You have probably heard of the Google Search Console guide and of the PageRank and of Domain Authority data.
So, if you want to grow your search engine rankings, which one should you be focusing on?
In this article, we are going to show you why Domain Authority is more important than Google PageRank.
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Google PageRank
Google PageRank is a number from 0 to 10 and the algorithm for Google PageRank was created by one of their founders, Larry Page.
The problem with Google PageRank is that it doesn't get updated frequently. Years and years ago, it was used a lot by Google, in which, websites that had a 0 weren't that authoritative, and websites with a 10 were super authoritative.
For example, Google is a 10. Your website may be a 4, a 5, or a 6.
The problem with PageRank is, again as mentioned above, that it doesn't really get updated frequently.
So, as an SEO, when you're doing changes to your website, and you're trying to grow your rankings, are you really going to wait six months to a year for Google to update that PageRank number, to figure out if you're doing better or worse?
Probably not, it's not a good indicator, because of how long it takes them to update, or if you're doing better or worse.
The real key metric is if your rankings and traffic are going higher. But again, it takes a long time for your rankings and traffic to go higher.
If you look at authoritative websites like Nike and Apple, they rank on page one for various terms. And it is not like they did something special to rank really high out of the blue, instead what happened, initially it took them months, years, to rank for some of these key terms.
But the leading indicator, that was showing them if they were doing well, is that their Domain Authority continually started to increase.
Domain Authority
Now there are two main sites that you can go to, to figure out your Domain Authority, Open Site Explorer and Aherfs.
Open Site Explorer is free. Aherfs costs money.
Open Site Explorer is also limited, so after a few usages, they're going to limit you and they're going to tell you that you need to pay to use more of it.
Nonetheless, they both update their number frequently. We personally prefer ahrefs.com because they update it more frequently than Moz.
Moz owns Open Site Explorer, so it's up to you what you want to use but try to focus on your Domain Authority.
It goes on a scale of 0 to 100. The higher up you go, the better off you are.
And when you're doing your link-building efforts, try to go after links from sites with Domain Authorities that are larger than yours.
Alright, now before we move on with the next Google Search Console guide part, have you ever thought about how much you should invest in marketing to generate constant business growth? Click the button below to calculate the ideal marketing budget you should allocate for higher visibility, engagement, and profit.
How much should you invest in Digital Marketing?
How to increase your Domain Authority
Your domain authority basically indicates to Google whether you are a reliable source of information that people will find useful or not.
The higher you get your DA (domain authority) the more often Google will show your pages when people search for the keywords you are competing for.
So, how could you increase your website authority?
Here there are two key factors to show Google that you are a trustworthy source of information.
High-quality backlinks
Backlinks are a great way to increase your domain authority.
Unfortunately, most people just try to build as many links as possible without checking their actual quality of them.
Backlinks are good when a website with higher authority links to your web pages.
And on top of that, you’ll want to focus on highly authoritative websites to link with that can also generate traffic to your pages.
If you link to those websites, Google will perceive your website as more authoritative and will grow your DA.
The more links you get from websites with high domain authority and the more traffic you get from them, the more your domain authority will grow.
And this is how Google will start showing your pages more often, you’ll get more traffic, and you’ll rank higher.
We have an article where we explain in detail how to build high-quality backlinks, you can click here to see the full backlink guide.
Highly qualified traffic
Getting highly qualified traffic will also increase your domain authority.
And here again, it isn’t just about growing the number of visits to your website, it is about growing the number of visits by users that are truly interested in your content – meaning that spend time on your website and interact with you.
Google can track all that data and if those people spend time on your pages.
If you need help with more Google Search Console guide techniques and SEO to grow your business in terms of visibility, engagement, and profit, contact us today and speak with one of our digital marketing experts to see how we can build the bridge between the point you’re standing at right now and your goals.
