The Effect of Inbound Links:
It has already been shown that each additional
inbound link for a web page always increases that page's PageRank.
Taking a look at the PageRank algorithm, which is given by
PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ...
+ PR(Tn)/C(Tn))
one may assume that an additional inbound link
from page X increases the PageRank of page A by
d × PR(X) / C(X)
where PR(X) is the PageRank of page X and C(X)
is the total number of its outbound links. But page A usually links
to other pages itself. Thus, these pages get a PageRank benefit
also. If these pages link back to page A, page A will have an even
higher PageRank benefit from its additional inbound link.
The single effects of additional inbound links
shall be illustrated by an example.
 We
regard a website consisting of four pages A, B, C and D which are
linked to each other in circle. Without external inbound links to
one of these pages, each of them obviously has a PageRank of 1.
We now add a page X to our example, for which we presume a constant
Pagerank PR(X) of 10. Further, page X links to page A by its only
outbound link. Setting the damping factor d to 0.5, we get the following
equations for the PageRank values of the single pages of our site:
- PR(A) = 0.5 + 0.5 (PR(X) + PR(D)) = 5.5 + 0.5 PR(D)
- PR(B) = 0.5 + 0.5 PR(A)
- PR(C) = 0.5 + 0.5 PR(B)
- PR(D) = 0.5 + 0.5 PR(C)
Since the total number of outbound links for each
page is one, the outbound links do not need to be considered in
the equations. Solving them gives us the following PageRank values:
- PR(A) = 19/3 = 6.33
- PR(B) = 11/3 = 3.67
- PR(C) = 7/3 = 2.33
- PR(D) = 5/3 = 1.67
We see that the initial effect of the additional inbound link of
page A, which was given by
d × PR(X) / C(X) = 0,5 × 10 / 1 = 5
is passed on by the links on our site.
The Influence of the Damping Factor:
The degree of PageRank propagation from one page
to another by a link is primarily determined by the damping factor
d. If we set d to 0.75 we get the following equations for our above
example:
- PR(A) = 0.25 + 0.75 (PR(X) + PR(D)) = 7.75 + 0.75 PR(D)
- PR(B) = 0.25 + 0.75 PR(A)
- PR(C) = 0.25 + 0.75 PR(B)
- PR(D) = 0.25 + 0.75 PR(C)
Solving these equations gives us the following
PageRank values:
- PR(A) = 419/35 = 11.97
- PR(B) = 323/35 = 9.23
- PR(C) = 251/35 = 7.17
- PR(D) = 197/35 = 5.63
First of all, we see that there is a significantly
higher initial effect of additional inbound link for page A which
is given by
d × PR(X) / C(X) = 0.75 × 10 / 1 =
7.5
This initial effect is then propagated even stronger
by the links on our site. In this way, the PageRank of page A is
almost twice as high at a damping factor of 0.75 than it is at a
damping factor of 0.5. At a damping factor of 0.5 the PageRank of
page A is almost four times superior to the PageRank of page D,
while at a damping factor of 0.75 it is only a little more than
twice as high. So, the higher the damping factor, the larger is
the effect of an additional inbound link for the PageRank of the
page that receives the link and the more evenly distributes PageRank
over the other pages of a site.
The Actual Effect of Additional
Inbound Links:
At a damping factor of 0.5, the accumulated PageRank
of all pages of our site is given by
PR(A) + PR(B) + PR(C) + PR(D) = 14
Hence, by a page with a PageRank of 10 linking
to one page of our example site by its only outbound link, the accumulated
PageRank of all pages of the site is increased by 10. (Before adding
the link, each page has had a PageRank of 1.) At a damping factor
of 0.75 the accumulated PageRank of all pages of the site is given
by
PR(A) + PR(B) + PR(C) + PR(D) = 34
This time the accumulated PageRank increases by
30. The accumulated PageRank of all pages of a site always increases
by
(d / (1-d)) × (PR(X) / C(X))
where X is a page additionally linking to one page
of the site, PR(X) is its PageRank and C(X) its number of outbound
links. The formula presented above is only valid, if the additional
link points to a page within a closed system of pages, as, for instance,
a website without outbound links to other sites. As far as the website
has links pointing to external pages, the surplus for the site itself
diminishes accordingly, because a part of the additional PageRank
is propagated to external pages.
