Page quality (PQ) refers to a rating system for website pages on the world wide web. It is initiative that began on the Internet in 2006. The ratings are on a one to five scale. Visitors to the site are able to rank the page, based on the quality of the information on the page. Search engines also have their own set of criteria for ranking the PQ of a website. Pages that are considered to be higher quality will have higher scores.
When it comes to search engine rankings, the page quality can boost the website in the search engine rankings. While each search engine uses its own criteria to create the ranking of the page, there are some general guidelines or criteria that most of the major search engines look for in high quality pages.
One of the criteria that search engines look for in PQ is links. Primarily, the search engines are looking for links from external websites to the website that is being ranked. In this case, quality wins out over quantity because the search engines like to see that websites with a high PQ are linking to the website.
Relevance is another important factor that is taken into consideration when evaluating back links for page quality. Again, it comes down to a quality over quantity scenario. A website that offers information on digital cameras that links to a website that sells digital cameras is more apt to receive a higher PQ rating because of the relevance between the two pages.
The number of links that a page has also contributes to its page quality. This is especially true when considering search engine page quality ranks. Again, the links on the page should be relevant to the content on the page. The links should also point to other high page quality websites that offer related and quality information. While the number of links shouldn't be excessive, it should be enough that it offers a nice volume of links. For example, one link per 100 to 125 words is acceptable, when appropriate.
Website ranking is also affected by the authoritative nature of the site. Not only should the website being ranked be reliable and trustworthy, but so should any pages the website links. Blogs by an amateur may not receive a high page quality rating. A blog managed by a government agency, however, typically receives a high page quality rating because of its authoritativeness and reliability.