How do I find out my pagerank value?

Can anyone help me?

I keep reading about people talking about their websites page ranking value. How do I find out the pagerank value of my website? and what exactly does it mean?

I would greatl appreciate any help.
Thanks
Louise
http://www.llcrafts.com

use something like http://www.checkpagerank.com/

Page rank is a number which indicates how important google think a page is on the internet, It's based on the amount and quality of backlinks.

Thank you very much Meman

I really appreciate your response. I have only had my website for about a year and I am learning bit by bit.
Can I ask you - what exactly do you mean by backlinks? Is that the amount of websites that have linked to my site? and do I have to link back to them all?
Also what do you mean by quality backlinks?

Thanks
Louise
http://ww.llcrafts.com

Backlinks are any links back to your site from another site.
(and to a lessser extent links from your site to other pages in your site)

There are two main types of backlinks, reciprocal and one-way.
reciprocal are when two sites link to each others and one way are when one site links to another site, with no link back.

Google see one way links as more valuable, Because reciprocal links are often part of a deal between webmasters where they both agree to link to each other, But a one way link is usually because one site thinks your site offers good information.

The best types of backlinks are from sites that have related contents.
So if you own a site that sells lipstick a backlink from a site that is about cosmetics is better quality than a backlink from a site that sells car audio equipment..

I wouldn't get too hung up on pagge rank though, It doesn't reallly have much relevance when it comes to the success of a site, where it appears in search results or how many visitors it gets. It's just fun really.

Backlinks are important.. Pagerank isn't.

That is a brillant description, Meman. Thank You.
I actually understand links more clearly now.

I have been advised to stick to about a dozen links going out from my website and not to crowd the links page on my website with lots of links. Do you think that would be correct? and if so why?

Thanks
Louise
http://www.llcrafts.com

Some popele think that linking out is damaging, But i don't agree with that..
But then my site is a directory with 3000 links out, so i might just be hoping it's not damaging..

If linking out does make a difference, it will only be a small one.

I am soooo glad that I found this forum.
You have been so helpful, Meman. I have learned more today that I could have imagined.
I will definitely be visiting again and often.

Many thanks
Louise
http://www.llcrafts.co.uk

Glad i could help.

you can also get pagerank plugin
for IE and firefox.

Then DMOZ must really be hurting.

Dmoz is often used as the proof that linking out doesn't damage, as they have pr9 and show up in a search for prctically anything. I would agree.

Madmonk,
can I just ask you what you mean?
How do I get pagerank plugin for IE and firefox?

Louise
http://www.llcrafts.com

The google toolbar has a little image in it that tells you the PR of every page you visit.

I know this is true. But my site that just got unbanned has a PR of 5 and google shows NO backlinks (although in reality I have lots of them.) So I'm not sure that's how PR is figured anymore or not. Nor do I think it's as relevant as it once was as my low PR sites rank better than some high PR sites.

here is a free web based tool that will check your PageRank and the numbers of backlinks to your site

http://findmypagerank.info/

hope it helps!