Domain Authority Page Authority Linking and Google Ranking Factors in 2014

Learn about a site's domain authority, top pages etc with Open Site Explorer

• Tools to measure Domain Authority and Page Authority

Some of our clients have shown an interest in knowing what tools are available to measure the domain authority and page ranking for their business. We prefer to refer to this as Authority rather than Ranking.


We would be happy for businesses to trust the data shown in the Moz Open Site Explorer Tool to measure domain and page authority.


The Chrome extension PageRank Status can also be used for quick updates; it sits in the bookmark toolbar and takes seconds to load a number of very useful details and metrics about a website, to get a quick understanding of a business’s position.

One thing to consider when using Toolbar metric scores, is that they are designed to be used as an 'indicator' rather than a reliable score.

• Measuring Domain Authority and Page Authority linking metrics

Domain Authority works on a algorithm which scores a website out of 100 (a higher score is better).
Page Authority is a calculated metric for how well a given webpage is likely to rank in Google.com's search results.

Domain Authority measures the strength of entire domains or subdomains, whereas Page Authority measures the predictive ranking strength of a single page.

Page Authority is difficult to influence directly. It is made up of an aggregate of metrics that each have an impact on this score. This was done intentionally; this metric is meant to approximate how competitive a given site is in Google.com. Since Google takes a lot of factors into account, a metric that tries to calculate it must incorporate a lot of factors, as well.

• How to interpret the findings

It is recommended by industry experts that Domain Authority is viewed as a competitive metric against other sites, as opposed to a historic measure of your internal SEO efforts.

It's best to use Page Authority (PA) and Domain Authority (DA) as comparative metrics when doing research in the search results and determining which sites / pages may have more powerful / important link profiles than another.

• Best Practice Linking

This image below, shared in Smashing Magazine 2007 is often used to explain PageRank, though much has changed since then in terms of linking best practice, one such example is evident in the name 'link earning'; the value of links has evolved far beyond ranking factors. As an example, Businesses need to be aware that Google actively penalise for paying for blogger reviews on a blogger review network for instance. 'Natural' and 'not paid' is the only acceptable link in 2014 and importantly, generating referral traffic that drives 'real value' and 'builds long-term authority' for a website.

PageRank has gone through many changes since 2007

• Google Ranking Factors

Google has over 200 Ranking Factors. These factors are updated on a fairly regular basis; sometimes as many 500 algorithmic updates in a year. Last major update 6 December 2013. The chaps at Backlinko have compiled a complete list and below is a selection of some relevant best practice factors that most businesses are either doing or planning to do through their search marketing activities with Rocktime.

This list has some general priority to the order but Google does not stipulate ‘exact’ priority when it comes to social signals or being an authority on a topic etc. instead Google talks in terms of strong, medium and weak signals to assist with their ranking algorithms and what elements of a website to optimise.

• Some Google Ranking Factors Listed

Keyword As First Word in Domain: a domain that starts with a target keyword has an edge over sites that either don’t have the keyword in their domain or have the keyword in the middle or end of their domain

Keyword in Subdomain Name: a keyword appearing in the subdomain boosts rank

Keyword in Title Tag / Page Title: The title tag is a webpage’s second most important piece of content (besides the content of the page) and therefore sends a strong on-page SEO signal.

Page Title / Title Tag Starts with Keyword: title tags that starts with a keyword tend to perform better than title tags with the keyword towards the end of the tag

Keyword Appears in H1 Tag: H1 tags are a “second title tag” that sends another relevancy signal to Google

Use of Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools: having these two programs installed on your site can improve your page’s indexing.

Breadcrumb Navigation: This is a style of user-friendly site-architecture that helps users (and search engines) know where they are on a site:

Page Loading Speed via HTML: Both Google and Bing use page loading speed as a ranking factor. Search engine spiders can estimate your site speed fairy accurately based on a page’s code and file size.

Duplicate Content: Identical content on the same site (even slightly modified) can negatively influence a site’s search engine visibility.

Rel=Canonical: When used properly, use of this tag may prevent Google from considering pages duplicate content.

Image Optimisation: Images on-page send search engines important relevancy signals through their file name, alt text, title, description and caption.

