Page Authority is defined as a calculated metric for  how high an individual page ranks in search engine results and can be more useful in measuring a page’s status than Google Page Rank as it is continually updated.  Whereas Google Page Rank uses a scale of 1 to 10, Page Authority offers more precision with its scale of 1 to 100.  It allows for the measurement of small changes and is a much more effective tool for determining trends.

Due to the continuous upgrades in Page Authority, the quality and reliability of the results are of much more value than Google Page Rank and is on the verge of becoming the metric that provides the gold standard for link builders.

Because Page Authority is the result of a combination of metrics that all impact the page’s score, it is difficult to influence directly.  The best way of having an influence on Page Authority is by improving a page’s search engine optimization.  This can be done by focussing on the link profile and acquiring plenty of links from other well-linked pages.  The links will need to come from other web pages that not only score well with Page Authority, but that contain relevant content.  Because Page Authority algorithms are constantly updated, this is an ongoing process.

A Page Authority report not only provides in-depth information on the status of the page, but also provides results for Domain Authority, Total Links and Linking Root Domains.  Page Authority and Domain Authority can be used in targeting websites and pages that are more likely to perform well in search engine results.

Many reputable SEO services nowadays ignore Page Rank when delivering reports to clients and focus on Page Authority as a much better tool for determining the likelihood of a page ranking well.

If you know anything about Search Engine Optimisation, you will have heard of Page Rank, Google’s method of determining the importance of a particular page, although it is not the same as the search engine’s algorithm which governs who gets placed where in the rankings.  However, it’s believed that ranking is done on a domain basis which means that page ranking doesn’t depend on how many links a particular page gets, but how many links the website gets in total.  As far as Domain Authority is concerned, Google looks at not just the number of links to the website, but the number of different websites that these links were acquired from.  It is based on the number of quality links to a website’s domain and a higher score is achieved depending on not just the number of links, but the number of different websites that those links come from.  For example, it’s better to have 500 links from 200 different websites than it is to have 800 links from 20 different websites.

With Domain Authority predicting how well a page ranks on a domain, the higher the Domain Authority, the better chance there is for an individual page on that domain to rank highly.  Page Authority predicts the likelihood of an individual page ranking well, no matter what the content on the page is.  The higher the Page Authority is, the more likely it is that the page will rank.  Page Authority and Domain Authority are used in targeting websites and pages that are more likely to perform well in search engine results.

Domain Authority measurements are calculated by combining a range of link metrics such as the total number of links, linking root domains and others into a single score.  Domain authority can be achieved by embedding deep links to a website on external pages, such as social media websites.  This means that link building strategies need to focus on deep, inbound links that will help individual web pages to develop trust and authority.  It’s also important to have the links to multiple pages on the website and not just to the home page.

Domain Authority is scored on a logarithmic scale ranging from 0 – 100 and the metrics used for measuring it are integrated into many SEO and online marketing platforms.  Because Domain Authority scores depend on a combination of different metrics that all affect the final score, it’s fairly difficult to influence and the most effective way of doing this is to focus on the website’s link profile and acquire more links from other pages that are well-linked.

For example, if the keyword tool is used to search for “online schools”, “online degrees” and “online education”, not only will the search provide information about those keywords, but it will also return information on many other similar terms.

A way of narrowing down the search is by using the checkbox underneath the search field:

Make sure that the check box is ticked to avoid getting a long list of keywords that may not be relevant to your business.

Google will automatically set your location and your language to provide you with the most relevant search results.  These settings are found directly underneath the checkbox and can be changed by clicking on the “Advanced Options and Filters” tab.

Once you’re ready to perform the search, you just need to click on Search.  However, this is where the confusion can begin:

Many users think these results mean that there are 1.830,000 monthly searches for “online schools” across the world.  Similarly, it can appear that there are 1.220,000 local searches for the same search term.  This is not the case – these results are just a broad match – in other words, it refers to the number of searches that involve the phrase.

If you look in the column on the left hand side of the screen, you will see the Match Types feature.  By checking the box for “[Exact]” you can narrow down the results to return a much more realistic and manageable search volume.  If you’re wondering why the keyword tool does not show the “Exact” search volume right at the beginning, this can be explained quite simply.

The default setting of “Broad” match type refers to the number of searches involving the particular phrase.  As an example, you will be getting the search volume numbers for the keywords “online schools” as well as the search volume numbers for all of the other key phrases that contain your key words – such as “best online schools”, “online accredited schools” or “online high schools”.

