Domain authority has become one of the new ranking criteria for determining the relevance of a blog or website. Google PageRank seems to be losing the war. The deliberate silence on PageRank updates in the months of May and June has continued to fuel the rumours that Domain Authority (DA) might be the new ranking system being adopted.
Advertisers are now paying more attention to Domain Authority than to Pagerank and insisting on advertising only on sites that have a Domain authority of at least 25.
Why the sudden change in the mode of assessment of blogs and websites? Which one should we concern ourselves with? Should we neglect Google PageRank because it is almost being relegated? Or should we think PR and forget about the flash of the Domain Authority?
What is Google PageRank?
Pagerank is a system put in place by Google to count the quality of links pointing to a site, and then rank the site according to the votes it has from those links. The quality of links comes from whether those links are from sites that are respected by Google or not.
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For example, the quality Google attaches to links coming from authority blogs with high PR is different from that attached to links from less respected sites with lower PR. If a link from Technorati (with a PR8) points to your site, it is seen as an endorsement of sort, compared to link coming from a site with PR0 or PR1.
Google Pagerank is named after its founder Larry Page, who developed the ranking system with Sergey Brin. PR is ranked on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest. You can now understand while the link from Technorati would carry a heavy weight.
What is Domain Authority ?
Domain Authority is a way of representing Moz’s prediction of how a site would perform in search engine rankings. It is particularly useful for comparing one site to another. Domain authority is calculated by employing other metrics like total number of links, MozRank, MozTrust, etc.
Unlike Google PageRank that is calculated on a scale of 0 to 10, Domain Authority is scored on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 being the highest. The higher you go the more difficult it becomes to get more score. It is therefore easier to move from 10 to 20 than it is to move from 80 to 90, etc.
Google PageRank or Domain Authority?
Like I observed earlier in the course of this write-up, advertisers are beginning to take PR and Alexa rankings with a pinch of salt because they feel these could be manipulated by individuals. But since DA employs over 40 metrics, the trust seems to be gathering in its favour.
Domain Authority is a combination of Google PR, Alexa ranking, traffic, backlinks, etc. It takes into cognizance the domain age, domain popularity (including inbound and outbound links), and domain size (including the number of indexed pages).
However, whatever we think of the Domain Authority, we must never wave Google PageRank aside because Google controls the internet. It is therefore unlikely that Google would dump its Pagerank for Domain Authority since they are trying everything possible to continue to remain in charge of the search engines.
My advice on this?
Play by Google’s rule:
Google still cuts the shots; so we must learn to abide by their rules. Avoid all forms of blackhat practices capable of landing you in Google’s net.
Make your blog SEO relevant:
Never make the mistake of thinking that SEO is no longer relevant as it has been a part of the algorithm for determining Google PageRank. PR is still very much useful and Google will soon do an update. If you fail in your SEO, it is likely to lower your PR. So, your on-page and off-page optimization must remain intact.
Build quality links:
This plays a major role on the side of Pagerank as well as Domain Authority. The more quality links you have, the better chances to rank higher in both PR and DA. Ensure there is a balance between your inbound links and outbound links. Don’t overdo things because you want to get more rankings.
Work on your traffic:
Make sure to improve on the traffic to your site by working on your keywords, improving your guest posts, being active on the social media sites to get social media traffic, etc. The more traffic you get the more respected your site becomes as far as Pagerank and Domain Authority are concerned.
Maintain quality content:
Both rankings pay attention to quality content. So if you want to be on the winning side, you must pay attention to the quality of the content of your blog. The moment you adjust your quality to the left, you are likely to lose on both sides.
You know very well that the number of indexed pages on your site plays a role in your Domain Authority. Ensure therefore that your sites are indexed without stress. Be sure that all programmes and scripts preventing Google from indexing your pages are cleared. Duplicate contents must be removed from your site.
Conclusion
Google PageRank and Domain Authority are almost inseparable. They both play a role in determining the relevancy of your site. Paying a proper attention to what is needed on both sides would ensure your blog remains safe and valuable in the eyes of your readers, search engines and advertisers.
Let me ask you, which one is more relevant now PR or DA? Please share your experience with me in your comments. Feel free to ask any question, I’ll try to answer you.
Hi,
I don’t believe on pagerank. If you are true marketers then you also won’t follow page rank.
To beat others you only need to know number of backlinks and DA. That’s it!
Thanks for the wonderful post.
-Avinash
Avinash, Google PageRank is still relevant as far as Google remains in charge. They are trying as much as possible to move everything to Google+ so as to keep their dominance. In the same vein, they would not allow domain Authority to overshadow their own metrics.
