Anyone who’s into SEO knows about PageRank and Domain Authority. As far as you know, these terms are very important and worth considering when developing your optimization strategy.

But if you’re like most people, you’re a bit confused about what the two are. We all know they have something to do with ranking websites. And since SEO is all about reaching the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), it makes sense to care about anything to do with page ranking and authority.

These two were frequently used as an SEO rank checker to determine the effectiveness of your online marketing. However, if you’re still confused about what PageRank and Domain Authority are and what place they really have in SEO, then continue reading.

We’ll uncover some of the similarities and differences between the two, as well as why PR should no longer be your go-to SEO rank checker.

So What is PageRank?

PageRank is nothing more than an algorithm created by Google. It was written up by Larry Page (hence the name PageRank), which is designed to measure links and link equity.

The way it measures a site is by determining how many links are pointing to it. Then it goes and measures the authority of the sites linking to the site. This is to prevent link farms from abusing the system.

The higher the quality of the inbound links, the higher your PageRank. This was a goldmine for many SEO heads who took full advantage of this new algorithm. And for a while, it worked. At least, until Google decided to stop updating PR data.

Before this happened, webmasters and users would determine the trustworthiness of a site based on its PageRank.

Today, PR updates very infrequently – about two times a year. We only expect for it to phase out completely in the near future.

Of course, this tool is still beneficial to Google’s internal algorithm, but it’s become useless in the public domain.

And speaking of domains, let’s move on to what is Domain Authority.

What is Domain Authority?

Since Google fell through on its PageRank tool, Moz.com decided to create its own version of a page ranker. This tool is a metric that determines the value of websites using logarithmic calculations to identify authority.

The top rank you can have is 100. However, you’ll find that rising up from 30 to 35 is much easier than it is to go from 80 to 85. Unranked websites have a DA of 0.

There are various SEO tools you can use that show the Domain Authority of websites.

Now, one difference about Domain Authority as an SEO rank checker is that it has a wider range of metrics.

Let’s review.

The Metrics Domain Authority Uses as an SEO Rank Checker

Next, we’ll go into the various metrics that Domain Authority uses to rank websites.

The Number of Quality Inbound & Outbound Links

As we already discussed, the quality of the links pointing to and from a site will determine its page ranking. It’s the same with DA.

Domain Registration Info

If the site owner has 10, 20 or 30 sites and uses those for backlinks, then it will hurt their site’s authority. This is a blackhat method and you’ll get penalized for it. Once DA detects this, it will demote your ranking.

The age of your domain is also important – the longer your site’s been around, the better.

Link Diversity

Here’s where quality over quantity comes into play. It’s better to have a few links pointing to your site from a wider array of valuable sites than to have a bunch of links coming in from just a handful of sites.

Temporal & Valuable Distribution

DA also looks at how much traffic your site receives over time. It doesn’t count if you get a sudden influx of traffic one day – DA will determine if this was due to a viral piece of content or purchased traffic.

Then if your site has lots and lots of web pages, it will determine the value of them. For instance, if 75 of the 100 pages have moderate value (determined by traffic and links), it will rank higher than a site with only 10 pages of the 100 with moderate value.

Traffic, Hardware & Software Metrics

This includes how many return visitors your site has, the pageviews per visitor, how long they spend on pages and your bounce rate. The better the engagement, the better it is for your ranking.

Then for your hardware and software, DA looks at your server response times, uptime, page errors and broken links. Website maintenance is key if you want to impress Domain Authority.

Which is Better as an SEO Rank Checker?

Well, we’ll let you be the judge – let’s take a look at the differences that really set DA apart from PageRank:

• Domain Authority is actively used, PageRank isn’t
• DA ranks individual pages, not the entire site like PR
• Google calculates PR, DA is a 3rd party
• PR doesn’t directly influence your SERP ranking, DA measures that relationship
• PR only measures the influence of links, DA uses a variety of metrics
• PR doesn’t update, DA updates multiple times monthly
• PR measures sites 0 to 10, DA measures sites 0 to 100
• DA’s algorithm continues to evolve, PR is diminishing in value

Hands down, DA is the winner when it comes to checking SEO rankings. Your DA ranking is determined by many of the same factors that determine your position in the SERPs.

It measures your SEO, engagement, and popularity. If you can get all around great metrics, then your Domain Authority will increase.

In a nutshell, DA is active and uses a more comprehensive metric system. This makes having a higher DA more impressive than a high PR. Google is already putting PR on the shelf, maybe it’s time we do the same.

Get Quality Backlinks for Your Website

Now that you have a better idea of Domain Authority and PageRank, it’s time to start building backlinks that’ll boost your DA score. It’s the ideal tool to verify the performance of your link building strategies.

Much of this may be new to you and you may not have the time to learn the ins and outs. This is where we come in. At BackLinks, we help businesses build links using automation methods.

If you’re interested in quickly building quality links to your site, then contact us today!