Is PageRank Still Important in 2023?

Last Updated: May 5th, 2023
By Adam Bilter

One of the most common questions we receive at CheckPageRank.net is: "Does PageRank still matter?" Since Google retired the public PageRank toolbar in 2016, many SEOs assumed PageRank was dead. They were wrong. PageRank remains one of Google's most fundamental ranking signals — it just operates quietly in the background. Here's everything you need to know.

The Short Answer: Yes, PageRank Is Still Very Important

In 2020, Google's Gary Illyes stated at a conference that PageRank "is still a thing" and remains part of how Google determines which pages to rank. In fact, internal Google documents and patents published over the years confirm that PageRank — in various evolved forms — continues to be central to the algorithm. The key thing to understand is that just because Google stopped showing you the number doesn't mean the concept is gone. PageRank is a mathematical model for measuring link equity, and links remain one of Google's top three ranking factors in 2023.

How Google Uses PageRank Internally in 2023

Modern Google PageRank is significantly more sophisticated than the original 0-10 scale. Google now uses:

Topic-Sensitive PageRank

Instead of one global PageRank score, Google calculates multiple PageRanks for different topic categories. A page about SEO tools might have high PageRank within the "technology" and "marketing" topic graphs but lower PageRank in unrelated categories. This makes the algorithm much harder to manipulate.

TrustRank

Google uses a variant of PageRank called TrustRank that starts from a set of trusted seed sites (like major universities and established news outlets) and flows outward. Sites closer to these trust seeds inherit more TrustRank — another reason why getting linked from authoritative sources matters so much.

Reasonable Surfer Model

Google's link evaluation also considers where on a page a link appears. A link in the main body content of an article passes more PageRank than a link buried in a footer or sidebar. Links that users are more likely to click pass more value.

What Happens When You Have High PageRank?

Sites with high internal PageRank consistently outperform competitors in search rankings, even when content quality is comparable. High PageRank pages:

• Get crawled more frequently by Googlebot
• Rank more easily for competitive keywords
• Have new content indexed faster
• Pass more link equity to pages they link to internally

Why the Toolbar Score Disappeared

Google stopped updating the publicly visible PageRank score in 2016 for several reasons:

• The public score was being gamed — link sellers used it to charge premiums for links from "high PR" pages
• The toolbar score was always a simplified approximation of the real internal score
• Google wanted to discourage webmasters from obsessing over a single metric

The internal algorithm continued running. Only the public display was turned off.

How to Estimate Your PageRank Today

Since you can't see actual PageRank, the best proxy metrics are:

• Domain Authority (Moz): Correlates well with internal PageRank
• Citation Flow (Majestic): Measures link quantity
• Trust Flow (Majestic): Measures link quality from trusted sources
• Estimated PR: Our tool at CheckPageRank.net calculates an estimated 0-10 score based on these signals

How to Improve Your PageRank in 2023

The formula hasn't changed: earn links from authoritative, relevant websites. The best strategies in 2023:

Create Link-Worthy Assets

Original research, comprehensive guides, free tools, and unique data sets earn natural backlinks. If your content is genuinely useful and hard to find elsewhere, other sites will link to it.

Earn Editorial Links

Links placed editorially — because a journalist, blogger, or webmaster genuinely found your content valuable — carry the most PageRank. These are earned, not bought.

Fix Your Internal Link Architecture

How you distribute PageRank internally through your site matters. Make sure your most important pages receive strong internal links from high-traffic content.

The Bottom Line

PageRank is very much alive in 2023 — it just works differently and less visibly than it did in Google's early days. If you want to rank well on Google, earning quality backlinks to build your site's PageRank should be a central pillar of your SEO strategy. Use our free PageRank checker to see your current estimated score and start tracking your progress today.