Why do links from the home page give a strong boost?

Google Patent: US9953049B1

Status: Active

The present invention relates to a method for producing a ranking for pages on the web by computing shortest distances from a set of seed pages to each of the pages to be ranked, wherein the seed pages and the pages to be ranked are interconnected with links.

The model in this patent analyzes

1. Reference graph: According to patent US9953049B1, a link graph is an oriented graph in which:

• The nodes (vertices) represent web pages.
• Ribs (arcs) are links pointing from one page to another.

This graph reflects the structure of links between pages on the Internet, where the direction of an edge indicates where a link leads from and to (i.e., from the source page to the destination page). The length of an edge in the link graph affects the weight (rank) transfer as follows:

• The shorter the length of the edge, the greater the degree of weight transfer from one page to another.
• The longer the length of the edge, the lower the influence of the source page on the landing page in the ranking calculation process.

2. Page Selection: A set of high quality or reference pages are defined that serve as starting points for evaluating other pages.

3. Assigning lengths to edges: Each edge in the graph is assigned a length that depends on the properties of the link and its associated pages. For example, the length may increase as the number of outgoing links from the source page increases, reflecting a decrease in its authority.

4. Calculating shortest distances: For each page in the graph, the shortest paths from the reference pages are computed taking into account the assigned edge lengths. The shortest distance between pages is defined as the path with the minimum total edge length from the seed page to the target page.

5. Determination of rating points: The ranking of each page is determined based on the calculated shortest paths. After calculating the shortest paths, the weight (or page rank) of the page is determined using a decreasing function (e.g., exponential decay of weight with increasing distance). The shorter the path, the higher the page rank.

6. Ranking: Based on the calculated rankings, pages are sorted. The page with a smaller distance from seed pages gets a high ranking and, consequently, a high position in the final ranking.

✍️ Why links from the home page work so well:

1. A website's home page is often the initial access point for users and search engines, making it the most authoritative page on the site.
2. Central position in the link graph: The home page is usually central in the link graph within a site (link in the logo as well as link in breadcrumbs), making it a key node for weight transfer to other pages.
3. Search engines tend to place more importance on links from the home page, as it is often the starting point for site navigation.
4. Links placed on the homepage usually have a shortcut in the link graph, which allows you to pass more rankings to landing pages.