However, it is better to work and be safe on both sides so that whatever the advertisers chose would be favorable to you, and you don’t lose out on any side.
Awesome post here so Useful and informative !
It seems like Google Pagerank is leaving the game according to your words Domain authority is getting more important for advertisers
thanks for sharing this awesome post brother
Do have an awesome day ahead 😀
Anis, Google has failed to do PageRank update since May; so Domain Authority started gaining more relevance. Perhaps Advertisers are adopting this strategy to prepare themselves in case PR suddenly gets booted out. Or it could just be that it is an interim measure to determine the relevance of websites until Google does what it is supposed to do.
Hmm a nice guide on Google Pagerank and Domain Authority.I will use your tips to increase my DA Thnks..
Gautam, it would be nice if you apply the tips. I am sure it would help your site a great deal. Even if Google decides to do PR update tomorrow, you would have nothing to lose.
DA as it takes into account lots of factors and also with Google not updating PR advertisers will start considering DA as metrics as it will be robust and dynamic in nature. Why would anyone want to advertise taking in account PR which was updated for example last year?
Chetan, even though PR was done last year, the last update still remains the latest. However, PR was last done in February 2013 and it is 5 months old.
It still affects every site/blog and since no site has had a more recent update, it would be safe to still apply it to all sites. It is only when a new one has been done that one would conveniently say some sites have gained or lost.
Hey Efoghor
I just gave example of last year.. Everyone is expecting PR update now but still there is no news. Its already 5 months and things would have changed drastically for many sites 🙂
These are awesome tips bro, I really appreciates your writings. Thanks for sharing with us these tips.
Victor, thanks for appreciating my writing. I hope these tips would really help your blog and give it a better rating in PR and also improve its Domain Authority.
Hi Joseph,
I am agree with your point that now DA is taking over Google PR but I know that Google will soon do something about it.
I have also written an article last month on similar topic.
Thanks for sharing your views on same topic.
Sandeep, thanks for that observation. I also think Google is not resting on its oars. I think they are trying to sanitize the system before updating the PR.
Mr. Joseph , Can you tell me that which one we should prefer to know about Website status? Google Page Rank or Domain Authority and How to increase Domain Authority ?
Gaurav, I wouldn’t say I prefer one to the other. I would rather say they are both important since they use slightly different metrics. PR has been there all along and has become popular. I don’t think it should be suddenly replaced now; instead they should be allowed to stay side by side.
Ofcourse both have its own important separately. But since google is every where so I think Page rank is more effective than Domain authority.
Deepak, that’s the way I feel too. PR should not be trusted only because they are everywhere, but because of the fact that they belong to Google and that Google wants to keep remaining the Big Boss of the internet. DA might be trusted today because people often want variety and want to experiment with something new. In the long run, I think PR would still have an upper hand.
A useful post for any ambitious blogger, Joseph!
I really thought that Google PageRank was almost outdated as I learned that many people prefer MozRank in its place for assessment of any site of blog.
I didn’t know that DA has such importance – my blog has a DA of 44, where does it stand? It is very logical to take the approach of writing good content, optimizing it, and commenting on other blogs for higher ranks and more traffic.
The comparison of PR and DA hardly matters to me, and I know that I’m not paying much attention to get more backlinks to my blog, which would automatically increase all rank scores. Your advices to increase DA are spot on.
However, I feel, and as you mentioned, that since Google wants to continue being a leader, it would soon come up with an alternative for PR, or modify it instead of adopting DA, which isn’t it’s own intellectual property.
Thanks for all the information. 🙂
Harleena, I don’t think Google PageRank is dead yet. I only believe Google is trying to mop up the system and clean out those spam sites before coming up with their update to make it look valuable.
A domain Authority of 25 and above is usually considered okay. With a DA 44, your site is really doing great and would attract any advertiser’s interest.
Providing quality content still remains the best thing to do to get authority and be respected. When you provide great content, links come naturally and your contents are shared to create a viral effect. Concentrating on building links would not allow you the time to create exceptionally great content for your readers.
I guess domain authority is much better in measuring website’s performance..
Ansh, when Domain authority wasn’t there, we all concentrated our energies on getting a higher PR. We are only making comparison today because PR update was over delayed. I want to believe that as soon as the next update is done, the internet would be agog. Everyone can feel the mood this delay has created. DA might have great metrics, but PR still remains the most popular and trusted. A lot of bloggers are yet to know about DA even.