The justification of the above formula is given
by Raph Levien and it is based on the Random Surfer Model. The walk
length of the random surfer is an exponential distribution with
a mean of (d/(1-d)). When the random surfer follows a link to a
closed system of web pages, he visits on average (d/(1-d)) pages
within that closed system. So, this much more PageRank of the linking
page - weighted by the number of its outbound links - is distributed
to the closed system.
For the actual PageRank calculations at Google,
Lawrence Page und Sergey Brin claim to usually set the damping factor
d to 0.85. Thereby, the boost for a closed system of web pages by
an additional link from page X is given by
(0.85 / 0.15) × (PR(X) / C(X)) = 5.67
× (PR(X) / C(X))
So, inbound links have a far larger effect than
one may assume.
The PageRank™-1 Rule:
Users of the Google Toolbar often notice that pages
with a certain Toolbar PageRank have an inbound link from a page
with a Toolbar PageRank which is higher by one. Some take this observation
to doubt the validity of the PageRank algorithm presented here for
the actual ranking methods of the Google search engine. It shall
be shown, however, that the PageRank-1 rule complies with the PageRank
algorithm.
Basically, the PageRank-1 rule proves the fundamental
principle of PageRank. Web pages are important themselves if other
important web pages link to them. It is not necessary for a page
to have many inbound links to rank well. A single link from a high
ranking page is sufficient.
To show the actual consistance of the PageRank-1
rule with the PageRank algorithm several factors have to be taken
into consideration. First of all, the toolbar PageRank is a logarithmically
scaled version of real PageRank values. If the PageRank value of
one page is one higher than the PageRank value of another page in
terms of Toolbar PageRank, than its real PageRank can at least be
higher by an amount which equals the logarithmical basis for the
scalation of Toolbar PageRank. If the logarithmical basis for the
scalation is 6 and the toolbar PageRank of a linking Page is 5,
then the real PageRank of the page which receives the link can be
at least 6 times smaller to make that page still get a toolbar PageRank
of 4.
However, the number of outbound links on the linking
page thwarts the effect of the logarithmical basis, because the
PageRank propagation from one page to another is devided by the
number of outbound links on the linking page. But it has already
been shown that the PageRank benefit by a link is higher than PageRank
algorithm's term d(PR(Ti)/C(Ti)) pretends. The reason is that the
PageRank benefit for one page is further distributed to other pages
within the site. If those pages link back as it usualy happens,
the PageRank benefit for the page which initially received the link
is accordingly higher. If we assume that at a high damping factor
the logarithmical basis for PageRank scalation is 6 and a page receives
a PageRank benefit which is twice as high as the PageRank of the
linking page devided by the number of its outbound links, the linking
page could have at least 12 outbound links so that the Toolbar PageRank
of the page receiving the link is still at most one lower than the
toolbar PageRank of the linking page.
A number of 12 outbound links admittedly seems
relatively small. But normally, if a page has an external inbound
link, this is not the only one for that page. Most likely other
pages link to that page and propagate PageRank to it. And if there
are examples where a page receives a single link from another page
and the PageRanks of both pages comply the PageRank-1 rule although
the linking page has many outbound links, this is first of all an
indication for the linking page's toolbar PageRank being at the
upper end of its scale. The linking page could be a "high"
5 and the page receiving the link could be a "low" 4.
In this way, the linking page could have up to 72 outbound links.
This number rises accordingly if we assume a higher logarithmical
basis for the scalation of Toolbar PageRank.
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