Broken Links: Having too many broken links on a page may be a sign of a neglected or abandoned site. The Google Rater Guidelines Document uses broken links as one was to assess a homepage’s quality.

Keyword in URL: Another important relevancy signal.

HTML errors/WC3 validation: Lots of HTML errors or sloppy coding may be a sign of a poor quality site. WC3 validation is a moderate signal.

Site Architecture: A well put-together site architecture (especially a silo structure) helps Google thematically organise your content.

Presence of Sitemap: A sitemap helps search engines index your pages easier and more thoroughly, improving visibility.

Priority of Page in Sitemap: The priority a page is given via the sitemap.xml file may influence ranking.

Site Usability: A site that’s difficult to use or to navigate can hurt ranking by reducing time on site, pages viewed and bounce rate.

Keyword is Most Frequently Used Phrase in Document: Having a keyword appear more than any other likely acts as a relevancy signal.

Content Length:  Content with more words can cover a wider breadth and are likely preferred to shorter superficial articles.

Recency of Content Updates: Google Caffeine update favours recently updated content, especially for time-sensitive searches.

Magnitude of Content Updates: The significance of edits and changes is also a freshness factor. Adding or removing entire sections is a more significant update than switching around the order of a few words.

Historical Updates Page Updates: How often has the page been updated over time? Daily, weekly, every 5-years? Frequency of page updates also play a role in freshness.

Keyword Word Order: An exact match of a searcher’s keyword in a page’s content will generally rank better than the same keyword phrase in a different order.

Outbound Link Quality: linking out to relevant authority sites helps send trust signals to Google.

Helpful Supplementary Content: helpful supplementary content is an indicator of a page’s quality – how to calculate, how to use, top tips.

Multimedia: Images, videos and other multimedia elements may act as a content quality signal.

Number of Internal Links Pointing to Page: The number of internal links to a page indicates its importance relative to other pages on the site.

Quality of Internal Links Pointing to Page: Internal links from authoritative pages on domain have a stronger effect.

Internal Link Anchor Text: Internal link anchor text is another relevancy signal, although probably weighed differently than backlink anchor text.

Page Category: The category the page appears on is a relevancy signal. A page that’s part of a closely related category should get a relevancy boost compared to a page that’s filed under an unrelated or less related category.

Bullets and Numbered Lists: Bullets and numbered lists help break up your content for readers, making them more user friendly. Google likely agrees and may prefer content with bullets and numbers.

User reviews/Site reputation: A site’s on review sites likely play an important role in the algorithm.

Linking Root Domains: The number of referring domains, domain authority, and aged domains is one of the most important ranking factors in Google’s algorithm,

Social Shares of Referring Page: The amount of page-level social shares may influence the link’s value.

Diversity of Link Types: links from diverse sources is a sign of a natural link profile.

Bounce Rate: a way for Google to use the users as quality testers

Direct Traffic: It’s confirmed that Google uses data from Google Chrome to determine whether or not people visit a site (and how often). Sites with lots of direct traffic are likely higher quality than sites that get very little direct traffic.

Repeat Traffic: They may also look at whether or not users go back to a page or site after visiting. Sites with repeat visitors may get a Google ranking boost.

Number of Comments: Pages with lots of comments may be a signal of user-interaction and quality.

Dwell Time: Google pays very close attention to “dwell time”: how long people spend on your page when coming from a Google search. This is also sometimes referred to as “long clicks vs short clicks”. If people spend a lot of time on your site, that may be used as a quality signal.

Google+ Circles: Google shows higher results for authors and sites that you’ve added to your Google Plus Circles

Local Searches: Google often places Google+ Local results above the “normal” organic SERPs.

Number of Tweets: Like links, the tweets a page has may influence its rank in Google.

Authority of Twitter Users Accounts: It’s likely that Tweets coming from aged, authority Twitter profiles with a ton of followers have more of an effect than tweets from new, low-influence accounts.

Facebook Shares: Facebook shares — because they’re more similar to a backlink — may have a stronger influence than Facebook likes.

