PageRank is an algorithm used by Google Search to rank websites in their search results. It works by counting the number and quality of links to a page to determine a website's importance. Websites that receive more links from other important websites are considered more important under this system. The key principles are that links from websites like .edu and .gov domains carry more weight, spam websites can hurt a site's ranking, and it is better to receive a few links from high-quality sites than many links from low-quality sites. While the full details of Google's ranking systems are not known, the basic concept of PageRank focusing on link analysis remains an important part of how Google evaluates websites.