When searching for high quality links, in a niche area such as real estate, does page rank factor into a search or is page / domain authority the most important factor?

[casper434]

After having employed many different methods for finding good link partners I am now finding it more difficult to reach out and identify good quality links for a niche area such as real estate. Does page rank factor into the search much or is it better to focus on page / domain authority as a major factor?

[RyanKent]

When searching for high quality links, in a niche area such as real estate, does page rank factor into a search or is page / domain authority the most important factor?

Any metric is a source of information and can potentially be valuable. It is also possible to manipulate most metrics; therefore, it is often a good idea to compare metrics for alignment. I recall looking at a site last week with a DA of 8x but their PR was 3. Clearly the site boosted their links with a lot of low quality links. OSE recognizes the links but Google clearly devalues most of them.

Whether you label it intuition or your spidey-sense, you should have some relative idea of a site's quality after a brief analysis of the site. Does the site have trust badges? Is the site involved with niche-based authoritative sites? Using the real estate example, is the site part of any official real estate networks such as the National Association of Realtors? A list of many such real estate organizations can be found here: http://www.csus.edu/obe/links/organization.html

Ultimately you should understand Google does not measure or offer any consideration to DA and PA. On the other hand, I personally find those metrics as very valuable tools to help me quickly gain an idea of a site's importance. With that said, you definitely need to gain an idea of whether those metrics have been manipulated.

A final thought. Pretend search engines did not exist. Where would you look to gain links? It's a whole different mindset which should lead you to the high quality links you are seeking.

[casper434]

thanks Ryan, great points

[AlanMosley]

Have you got thart back to front?

DA of 8x but their PR was 3,

Would that not indicate they have very good links. as DA includes trust linking patterns, domain diversity and the like.
Where PR is just the flow of link juice thought links.

[philipbuuck]

Ryan stated that Open Site Explorer was counting links that Google was devaluing so he was probably right. I would think that if Google identified a link farm and devalued it, mozRank would not have any way of detecting it. Or maybe I'm wrong?

[RyanKent]

Phillip's explanation are the thoughts I was trying to express.

[casper434]

great feedback, thanks