Before learning about Domain Authority and Page Authority, we first have to know a little history. How come we all check now for DA/PA and why we do that? Was it something else before that?
Whom did Domain Authority and Page Authority replace? What is PageRank?
PageRank (PR) is an algorithm used by Google to rank websites in their search engine results. PageRank was named after Larry Page, one of the founders of Google. PageRank is a way of measuring the importance of website pages.
According to Google: “PageRank works by counting the number and quality of links to a page to determine a rough estimate of how important the website is. The underlying assumption is that more important websites are likely to receive more links from other websites.”
Back in 2011, the PR was visible for all the websites, directly in the search results. Thus, anyone could check the PR of a certain website, but Google found it wrong after a while, as webmasters tend to use that information to manipulate search results. That’s why the search engine hid that information after just a few years.
Nowadays, when something is invisible, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. The same goes for PageRank. Google took out the scores from the public access, but PageRank stays as its secret sauce ingredient. It still matters for rankings because it helps the search engine to determine the most relevant results for a particular query.
So, it was one of the Google algorithm updates that hid the page rank. It still exists, yet you cannot see it anymore. That was the context when some clever guys, from MOZ, thought about trying to measure, Google-wise, the authority of a certain page.
What is Domain Authority/Page Authority?
Domain Authority and Page Authority (DA/PA) are indicators developed by MOZ, a very respectable and reputable digital company, which predicts how well a page will rank in search engine results.
The score for DA/PA is calculated algorithmically on a scale from 1 to 100. The philosophy behind it all was that when you want to see the best results of a long-term SEO strategy, it is good to focus your actions and on getting the best ratings for the page’s authority.
The webmasters’ community and all the SEO specialists embraced these new Page Rank indicators and now they are quite famous, used on a large scale, and taken into account by the SEO community.
Are DA/PA accurate indicators? They seem to do their work and they seem to take into consideration the link-building efforts.
Are DA/PA accurate replacements of the Google Page Rank? Only Google might answer this question.
So, don’t confuse DA/PA with Google’s Page Rank, nor do you take DA/PA with a Google ranking factor, even if they’re used on a very large scale.
How can you get the best scores for the Domain Authority and Page Authority?
In order to get the best scores for Domain and Page Authority, we need to consider a number of extremely important factors:
- page structuring and indexing
- the quality of the texts and the content of the pages
- a good strategy for building links.
DA/PA seems to put the stress on the link building, yet they also do take into consideration the quality of the webpage you are trying to measure.
Apart from that, always remember that you ultimately optimize for Google Authority, not for DA/PA. Yet, DA/PA is a good instrument for a guess on your page authority as seen by Google.
Tips to get the best page authority on Google
- Constantly improve on-page SEO and off-page SEO for ongoing benefits;
- Create a large number of external and internal links that involve an optimized anchor for your page. They should be constructed in the most natural way possible, as Google detects the unnatural struggle to build them; you might check the best link-building practices to follow them
- Create a large number of external and internal links that involve an optimized anchor for your page.
- When you exchange links, determine the authority of the domain of the site you want to exchange links with, because if the site has good authority, your page will be more likely to gain valuable link juice. On the other hand, SEO gurus pointed out that even this should be avoided, as Google detects the efforts of getting only highly valuable links. They should be, to some extent, from websites with different types of authority.
- Always consider the user experience on the page and your site. The pages visited by visitors, the bounce rate, and the time spent by the reader on your page are essential criteria that must be evaluated constantly to increase the authority of your web page. It means that your efforts should be directed at creating a good experience for the users on your website – this will help you rank higher than any other SEO tactic.
- Create the best quality content possible or, if the topic allows, content that covers the questions the readers might ask when searching for information. Relevant content that answers users’ questions and needs, which trains and generates ratings, comments, and social sharing, can be of great help to you.
Yes, the higher the page’s and domain’s authority, the more chances you can climb in user preferences. Each additional earned point has particular relevance; the more points you have, the more you will be appreciated by Google. Yet, DA/PA are only reference points in terms of authority, they are not ranking factors and haven’t ever claimed to be ranking factors.
What are the most important things to consider when growing your website’s authority?
Over the years, Google has struggled to penalize the sites which optimize only for authority and not for User Experience (UX).
At the same time, Google favors sites with fresh content. As SEO experts have said before, content is king. Search engines now tend to offer a better position to sites with new and interesting content; updated frequently; detailed, relevant, and valuable; qualified; easy and fun to use. We recommend you learn how to write content to achieve your business goals.
Having great information on your page not only does it attract new people surfing the web to your site and ensures their return, but it can also be beneficial in building your reputation as other links to your page. These links make your website more transparent, and when used properly, can improve the traffic to your page. Having websites owned by other links to your page is not the easiest thing, however, remembering to create useful information can improve your chances of someone referring to your page.
Plain text is not the only important factor for SEO. With search engine capabilities to search for images, they are more important than ever. But how do people find you through images? Incorporate the linked image into your page and include an alternate descriptive text to find the images on the search engines. More traffic to the images will generate more traffic to your site. While other factors continue to play a role in the page’s authority, including these simple ideas, they will help you move in the right direction.
How is Page Authority scored?
MOZ uses a 100-point logarithmic scale to score PA rank. Those that use the Page Ranking Check service must know that growing the score from 70 to 80 is significantly harder than from 20 to 30.
For checking your page authority, you can access the DA/PA checker from MOZ.
How do I influence Page Authority?
Like Domain Authority, Page Authority is a score calculated according to a bunch of other scores. Many processes influence it directly, so finding the exact reason for PA rank changes is difficult. Still, you can make predictions, then – hypothesize and run experiments to improve your score and Page Authority level. Google includes several criteria to rank your page, and all of them affect your score. The right thing to do, after you learn your PA score, according to MOZ, which seems to be the best DA/PA checker out there, is to check your link profile. Does this page have enough strong links to gain the page authority level you want? Does this page have links from untrustworthy websites that are badly recognized by search engines? After you find an answer to these questions, you will be able to operate with DA/PA score data correctly.