For those who aren't sure about what Google Pagerank constitutes, it's Google's measure of the relative importance of a site on the internet. The scale runs from PR0 to PR10; with 10 being the highest.
To read your Google Pagerank, you need to download the Google Toolbar. Note that there is no Mac version of the toolbar.
Most blogs that possess any reasonable number of incoming links, whether from other blogs, regular websites, message forum posts, or internet directories, have from PR4 to PR6, which are good solid totals. A few blogs will have a PR7 or a PR8, but they have many incoming links.
By way of example, two of my blogs Blog Business World and Wayne's Derby World, each have a PageRank 6.
My newer comedy blog, Codswallop and Flapdoodle already has a PageRank 5.
Newer blogs will understandably have lower PageRanks. Their PageRank will increase as their number of incoming links grows in volume.
Note that backlink counts on Google only display PageRank 4 or higher pages. Pages with lower PR are definitely entered into your blog's calculation, they are simply not shown.
Don't worry if your blog has a lower PageRank, you can easily raise it.
Simply work on getting more incoming links.
How do you do that?
Well, there are several ways.
You can trade links with other blogs and static websites.
You can add your blog to the many internet directories. There are directories specifically for blogs, many of which are linked in my Resources section. There are also many regular internet directories that are open to both regular static websites and to blogs. Be sure to get into as many as possible.
You can write good interesting and informative content. You would be surprised how many people will simply link to your blog without you even asking them. If your content is good, people will link to your blog. After all, they want to return over and over again.
Post on message forums. When you post, be certain to create a signature file. That file should include a link back to your blog. The blog title is usually sufficient. Even better is a brief description of your blog on the clickable link.
There is some concern that trading links is a bad thing. That is not true.
I checked my incoming links. My links, which are heavily reciprocated with numerous other blogs, all appear. The legend of the loss of trading links is greatly exaggerated. Incoming blog and static website links are good.
By raising your Google Pagerank, you will help your blog rise higher in the search engine results, for your most important search terms.
For more information on Google PageRank, and how it is calculated, see my article at SEO Chat called Google PageRank Primer.
Raise those Google PageRanks!