For years, marketing experts have competed to get their websites ranked highly in search engine results in an attempt to win the PageRank game.
Yet many website owners may not realize that the importance of PageRank as the tool it was developed to be is diminishing and becoming less important in online marketing.
On the other hand, Domain Authority is becoming a more accurate marketing strategy for measuring website quality and its ability to generate SEO and get higher search engine ranking.
How can this be?
It requires understanding the difference between PageRank and Domain Authority, since PageRank is not actually what many believe it to be.
What Is PageRank’s Role in Online Marketing?
PageRank is commonly yet mistakenly thought to be the order in which websites appear on the search ranking pages.
In actuality, PageRank is an algorithm that gauges page authority and value based on the number of incoming links it has and the authority of such links.
While PageRank is a part of what achieves a good position in the search engine rankings, it’s not the only ranking criteria.
Actual position is based on PageRank plus overall SEO generated with good onsite optimization techniques.
Unfortunately, PageRank has become an outdated method of determining page authority since Google has rarely updated the algorithm since it was developed, though they continue to update all the rest of their technology.
Some marketing experts believe Google will be dropping PageRank from their algorithms altogether in the near future.
What Is Domain Authority In Comparison to PageRank?
Domain Authority is a newer online marketing way to measure page authority that was developed by Moz, since PageRank is not being maintained by Google.
Domain Authority identifies page authority using a number of logarithmic calculations that can be tracked using various metrics and SEO tools, making it a more accurate calculation than PageRank.
By gauging Domain Authority, which looks at metrics like domain registration info, link diversity, traffic, valuable distribution, and other values, an authority value can be collectively assigned to a page.
This is proving to be a more accurate predictor of position in the search ranking pages today than PageRank.
Which Method Should You Concentrate On?
Although both marketing strategies are supposed to do the same thing, PageRank is no longer as a good method to determine authority, which is an important factory for increasing search engine ranking.
On the other hand, domain authority according to Moz is “an indicator of your aggregate link quality” which drives SEO and higher search engine positioning.
Marketers should concentrate on doing the usual things they do to generate great SEO while also paying attention to incoming link quality to help build page authority.
Collectively, this will improve overall SEO and gain better positioning.
Final Thoughts on Domain Authority
With PageRank no longer doing what it was intended to do, marketing experts are resorting to Moz’s Domain Authority method of calculating page authority which they can use to help measure page value and monitor SEO.
Using this improved method, online marketers can improve overall SEO by measuring page authority based on incoming links, then work to improve those links if necessary.
It seems domain authority is definitely still important, maybe even more than previously thought ;once it’s understood how it and PageRank actually work!