Internal PageRank Сalculation

Modified on Sun, 28 Jul at 12:56 AM

The concept of PageRank calculations in Netpeak Spider.
PageRank values in the main table.
Starting the tool.
Features and elements of the tool.
PageRank amount changes and other reports.

The ‘internal PageRank calculation’ is a built-in tool of Netpeak Spider, which allows you to find out how the link weight is distributed among the pages of the site. It allows you to check whether certain pages get enough link weight or if there are non-important pages that get too many of it.

The ‘Internal PageRank calculation’ tool allows you to do the following:

Simulate changes affecting link weight of pages when making changes to the site structure.
Monitor the changes of PageRank amount.
Find pages with too much link weight.
See the weight of each incoming and outgoing link.
Determine which pages get link weight but do not pass it, thus the natural link weight distribution is breached (the ‘PageRank: Dead End’ error);
Identify pages without any incoming links that pass link weight (PageRank: Orphan).

1. The concept of PageRank calculations

The tool is based on the construction of the connected graph and calculation of its nodes and edges weights. Working with the tool may help you optimize the internal linking, as a result it may be useful to increase the position of your site in the SERP.

The PageRank calculation is based on formulas that can be found here.

Also, to find out more information regarding the concept of PageRank calculation, check these articles:

‘Netpeak Spider 2.1.1.2: Internal PageRank Calculation’;
‘Internal PageRank from A to Z’ .

2. PageRank values in the main table

PageRank calculations automatically begin once crawling is finished or suspended if the ‘PageRank’ parameter on the ‘Parameters’ tab of a sidebar had been enabled before the start of crawling. Otherwise, you can always start calculation manually via the ‘Analysis’ menu.

When PageRank is calculated, you can view internal link weight in the ‘PageRank’ column of the main table. In case of incorrect link weight distribution, you might see one or several reports of issues related to PageRank. All of them are presented in the table:

Report	Issue severity	Description
PageRank: Dead End	Error	Indicates HTML pages that were marked by the internal PageRank algorithm as ‘dead ends’. They are the pages that have incoming but no outgoing links, or the last ones are blocked by crawling instructions.
PageRank: Redirect	Warning	Indicates URLs marked by the internal PageRank algorithm as redirecting link weight. It could be page addresses returning 3xx redirect or having canonical / refresh instructions that point to another URL.
PageRank: Orphan	Notice	Indicates URLs that were marked by the internal PageRank algorithm as inaccessible. It means the algorithm hasn’t found any incoming links passing link weight to these pages.
PageRank: Missing Outgoing links	Notice	Indicates addresses of the pages with no outgoing links found after calculating internal PageRank. It usually happens when outgoing links on a page had not been crawled yet.

3. Starting the tool

For a more detailed analysis of URLs and changes of internal link weight amount, use the extended tool.

To do it, open the toolbar menu and select the ‘Internal PageRank calculation’ option. You can also use the main menu of the program or the ‘Alt+R’ hotkey from the main window of Netpeak Spider.

4. Features and elements of the tool

4.1. There are two reports which can be exported by using the ‘Export’ drop-down menu:

a. PageRank amount changes table → to export PR amount changes table located on the left side.

b. General calculation table

You can also export the ‘Incoming links’, ‘Outgoing links’ reports and the ‘Bin’ using the ‘Export’ button located at the bottom of the tool window.

4.2. Use the ‘Remove dead ends’ button to remove all pages that have the ‘dead end’ status. When you click on this button, all dead ends will be moved to the bin. Click on the ‘Start’ button to recalculate PageRank considering changes.

4.3. Here you can select the number of iterations used to calculate link weight. An iteration is a number of link weight recalculations. The more iterations are used, the more accurate will be the results. By default, 15 iterations are selected.

4.4. Use the ‘Start’ button to restart calculating PR values. It is necessary when you need to update the results. For example, you may use it after deleting all dead ends or changing the number of iteration.

4.5. Use the ‘Clear’ button to erase all results.

4.6. Statistical data by page statuses. It may contain up to four link statuses:

Link status	Description
OK	HTML pages returning 200 OK status code that contain outgoing links and can have: a noindex tag; a canonical tag pointing to itself; a refresh tag pointing to itself.
Dead end	Pages that do not pass link juice.
Orphan	Pages that do not get link juice.
Redirect	Pages that pass all their link juice to the target page. This category includes: 3xx pages; 2xx pages with a canonical tag pointing to another URL; 2xx pages with a refresh tag pointing to another URL.

4.7. Search among all columns in the general calculation table.

5. PageRank amount changes and other reports

You can see the PageRank amount changes from the table located on the left side. The table contains the following columns:

Column name	Description
Iteration	An iteration is a number of link weight recalculations. The more iterations are completed, the more noticeable PR amount changes.
PR amount	On zero iteration, the internal PageRank amount is equal to the number of pages included in calculation. During the first iteration, the program makes initial crawling of the pages, and after that, it is able to track link juice distribution. If PR amount is decreasing, it means that the website has ‘dead ends’ which receive but do not pass link juice.
% of the initial PR amount	During each iteration, the program calculates the ratio of internal PageRank amount on current iteration to PR amount on zero iteration. If the percentage is decreasing, it means that natural link juice distribution is breached.

The panel located at the bottom has the following tabs:

‘Incoming links’.
‘Outgoing links’. Click on necessary page from the main table to view reports of its incoming and outgoing links.

Please note that ‘Incoming links’ and ‘Outgoing links’ reports don’t contain duplicates.

‘Bin’. All deleted from the general calculation table nodes are moved here. Click on the ‘Start’ button to recalculate link weights after removing pages to update calculations. All data and parameters are kept and you can restore deleted pages by using the corresponding buttons (1), (2) or (3).

You can also move calculation results to the ‘PageRank’ column of the main table to update values there. To do it, click on the ‘Transfer results to the main table & close’ button (4).