But this doesn't mean that PageRank is dead – far from it.
The original patent has been replaced by a new indian mobile number for whatsapp one. To fully understand the differences from the original, we recommend reading Bill Slawski's analysis here.
This new patent refers to “seed sites in trusted seed sets” and defines them as “…specially selected high-quality pages that provide good web connectivity to other non-seed pages,” giving two examples: Google Directory (which was still active when the patent was filed) and the New York Times.
"[Seed sites] should be reputable, diverse enough to cover a wide range of areas of public interest, and well-connected to other sites. They should have a large number of meaningful outbound links to make it easy to identify other useful, high-quality pages, acting as a 'hub' on the web."
The new patent aimed to give a ranking score to a web page based on its distance from a seed set. The patent does not actually refer to PageRank (nor does it claim to be an updated version of the algorithm).
Rather, it was understood by the SEO community as a modifier of PageRank based on proximity to the source set of sites.
Image Credits: US9165040B1
How PageRank Works
PageRank is a really fascinating thing.
Every SEO (and link builder) should understand this in depth, if only to understand the context why links remain one of Google’s top 3 ranking factors .
When the patent was first filed and Google’s first algorithm was developed, it was based on the theory that a link from one website to another acted as a vote of trust and authority. So, the more links (votes) pointing to a page, the more trustworthy it should be and, therefore, rank higher.
