People still search for a Google PageRank checker every day. Some remember the little green bar in the Google Toolbar. Others inherited a client report or a link-buying pitch that still quotes "PR 6." Either way, they want one number that says how much weight a page carries.
That number doesn't exist anymore, at least not publicly. Any tool that claims to show you your real Google PageRank is guessing. This guide covers what happened to PageRank, what Scrawl's Google PageRank Checker actually measures instead, how to read each line of the report, and what to do with the result.
What PageRank was, and why you can't see it now
Larry Page and Sergey Brin described PageRank in their 1998 Stanford work on the Google prototype. The idea was simple to state: a link to a page counts as a vote, and votes from pages that are themselves well linked count for more. Google used it to help order results.
From 2000, the Google Toolbar showed a public PageRank score from 0 to 10 for whatever page you were on. That score became a currency. People bought and sold links based on it, which is exactly the kind of link scheme Google's guidelines prohibit. Over time the toolbar number got updated less and less often, so it went stale. In 2016 Google removed it for good. There is no public Google PageRank API, no Search Console report that shows it, and no way to look it up.
What Google didn't do is stop caring about links. Its own documentation on crawlable links says Google uses links to find new pages and as a signal when judging how relevant a page is. Its spam policies still have a whole section on link spam. So links matter. You just can't read Google's internal score for them.
What Scrawl's PageRank checker actually measures
The tool page says it plainly, and so will I: these are not Google PageRank scores. Paste a URL into the Google PageRank Checker and it fetches that page and returns a set of free authority signals for it. Here is exactly what comes back.
- HTTPS. Whether the URL you entered uses https. If you type a bare domain like
example.com, the tool addshttps://for you. - HTTP status. The status code of the page after following up to five redirects. If the page returns a 4xx or 5xx error, the tool stops and shows that status code instead of a report.
- Domain age. The registration date and age of the domain, pulled from public RDAP registry data. If the registry doesn't return a registration date, it shows "Unavailable." Subdomains like
blog.example.comoften come back unavailable, because registration data belongs to the registered domain. - Internal links on page. A count of
<a href>links in the page's HTML that point to the same host (www and non-www count as the same). It reads the raw HTML, so links that only appear after JavaScript runs aren't counted. Repeated links, like the same nav item in the header and footer, are counted each time. - robots.txt. Found or not found at the root of the site. It checks that the file exists, not what the rules inside it say.
- sitemap.xml. Found or not found at
/sitemap.xmlon the root. It only checks that one path. If your sitemap lives somewhere else, like/sitemap_index.xmlor a path listed in robots.txt, this line will say "Not found" even though you have one. - Open PageRank. A 0–10 score and a global rank number from the Open PageRank dataset, when the domain is in it.
That last one is the closest thing to the old toolbar number, so it's worth explaining.
What Open PageRank is (and isn't)
Open PageRank is a free metric published by DomCop. According to their methodology page, it runs a PageRank-style calculation over the Common Crawl web graph, which is a public map of which domains link to which. They combine that with a weighted count of referring domains and turn it into a score from 0 to 10, on a logarithmic scale.
A few things follow from that:
- It's domain level. Every page on a domain gets the same score. Checking
example.com/blog/postandexample.comgives you the same Open PageRank. - It isn't Google's data. It's an independent estimate built from an open crawl. It can disagree with how Google sees your site.
- Coverage follows Common Crawl. New or lightly linked domains may not be in the dataset yet. In that case Scrawl's report shows a note saying the score is unavailable instead of making one up.
If you used to watch toolbar PageRank as a rough authority gauge, Open PageRank is a reasonable stand-in for that one job. Don't treat a 4.2 vs 4.5 difference as meaningful, and never buy links based on it.
How to run the check
- Open the Google PageRank Checker.
- Paste the URL. A bare domain works, and so does a full page URL.
- Click Check Authority Signals.
- Read the rows from the top. Fix anything that's broken before you think about authority at all.
Use the live production URL. A staging host behind a password will either fail or give you a report about the wrong site.