Hello Joseph Bro,
Very nice and informative post about PageRank and Domain Authority. Well I think Google is still playing the Google+ game and I’m sure they’ll soon update the PageRank.
PR and DA both are very important to show your blog Power and quality. Advertisers are now looking both things, yes I got an email from an advertisers about Advertisement. He mentioned in his email that He’s was looking for high DA blog and finally he landed on my blog. LOL
Well, let’s see which one will win the game. I’d suggest bloggers and site owners to create quality content, build natural and high quality backlinks to keep up the numbers of PR and DA.
Thanks Joseph for contributing wonderful post with ProWPbloggers readers. Much appreciated it!
Bashir, you are absolutely right. I also believe PR is till very much relevant and that Google wants to give more recognition to Google+ and other stuff. We must therefore be wise in playing our own cards and make sure we remain relevant on both sides and never be caught unawares.
Yes, advertisers are selfish sometimes, and they want what should favour them most (of course they are into business), we must learn how to balance the equation and give them what they want without diluting our site content. Quality content still remains the King and must be treated as such.
This is really interesting. Well, it is not really surprising since we have seen that SEOs have perfected ways of gaming the PR thing! But, do you really think Google will be using DA to rank websites and forget their own algorithm? Yes, advertisers may be more interested in DA than PR but like you observed, Google will never abandon their own baby. The worst is that they may come out with their own way of building that into their algorithm.
Thanks for sharing.
Chadrack, Advertisers are just looking for what would favour them most. The reason DA started gaining much relevance is because Google made everyone guessing what their next action could be since they failed to do their PR update. It is hard to really think that Google would abandon their own product for another in determining an issue as important as websites analysis.
I still feel Google is putting its house in order and trying to clean out those worthless websites that have infiltrated the blogosphere before they come out with a PR update that would be respected by all.
Hi Joseph,
Good to see you here. I think rank has important role for blog in business purpose. Focus on quality of our content would be the best option we should take
Okto, you are absolutely correct. Our main focus should be on providing quality content for our blog users. When we have quality content, search engines rank us high in SERPs and that also increases the rate at which other sites link to our blogs. Putting one’s focus on building backlinks is worthless exercise that should be minimized or completely avoided.
I will say Both the things are important for the site. Your article has explain all the thing clearly.. 🙂
Aditya, Thanks for being a regular reader of this blog. I will always try my best to provide quality posts for the benefit of all readers.
To me, I work on my blog pagerank because I believe it can increase my blog search engine level while I see Domain authority as just a number that doesn’t really matters like pagerank.
Adesanmi, It’s good if you concentrate your efforts on improving your Pagerank. I think building a sit.e with great pagerank would invariably rank well in domain Authority as Google does not give great PRs on a platter of gold. Those qualities that give you high PR can also improve your DA
Hi Mr.Ezie !
Really nice article, I really never knew about PAGE-RANK history 😛 . And it looks like PR is skipped, so we should focus on building DA and PA . Nice article ! , looking for more articles like these. Cheers 😀
AMaan,
We are all trying to solve the Google puzzle. Nobody is really sure what is in their minds. Whatever be the case, it’s good to do our best and wait to see what happens next. We just need to be prepared and not be caught off guard
Hello Efoghor,
First of all thanks for the great post, and agree that we should never neglect PageRank, its one of the important factor what Google consider to make Domain Trust,
Moz has DA not to forget Google also has Domain Trust in which PR is included.
And Moz calculations are fully based on Google SERP, so i can consider DA and PA but also PR,
Lets wait for next PR update and i think again the DA and PR game will unfold…….. if google has not released any update then time for something big to happen.
I am so glad to see your blog post on the topic of domain authority because recently I also published a post on how to increase domain authority and after writing the post, I think that why not to read others thinking about the increasing of domain authority and then I search on Google and came across to your blog post.
I appreciate with all your points and I thinks that to increase your blog’s domain authority, Dofollow backlinks from different different high domain authority blogs plays a major role in increasing domain authority. Right??? 😉
Higher the number of dofollow backlinks from different diffrent high domain authority blogs higher is the chance of getting high domain authority for your own blog. Am I right?? 😉
Hi
I am reading a lot of posts regarding domain authority, because i want to improve my domain authority quickly in order to attract advertisers.
Buy I am not finding it easy as I am not able to know, why I am not improving.
Anyways, I have one question, Whether the links from bookmarking sites help in improving domain authority or not?
I have build many links from Bookmarking and Profile sites, whether it helps?