Authority of Facebook User Accounts: As with Twitter, Facebook shares and likes coming from popular Facebook pages may pass more weight.

NB
Number of Google+1′s: Google+ has “no direct effect” on rankings
Google would weigh +1′s coming from authoritative accounts more than from accounts without many followers.

Verified Google+ Authorship: In February 2013, Google CEO Eric Schmidt famously claimed:
Verified authorship may already be a trust signal.

Site Level Social Signals: Site-wide social signals may increase a site’s overall authority, which will increase search visibility for all of its pages.

Employees Listed at Linkedin: having Linkedin profiles that say they work for your company is a brand signal.

Mobile Optimised: Google’s official stance on mobile is to create a responsive site. It’s likely that responsive sites get an edge in searches from a mobile device.

YouTube: There’s no doubt that YouTube videos are given preferential treatment in the search engine results page (SERPs); probably because Google owns it.



Well, there is always plenty to get on with, within an integrated digital strategy or digital transformation strategy! As long as the content is written for the viewer and not to please Google, then a business is on the right track at least.

If you want to share your thoughts on this blog, or gain other insights into making your site ready in this age of the customer, you are always welcome to give our Digital Strategists a call on 01202 678777. It is very satisfying to see the results and return on investment gained together!


Author: Fiona Anderson

Digital Transformation 2014

Words that best describe important business developments at Rocktime

The Rocktime Team and Rocktime Clients have compiled an informed group of words that best describe our perceptions about important business developments currently affecting us in 2013 and that will continue to have a direct impact on us going optimistically into 2014.

• Innovation
• Responsive design
• Social ROI
• Digital Transformation
• Conversions
• Social Workplace
• Mobile

We have some really great clients and we appreciate the challenges to remain innovative.

You know where we are if you want to chat about your marketing and development plans; we are all 'hands on' and 'consultants', so you are in good hands, whoever you work with at Rocktime!

Here's to plenty more great integrated digital strategies in 2014!

Author: Fiona Anderson

Digital Strategy versus Bowling Technique

Team Event:
Bowling Experience

At Rocktime, it is customary to donate one day a month to leisurely pastimes that sees the entire workforce (when available) partake in activities that range from rafting and tree climbing, right through to paintballing and other adrenaline based high octaneactivities.

Groups of two employees are picked to decide the activity for the following month. This month Ed and Aysegul picked bowling as the venue of choice. With a bottle of (extremely) well matured wine as the prize and the pride of all involved at stake, it was time to see who would be crowned Rocktime Bowling Champion.

It was 2:30 pm on a pale grey Monday afternoon. The clouds hung thick, low and menacing. They threatened to shower us at any moment, there was a drop in pressure; it may have been the weather outside but deep down we all knew it was time for the fun to begin. We shut down our stations, packed up our stuff and headed to the Bowlplex.

The Rocktime Bowling Championship (RBC) is a highly coveted title. Guy decided to warm up by cycling to the venue in as short a time as possible. Mark, Dave and I decided to talk tactics. Kieron and Ed felt that the best way to warm up was a cheeky game of table hockey to get the motion going in the arms. Krishna and Aysegul felt that the best technique was to work on their accuracy by perfecting their basketball shot at the arcade hoops. Paul decided that quiet meditation followed by humming his favourite songs would swing the title in his favour; and just as the game was getting underway, Alex made a tactically late appearance, designed to confuse and bewilder the opposition in to forfeiting the title before it had begun!

Tactics aside, we were broken into teams of two with an individual winner and a team winner as possible outcomes. The teams were as follows:

The first team: ‘Solid shot’ - Dave, ‘Mr Inconsistent – Guy, Aysegul – ‘The spinner’, Krishna – ‘The “Rookie” ’, ‘Gutter ball’ – Jay(me), ‘Slippery’ –Fiona.

The Second team: ‘Mr Consistency’ – Kieron, Mark – ‘The marksman’, ‘A beer will help’ – Ed, ‘Performance enhancing’ – Paul, Alex – ‘The striker’.

Round one

Finding our feet

The first round got off to a shaky start for all competitors as we warmed into the game, Ed hadn’t used his trump card yet and was struggling to get into form. Krishna the (apparent) rookie was hitting a lot of pins which saw him head to head with Alex for first place. Kieron cranked up the pressure on the front runners with his consistent form of 9’s.

