Google’s archived About page states that:
“PageRank works by counting the number and quality of links to a
page to determine a rough estimate of how important the website
is. The underlying assumption is that more important websites are
likely to receive more links from other websites.”
Feel free to read all about the PageRank algorithm. This is all
public information, and the PageRank patent is viewable for free
online.
It is a very technical document, and readers may need more
advanced programming and mathematical knowledge to
comprehend it in its entirety.
Instead of reading through all of the details behind how Google
analyzes and evaluates links, it may be more worthwhile to
understand why this algorithm even looks at links in the first place.
WHY LINKS ARE IMPORTANT FOR SEO