The answer is: It depends.

If your competitors' PageRanks are in the 5s and 6s or above, no, your PageRank of 4 is not good enough. If you competitors' PageRanks are in the 2s and 3s, you're in good shape in terms of PageRank. (You may have other problems relating to getting on the first page of search results, but that's a different story).

So, the real question to ask is We have a PageRank that is above our competitors' PageRanks. Is that good enough?

A week-by-week trend report of PageRanks for three companies. Seeing the trend gives a better idea of how close to an integer value a PageRank might be.

The answer is Yes, probably. I say probably because of a subtlety. PageRank 4 doesn't actually mean 4.00. It could be PageRank 4.12. And a PageRank of 3 could actually be a PageRank of 3.98. Now imagine how easy it might be, if yours was 4.12 and your competitor's was 3.98, for your competitor to overtake you and beat your PageRank.

So, while it's always good to have a higher PageRank than those of all of your competitors' PageRanks, being two points ahead really means you are "at least one point ahead".

The reverse is also true. Your PageRank of 4 might actually be 4.96 and your competitor's PageRank of 3 might actually be 3.07. That gap would be difficult for your competitor to close, especially if they weren't committed to their web presence and you were committed to yours.

Still, you cannot know exactly what your PageRank is relative to your competitor, so you need to actively keep ahead. I always recommend aiming for a two point lead. That way you know you're at least 1 point ahead. At the same time, you don't want to invest every dime you have in having a HUGE lead on your competitors. You just need to be ahead and stay ahead. This issue is covered in more detail on Page 61 of the brilliant and very reasonably priced book The 12 Habits of Highly Effective Websites.

To help you get a feel for where your competitors might be relative to your PageRank, it is good to track your progress every week. Whole integer fluctuations give you a clue that a PageRank might be close to the higher of the two numbers. For example, if McFly Industries' website PageRank dropped from 6 to 5, you know it is probably only slightly below 6 for a while at least, so expect it to pop back above 6 soon if they focus on it.

The image shows a week-by-week tracking of the PageRanks of a fictitious company and two of its competitors. The integer jump (e.g. going from 4 to 5) gives a visual clue as to what the number might be close to.

Please add a comment and share your thoughts.

Thanks.
Liam Scanlan