Domain Authority or Page Rank?
Does your head spin when a Google Page Rank update comes out? Many of us thought Google was going to do away with it since it had not updated it in almost a year. Do you wonder how your blog or website has scored? We all do. But things are changing so fast, how valid are they and really what do they mean for your BLOG today?
Google Page Rank
All the talk the past few days has been on the updated Google Page Rank score. It’s a score from 1 to 10 that Google assigned a website. Google grades the website mostly for the amount of no follow and do follow backlinks. That is the only metric that Google tells us about in determining their page rank score. The rest is a secret Google sauce. Google tends to downplay PageRank as it is only one of their 200 factors in PageRank in the serps.
Keep in mind too that Google rates itself around 9 so most websites are from 0-8. PageRank is still an important score for websites today as it comes from Google. (Note: Twitter ranks a 10. Facebook is a 9.) See what Matt Cutts has to say about it here:
Domain Authority
Domain Authority is scored from 1-100. It is based on the performance of a website in the search results. It measures the overall quality of a website. Domain Authority changes more frequently than PageRank so it may be a better way to check out the performance of a website. There are over 100 more factors in determining your Domain Authority.
Here are a few main factors for Domain Authority:
- The age of a website. The older the better. Growing old on the web gives you authority.
- How long the name is registered for which would indicate trust.
- The number of inbound links for quality websites / blogs. The more the better.
- More indexed pages help a domain gain more authority. Note: Pages must be indexed!
- Comparison of outbound to inbound links. More inbound vs. outbound means authority.
- Deep linking within your site. Don't just link from your homepage!
- Content frequency. If a website or blog is left the same for years that would not help its authority. Updated quality content counts.
- Bounce Rate – The amount of time a visits stay on a web page. The higher the rate the less authority a site gets but the more visitors stay on a site the better the authority rank is.
- Mix up your content, use images, infographs and videos. Diversifying these will improve the strength of your content and your overall Domain Authority.
- Keeping to a niche – The tigher your niche the better for ranking factors. If you try to write about anything and everything it may not help your rank.
You can see the stats for Domain Authority via MozTrust and MozRank. (Note: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google rank 100, Bing at 99, CopyBlogger 89).
Both PageRank and Domain Authority get harder to climb up as your number gets larger. With PageRank it’s easy to get to 1 or 2 but to climb upwards is much harder. The same applies for domain authority. The smaller numbers are easy to climb up to but once you reach around 40 you may plateau unless you are doing things very well to continue to climb up the rank.
You can find domain authority metrics are incorporated into many SEO and online marketing platforms on the web. You can find them in toolbars and extensions for Chrome or Firefox.
Here is another place to check your rank quickly: http://www.tophostingnet.com/domain-authority-checker.html
What Does This Mean For Your Blog?
Advertising – Most blogs charge by this formula: You can charge X dollars per month, per ad, with X being equal to your daily visitors count divided by ten. Many advertisers will look at your PageRank, Domain Authority, Alexa Ranking and possible Klout Score prior to accepting your blog. They may take these metrics into consideration before spending money on your blog to promote their products or services.
Guest Posting – Many bloggers may check our your PageRank, Domain Authority or Alexa Ranking before accepting your guest posts. They want to be sure they are of a higher quality.
Work it! – Follow some of the above tips to get your blog ready for the next updates as we never know when they will come about.
Which measure do you use the most PageRank, Domain Authority or Alexa Ranking?
Were you surprised by Google's latest PageRank update?
Bonus Material from Ms. Ileane's Podcast: The Ultimate Guide To Do Follow And No Follow Links on Your Blog
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