As we entered the twilight of the first round our team was in the lead. But suddenly a late flurry of strikes from Alex, Mark and Kieron turned the game on its head. The first round went to the second team. With Alex as the individual winner on overall points.

Alex performing his low bowling technique.

Round one winner: Team two

Individual winner: Alex

Round two

The competition heats up

By the second game everyone was warmed up and a lot more pins were being knocked down. Aysegul’s spinning shots continued to frustrate her as they defied the laws of physics and span away from potential strikes right at the last meter of the bowling alley. Guy, Dave, Mark and Paul were all putting in solid bowls which saw the score count creep into the hundreds. However Kieron, Krishna and Alex were setting the pace with solid hits from all three.

Ed had had enough and decided it was time to use his trump card. Throughout the first game he was bowling off to the sides. He postulated that the best way to counter this accuracy flaw was to use a pint of beer. The equation (known as Ed’s theory of relativity) went something like this:

Natural Accuracy = negative + Beer Accuracy = Negative, Combined (double negative) = positive accuracy.

It was a stroke of genius which saw him rise up into contention with the front runners for a spot on the podium.

For me, the bowling ball seemed to be magnetically drawn to the gutters on every swing. I decided to invest in Ed’s theory of relativity, this paid off and my score crept back up with the contenders.

Me - looking flustered after getting another gutter ball!

Guy was having some consistency issues which saw him hit 1 pin, and then spare, throughout the round. However his occasional spares and strikes insured that he kept up pace and challenged for a podium finish.

Towards the end as the pressure for first place mounted, Krishna just crept over the foul line and saw crucial points lost as the game came down to crunch time. Paul was sneaking into first place with some consistent and powerful strikes, however Alex had hit several strikes in a row and as the round came to a close he finished as the clear winner.

Round two winners: Team two

Individual winner: Alex

Round three

The controversial round

The atmosphere was merry as the third round got underway, the lane that team one were playing on had taken a beating from Krishna’s controversial bowling techniques that had made him an RBC title contender in the first couple of rounds. Now, some members of the team were adamant that a small crater had formed. I concurred, especially with my gutter ball shot count suddenly rocketing!

Solid bowling performances from Fiona, Paul and Dave saw them mingling with the front runners, the pressure was on. Paul was in the lead with consistent and masterful strikes, pars and high pin counts.

Some people were calling foul as they believed Paul had taken something to enhance his athletic ability. His score was high and he was singing to himself a lot more than usual. However, no one could prove this to be true.

Fiona decided that this round she would switch up her tactics to try and find one that was suited to her, this achieved mixed results with some spares and strikes but the scoring was the same across the board.

Just as the teams were getting into the swing of things, lane one began to creak and moan at the impact of shots. (Krishna!)  Eventually it ceased to work which resulted in some down time.

When the game got back under way the break had caught Fiona and her new bowling technique by surprise. As she swung the bowling ball low and hard she stepped over the foul line and on to the neatly polished bowling alley. As she quickly attempted to prevent a foul call from the computer she jerked her leg back transferring her balance onto the foot in the bowling alley causing a fall that would be difficult to replicate!!

The lane was back on now and it was incredibly temperamental. This was a good thing for me as it gave me another go every time I got a gutter ball. Krishna also made the most of it, getting a free strike without even having to bowl! This change of luck saw my team quickly snatch the lead from team two. Paul had tampered with one of the arcade machines and somehow managed to upload his music onto it. Little did he know it would have detrimental effects for his team mate Alex, who found the music a struggle causing his high strike percentage to dip just enough for Krishna to snatch away the lead at the last minute. Giving Krishna and team one the round by only 20 points!

Round three winner: Team one

Individual winner: Krishna

ROCKTIME BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIPS INDIVIDUAL WINNER: Alex

ROCKTIME BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIPS INDIVIDUAL RUNNERUP: Krishna

ROCKTIME BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIPS WINNER: Team two

The Rocktime team after the bowling event.

Author: Jay (Web Developer)