Websites are an important tool for many educational organisations, and many now rely heavily on Google for their website’s traffic. The first part of their reliance comes from their ranking in Google searches. This is influenced by a host of factors, particularly whether a site pays for prominent listing in the sponsored search section. However, what are known as Natural Listings, are for many sites equally important and while content and traffic are components of a site’s rating, the real key to a good listing is the site’s PageRank.
Last year we gave the PageRanks for several well-known UK education sites, some of which are listed below. These show that Google’s recent changes to the PageRank algorithm can see a site’s ranking change significantly. For many corporate sites this may be a small issue, but for sites who rely on advertising and online sales, a small change can be financially devastating.
- Nord Anglia www.nordanglia.com 5/10 (up from zero)
- DCSF www.dcsf.gov.uk 0/10 (fallen by 8)
- Hope Education www.hope-education.co.uk 4/10 (down by 1)
- Microsoft www.microsoft.com/uk/education 6/10 (up by 2)
- Microsoft EMEA education www.microsoft.com/emea/education 6/10 (down by 1)
- Special Agent www.specialagent.co.uk 4/10 (up by 2)
- Student Loans Company www.slc.co.uk 7/10 (same)
- TES www.tes.co.uk 6/10 (down by 1)
Content obviously doesn’t have much of an impact on your PageRank - after adding over a thousand stories in the last year, our rank remained exactly the same!