As for the other match type offered in the Match Types field, “Phrase” will deliver keywords where the exact phrase of your keyword is used.  This will include keywords where the term is used with other words within the phrase.  For example, if the Phrase match type is checked when searching for “online schools”, you will be presented with search volume numbers for other keywords, such as “best online schools”, “online schools degrees”.  However, it would not return results for phrases like “online high schools” or “online accredited schools” as the phrase has been broken up so that the keywords do not appear next to each other.  This means that the “[Exact” match option is best to use if you need to know how many users search using a specific keyword.

Once the Match Type feature has been used to narrow down the results, you will be seeing a much more manageable and realistic picture and the number of searchers will have been drastically reduced:

Because some search terms are used worldwide, Google will show results on both a Global and Local basis.  The results associated with Global will show the number of searches all over the world, averaged out over a period of 12 months.  The numbers in the Local column are the searches within the locality that you specified when setting your location at the start of the search.  These results too are averaged out over a period of 12 months.

This is a basic explanation of how to use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.  There are other effective ways of using this tool in order to improve keyword research and discover additional relevant keywords.  In order to make keyword research more effective and more sophisticated you will need to determine the searchers’ intentions and analyse your online competition.  You will then need to make informed decisions that will depend on how much time you can afford to spend on this, depending on your overall budget.

• Its quick to start and quick to stop – PPC can be turned on very quickly, a short amount of research can get a campaign going, further research will be required to work out which keywords, demographics and other segments will convert but a campaign can be setup and running within an hour.
• Focuses on single pages not a whole site – PPC requires landing pages to get a campaign going, each landing page should be extremely relevant to a keyword but PPC does not require the whole website to be focused around search terms.
• Easy to burn money – PPC is geared to encourage people to spend their budget, it is how Google became so successful and generated its own massive revenues. PPC has tools to control spending but qualified individuals who are not rushed are the best managers of effective use of budget.
• Relevancy is important but easily ignored – Relevancy is an important factor with PPC, having a relevant campaign and landing pages are important. Although it can be very easy to spend money to test and trial new options and ideas.
• Associated terms are extra – Each and every keyword that a PPC advert appears for is free but each click on an advert equates to a cost.
• PPC is billed directly to Google – Thanks to the adwords tools available, Google manages and owns all its onsite advertising available. This does mean that Google has no middle men, no other people to take a cut of the pie. It takes the full cost for every click, people’s time to manage the campaign is charged separately.

SEO

• No cost per click – Organic results that are influenced by SEO do not require a fee every time someone visits a website. This allows for much larger traffic volumes to be generated at a much lower cost and doesn’t stifle a sites visitors by a owners ongoing PPC budget.
• Associated terms for free – If a website has been optimised effectively onsite and the offsite promotion has been very strong, many associated terms will also generate traffic, even if SEO has not been completed to gain visibility on these terms.
• Focus on your online presence and not just keywords – To successfully complete SEO, a wide net of online promotion occurs on many different websites and online properties. This promotion generates traffic in its own right not from the search engines but from its online coverage. Without this coverage SEO does not work. SEO also requires a site to be structured effectively that helps improve a website to aid its customers.
• Site wide best practice recommendations as standard – Site wide changes are encouraged and implemented to make the best use of SEO traffic. If a whole website is configured around search terms it will generate more visits, so the best practice approach is to optimise a whole website.
• Assured relevant traffic – Because the effects of SEO are longer term and require a longer term investment of time and resources, the choices of keywords which are chosen to promote are often more relevant. The knock on effect of only focusing on relevant terms is that a whole website will generate traffic from associated relevant terms.
• Long term trusted results – SEO is a long term investment, it is not quick like PPC but as mentioned PPC is quick to start and to stop. Where SEO occurs for terms that a business would wish to be focused on for the long term. Google users can see that the results listed as organic listings are often more accurate and relevant than PPC adverts. So these results are trusted more, many search engine users are also aware that the sponsored listings are paid for.
• SEO works with Google but not for Google – Google does not receive any money when SEO work is completed, unlike PPC. However SEO requires websites to adhere to guidelines created by Google, but that’s it, so it’s good to know that you’re SEO marketing budget is spent on online promotion of your business across a number of websites and it is not simply being spent to just appear on Google owned advertising space.

So there are some large differences, we feel SEO is an important investment for most online businesses but we also agree that PPC can be very useful. As a long term investment, cost effective investment, SEO is generally the best option.

At SEO Masters we understand that it is important to stay updated and on top of current trends, we also all enjoy discussing latest changes and technologies. Not only do we enjoy discussing with each other, we want to share our commentary and ideas on this blog. So each of our team will write blog posts to give you different perspectives and view points on related topics and current news.

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