A worked example: scrawl.tools itself
When I ran the checker on scrawl.tools on October 8, 2026, this is what came back:
- HTTPS: Enabled
- HTTP status: 200
- Domain age: 5 months (since May 19, 2026)
- Internal links on page: 196
- robots.txt: Found
- sitemap.xml: Found
- Open PageRank: unavailable, with the note that the domain may not be in the dataset yet
Here's how I read that. The technical basics are in place: the homepage loads over HTTPS, returns 200, and both robots.txt and the sitemap are where crawlers expect them. The domain is young. The missing Open PageRank score fits that, since a five-month-old site hasn't had time to pick up many links that show up in an open crawl.
The 196 internal links tell me the homepage links out to a lot of pages, which is expected for a toolkit with a big tools menu. That count includes repeats from the header and footer, so it's a rough measure of how much the homepage links around, not a list of unique pages.
None of this tells me how Google ranks the site. It tells me there's nothing basic to fix, and that the real work is earning links and making each page worth linking to.
How to read your own result
HTTP status isn't 200. Fix this first. A redirect that lands on the right page is fine, but if you checked a URL you link to internally and it redirects, update the internal links to point to the final URL. Scrawl's Redirect Chain Checker shows each hop.
HTTPS says not enabled. Check what you typed first, since the row reflects the URL you entered. If the site really serves over plain http, move it to https before anything else.
robots.txt not found. You don't strictly need one, but most sites should have it, if only to point at the sitemap. If it exists and you want to know whether it blocks something, test it with the Robots.txt Tester.
sitemap.xml not found. Check whether your sitemap lives at a different path before you panic. If you don't have one, add one and submit it in Search Console. The XML Sitemap Validator can check the file once it's up.
Low or missing Open PageRank. This is normal for new or small sites. The fix is slow and unglamorous: publish pages people want to cite, and get mentioned by sites in your niche.
Low internal link count on an important page. If a page you care about has only a handful of internal links pointing out from it, or sits deep in the site with few links pointing in, that's worth looking at. The Internal Link Analyzer goes further than a single count.
What to work on instead of chasing a number
If the goal behind checking PageRank is "make this page carry more weight," these are the levers you control:
Internal links. You decide how your own pages link to each other. Link to your important pages from pages that already get traffic, with anchor text that describes the target. This is the part of link equity you fully control.
Canonicals and duplicates. If the same content lives at several URLs, links to it get split. Pick one URL, point canonicals at it, and redirect the rest. The Canonical Checker shows where a page's canonical points.
Broken internal links. Links to pages that 404 waste the vote. Scan important pages with the Broken Link Checker.
Earned links. No tool fixes this one. Original data, useful tools, and clear guides get linked to. Paid links that pass PageRank break Google's spam policies, and the risk isn't worth it.
Mistakes to avoid
Trusting any tool that says "your Google PageRank is 5." Google hasn't published that number since 2016. It's a third-party estimate with Google's name on it.
Comparing Open PageRank to Moz DA or Ahrefs DR. They're built from different crawls and formulas. Compare a site to itself over time, or compare sites using the same metric.
Reading a domain score as a page score. Open PageRank is per domain. One strong page on a weak domain and one weak page on a strong domain get the same number.
Buying links because a seller quotes high PR. The number is old, faked, or someone else's estimate, and paid links break Google's guidelines anyway.
FAQ
Can I still check my Google PageRank?
No. Google removed public PageRank from the toolbar in 2016 and never offered a replacement. Tools that show "Google PageRank" today are showing their own estimates.
What does Scrawl's Google PageRank Checker show?
HTTPS, HTTP status, domain age, the number of internal links on the page, whether robots.txt and sitemap.xml exist at the root, and an Open PageRank score when the domain is in that dataset. The tool says clearly that these are not Google PageRank.
What is Open PageRank?
A free 0–10 domain authority score from DomCop, calculated from the Common Crawl web graph. It's an independent estimate, not Google data.
Why does my site have no Open PageRank score?
The domain is probably not in the Open PageRank dataset yet. That's common for new or lightly linked sites. The checker shows a note instead of a made-up number.
Does Google still use PageRank?
Google still uses links. Its documentation says links help it find pages and judge relevance, and its spam policies cover link schemes. It just doesn't show any link score publicly.
Is Open PageRank the same for every page on my site?
Yes. It's calculated per domain, so every URL on the same domain gets the same score.
Why does the sitemap row say not found when I have a sitemap?
The checker only looks at /sitemap.xml on the root of the site. If your sitemap uses another path or filename, it won't be detected there.
Is the Google PageRank Checker free?
Yes. Paste a URL and run it.