Should You Focus On Page Rank Or Domain Authority? - SEO & Web Design | Nova Solution

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Should You Focus On Page Rank Or Domain Authority?

Page Rank & Domain Authority

Boost Website Performance

Page rank and domain authority are two critical metrics that an SEO company may use to boost website performance. Page Rank is created and measured by Google whereas domain authority is metric developed by a third-party known as Moz. There’s a lot that goes into measuring your page rank and domain authority. We’ll look into these in detail below.

What’s a Page Rank?

Page Rank is a metric that is calculated by looking at the number of links pointing to a site as well as their quality. This simple metric can be used to identify a site’s authority. If your website has quality incoming links, it will have a higher Page Rank. This measurement was used by webmasters to determine whether a site is trustworthy though this is no longer the case. It’s utility over the years has gone down.

The main reason why PageRank as a metric, has decreased in value, is because search engines lie Google stopped updating their PR data these recent years. That’s why you may have noticed that your site is neither falling nor increasing in PR over the years. Page Rank data can be updated twice within the year and Google promises to reduce the frequency of updates in the future. Though PR may be valuable to search engines as they are a part of their algorithm, it’s losing meaning as a public metric.

Domain Authority

To determine the value of your web pages, Moz.com created a metric known as domain authority. As the name suggests, this metric calculates the authority of your website. To check your site’s domain authority, you can use different tools such as MozBar or Open Site Explorer.

How Is Domain Authority Calculated?

There are a number of factors that come into play to determine a site’s authority. They include:

– The number of links from external sources and their quality. The frequency in which people link to your site will also determine a domain’s authority.
– The number of links going out to different sources and their quality. Outbound links to authority sites can help your DA to increase.
– Your DA will also be affected by your domain registration details. For instance, if you own 12,20 or 30 more domains that are linked to your site and they are regarded as spammy or black hat, your DA will be affected.
– The age of your domain will also influence its DA. If a site is older, it is considered a more credible source and hence given a higher domain authority than a new website.
– The other critical factor is the diversity of your links. For instance, you’re better of having a smaller number of links from a wide range of high authority sites than a large number of links from a small number of sites.
– Your Page Rank will also be used during DA calculation. The higher the PR, the higher the DA.
– Another important factor is how content and traffic on your website has been distributed over time. For instance, if your site has a sudden spike in traffic, it has to be considered if it’s purchased traffic or organic.

Both domain authority and page rank are important metrics in SEO Toronto that you can use to determine the performance of your site and work on improving your rankings.

There are three main options when it comes to international domains:

– Subdomains
– Subdirectories
– Country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs)

The prevailing wisdom is that ccTLDs (such as yourwebsite.co.uk) are the best way to go. In fact, Google uses the ccTLD as a primary means of country targeting; they give it more importance than even the server location or the Geotargeting settings in Webmaster Tools.

If you’re wondering where the HREFlang factors into this list, the short answer is that it doesn’t. Rather, the HREFlang does not come into play until after Google has already assigned the domain to a particular location and decided where to rank it. At that point, Google uses HREFlang to prioritize various pieces of content.

Another benefit to using a ccTLD is that it caters to the human user experience. The fact that a website ends .co.uk automatically indicates to the person using the Internet that the site is either based out of or related to the U.K. Even for a web-only transaction, users tend to be more comfortable dealing with businesses that are more local to them.

Are There Disadvantages Of Using ccTLD?

So are there any disadvantages to employing the use of ccTLD? For starters, the cost of purchasing a plethora of international domain names can quickly add up. In fact, some international domain names can cost upwards of $1,000/year for the registration alone! On top of that, for each country-specific domain name you’ll need to register as a local corporation and establish a local presence. So if you’re considering ccTLDs, you’ll need to weigh the cost-benefit analysis of using them.

After you’ve made the decision to get a ccTLD (or more than one!), you must narrow down which TLD to use. In the United States, there are specific domains for education, government, etc., as well as multiple generic domains like .com, .net, .biz, etc. The same is true of other countries – Mexico, for example. It has .com.mx and .mx. The ideal approach would be to purchase them both, but how do you know which to use as your primary domain?

The easiest way to do this is to research what the prevailing trends in each particular country. Alexa has a top domains by country report that reveals this information, but an even more simple approach would be to look up what the local media, the local telecoms, and big global brands are doing. Interestingly, only a handful of the top 500 domains listed on Alexa actually employ ccTLDs. Some of this may be due to the fact that brands like Apple, Facebook, Twitter, etc. that already have a massive global presence don’t really need ccTLDs because they are so well-known. For these companies, subdomains and subdirectories are sufficient to maintain their international presence.

Perhaps the best approach is to mimic what Google itself does. Any domain that they own is clearly one that they value – this can be a shortcut to seeing which domains are most important.

Determining whether or not to use ccTLDs, and which domains to use if you do decide to go that route, can be no small feat, but it will be well worth the research and time spent to grow your brand on a global scale.

Protect Your Brand

You do want to purchase multiple domain extensions to protect your brand. It would be upsetting to put all of your hard work into your site, your branding and your products for your .com only to find out that someone else has purchased the .ca and is now competing with you. Some brands have also been faced with the downside of not purchasing all of their url extensions and finding out that someone has used a different extension to create a site to write about them.

The con of purchasing all of your domain’s extensions is that you have to spend a lot of money. Not only are you going to have to spend money on the initial purchase, but every year you’ll have to renew all of the domains. This will be an ongoing expense for the life of your business.

A good rule of thumb is to pick the most popular url extensions. There are some domains that make no sense to hold onto and continue to pay for year after year. Others are necessities for building a strong brand and protecting your company’s name.

The domain extension .com is still the strongest and most popular one. This is the extension you want to buy above all the others – and if your business is located in Canada, it’s a good idea to get the .ca as well. The extension .co is coming up the ranks as the next popular domain. Next there are .biz, .org, and .info.

Your online reputation should be a priority. Owning all of your domain extensions can be a powerful asset. Having them allows you to create sites and have them rank well in addition to your main site. The more control you have of your online brand the better off you are.

When buying URL extensions it is also important to think about your company’s future. While a television a show or a webcast sounds like something your brand would never need you never know what opportunities will arise as you grow your company. Consider buying the URL extension .tv just in case you someday need it as an unexpected branding tool. Your brand may still be small and it may be difficult to imagine needing an extension such as .tv, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Lastly, you should consider the new extensions that have more recently come on the market. Extensions like .jewelry, .company and .shop are gaining popularity. They are the future of domain extensions and if they apply to your business now is the time to consider investing in them.

Purchase endings that best apply to your company. Obviously, if you are a jewelry company purchasing the domain extension .gov isn’t really necessary. Focus on owning the most popular ones and don’t waste money on the extensions that don’t apply to you.

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