[1]

 

Google success was mainly based on its original ranking algorithm called PageRank. Basically, the more links point to a website, the higher rank it gets, as it's probably more popular.

Google wont ever provide detailed descriptions of the real algorithms they use on their production servers, as it is a well-garded secret. And it can make the black-hat SEO [2]'s live harder. Nevertheless, it's very usefull to know what that PageRank thing is.

The fundamental idea is explained in the original PageRank paper by Google’s founders Sergey Brin [3] and Lawrence Page:  The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine [4].

For those who don't like technical papers, you can read the official PageRank Explained [5] page on Google.com [6]. From a personal perspective, I would advice you read the funny explanation about the Google technology, the PigeonRank [7].

Or, if you are a hard-core computer scientist with stronger mathematical orientation, go for the real-man article, The Google Pagerank Algorithm and How It Works [8] published by IPR Computing [9]. But be warned that such scientific texts are for the brave only ;-)

Refs

• Standford University [10]:
  The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine [11]
• Google [12]:
  PageRank Explained [13]
• Google [14]:
  PigeonRank : Google Technology [15]
• IPR Computing [16]:
  The Google Pagerank Algorithm and How It Works [17]