Page rank is a patented search related algorithm named after Larry Page, one of the founders of Google. In simple terms, page rank is a measure of how many other relevant websites link to your website. SEO optimization techniques focus mostly on improving the page rank of your website. However, as black hat techniques get rampantly used by some link building services, search engines including Google have started looking at alternate ways to serve up relevant content to their users. Google has already removed page rank as a metric from its site monitoring software Google Webmaster. Google itself feels that it is not a very important metric and feels that providing the information on page rank forces people to give more importance to it than is necessary.

SEO forums and blogs are strongly debating what Google’s next step is likely to be. While some argue that Google would eventually phase out the page ranking metric altogether from its search engine algorithm, others feel that it is too closely linked to the Google brand and cannot be done away with in a hurry.

Whatever be the outcome of Google’s strategy, techniques aimed at purely improving your page rank is becoming less and less relevant.

With the increased competition in the marketplace and the flood of information on any topic, it is important that your website remains a favorite of search engine crawlers. And the days of amateur SEO optimization are long gone. Today, it is vital that you employ the services of a professional link building services company or a competent freelancer to ensure that your site is SEO optimized. Professional link building services spend 100% of their time perfecting their services. As a result, the best among them will offer innovative link building services by placing your links in sites that matter. These may include opinion leaders such as popular forums, RSS aggregators and even service comparison websites. Some firms which offer professional link building services also offer additional services to optimize your website design and content in a search engine friendly manner. You should however, take care that being search engine friendly does not mean spamming your site with irrelevant content with random keywords. Carefully research your keywords and offer content relevant to your customers. Because search engines may change their techniques, but good content and easy navigation will always ensure that your customers keep coming back to you. And always remember, a higher search engine ranking is only a means to an end and not an end in itself.

Meanwhile, keep your strategy risk averse, and do not completely ignore page ranks. It might be still quite some time before Google and other search engines completely removes page rank as a factor that measures a site’s popularity. Again, let your hired link building services professional worry about it. After all, he is being paid to ensure that your site is right on top in the results page.