page. It is a constant factor determined by Google and is usually .85. So, (1-d) would be .15. So, each page starts with an initial PageRank of .15. PR(T1)/C(T1) – This part of the formula represents the PageRank boost coming from a link to the webpage T1. The numerator, PR(T1), represents T1’s PageRank, and the denominator, C(T1), represents the number of crawlable links on T1. So, in order to boost the PageRank value that Page A receives from being linked to page T1, you can actually do two things.

1. Increase the PageRank of T1
2. Decrease the links on T1

This is because if there  are greater number of links on T1, Page A’s link receives only a small share of Page T1’s PageRank. This simple process is the key to successful PageRank building. + … + PR(Tn)/C(Tn) – This simply means “plus the PageRank coming from all the other pages that link to you.” Thus, a page distributes its PageRank over its outbound links and accumulates it from inbound links. However, distribution doesn’t mean losing its own PageRank. A page doesn’t lose its importance while voting for another page. From the above formula, it may be assumed that PageRank calculations may form an infinite loop on account of the number of links to a particular page. This is where the dampening factor d comes into play. Because of d, only 85% of the PageRank value assigned to the page is taken into consideration.