Why Would My Page Have a Higher PA and DA, Links & On-Page Grade & Still Not Rank?

[Omnisye]

The Search Term is "Alcohol Ink" and our client has a better page authority, domain authority, links to the page, and on-page grade than those in the SERP for spaces 5-10 and we're not even ranked in the top 51+ according to Moz's tracker.

The only difference I can see is that our URL doesn't use the exact text like some of the 5-10 do. However, regardless of this, our on-page grade is significantly higher than the rest of them.

The one thing I found was that there were two links to the page (that we never asked for) that had a spam score in the low 20's and another in the low 30's.

Does anyone have any recommendations on how to maybe get around this?

Certainly, a content campaign and linking campaign around this could also help but I'm kind of scratching my head. The client is reputable, with a solid domain age and well recognized in the space so it's not like it's a noob trying to get in out of nowhere.

[MrWhippy]

Hi,

The first thing to remember, Google rankings do not use MOZ DA or PA to decide where a website should be ranked in the results.

The best way to use DA and PA are as an arbitrary measurement that allows you to compare against other sites, so you can see how you are doing against your competitors.

Now without knowing the URLs involved, I cannot check the websites to give any real insights. However, there is any number of reasons why the other sites may be ranking higher than your clients.

They may have better content for the keyword. They may have more backlinks pointing to the domain, they may be answering questions regarding that keyword in more detail.

Without actually being able to compare the sites it is hard to say.

I would analyse the sites that are higher than yours, check the backlink profiles, compare the number of pages and compare the quality of the content then you should have a plan to move forward and improve your rankings.

I hope this helps,

Steve

[effectdigital]

Steve's answer is really great. Basically in SEO we have to cater to Google's PageRank algorithm. We used to be able to see a very watered down, simplified version of PageRank using the Google toolbar for Firefox (before Chrome became big) and using various Chrome extensions thereafter

Google figured out that people were misusing this data and shut off the API which supplied the (very, very simplified version of) PageRank (a number for 0-10 for each URL on the web). PageRank still exists and Google still use it in their ranking algorithms, but no one except Googlers (and even then, only certain ones) can see it. Arguably no one could ever really see it, as TBPR (Toolbar PageRank) was really simplified and watered down, it was never a full view on a page's 'actual' PageRank

Suddenly, marketers had no way to evaluate the SEO authority of each web page they were looking at. Many stepped in to fill this hole (Ahrefs supply a URL and domain rating metric, Majestic SEO supply Citation Flow and Trust Flow metrics, Moz of course were first with PA and DA)

These metrics are our industry's attempt to fill a hole left by Google's removal of bad data from the public eye. Moz attempt to use various signals and metrics (link counts, search traffic estimates for URLs) to re-build TBPR as PA and DA

... but Google don't use PA and DA. Google use PR (PageRank). PA and DA are 'shadow metrics', they indicate and mimic but they are indicators only and cannot (read: absolutely must not) be taken at face value

For example, although link counts affected Google's old TBPR (Toolbar PageRank) metric, other things did too. If a site was blocked from Google, if a site had a penalty or algorithmic devaluations. Those things could lower or nullify the TBPR rating of a website. Since Google and Moz are not 'connected' in data terms, Moz's metrics miss many of the 'true' authority nullifying circumstances which could occur - thus you can end up with high PA / DA and still no traffic

Things that can affect you:

• Algorithmic devaluations, where the sites linking to your site are penalised and thus they no longer pass SEO authority to you - making your results go down as well. Not a penalty, just Darwinism in action I am afraid
• An actual penalty on your site
• Poor keyword targeting where your keywords aren't properly used in your content and / or Meta data, stuff like that. Sounds like this one is a real concern for you, as you may have SEO authority but NO relevance!
• Technical issues like an architecture which Google can't (or doesn't want to spend the time to) index, e.g: over-reliance on generated content through JavaScript (which Google can crawl, but it takes them much longer - so if you're a nobody don't expect them to care much or take that time)
• Technical indexation issues like blocking your own site with Meta no-index directives or robots.txt crawl blocks
• Legal challenges to your business or content in the form of DMCA requests, people filing reports directly with Google to have content removed from your site - there are many other types of legal challenge that can affect SEO
• Content duplication, internal or external
• Spam reports and disavow logs against your website

... there are many other factors, a big one is that your site may lack a value-proposition for end users. If other sites doing what you do, existed before you - and they're cheaper, have better reviews or tout unique features like free shipping (click fit and collect services for clothing, etc etc) then your offering itself may just not be competitive (and no matter how good your SEO is the site was doomed from the business end). Google expects sites to 'add value' to the web

The best thing to do is concentrate on your value proposition and making your site genuinely popular online. It's not easy. Building a successful site is as hard as building a successful business, it's just the digital reflection of what you are and what you do

[MrWhippy]

Thanks EffectDigital,

Again your answer takes it to a new level though and provides great insights.

[effectdigital]

Not a problem! I always like these kinds of Qs and responses as they cover a bit of the history of SEO

[Omnisye]

Thank you both for your additional information.

I was aware of most of the content that you've published here. However, you've taken my understanding and painted a very helpful "big picture" that takes a step back to understand all the factors at play.

It's been very helpful to me as it reminds me that there likely isn't a "magic fix" but that through continual work on the body of the business/website, and through continual differentiation and creation of great content, over the long-term we should be well positioned to compete even further.

Part of this question comes from a deep dive into trying to understand what's taken place for the client overall as there wasn't a lot of SEO work done at all over the history of the business and they've still managed to be very successful.

This company was a pioneer in their space, they're such wonderful people and such a wonderful company that they were able to grow significantly. Now, as competitors have crept in because of their success, and have deployed strong SEO strategies, they're starting to see their first shift from the major growth scale.

We have the closest thing to a "magic fix" that you can have which is moving their blog from the separate URL that it's presently on with its millions of links, to be attached to its main eCommerce site. There is some apprehension on their part with making this move too quickly (which is understandable). And so I'm really trying to paint an overall picture as you've just helped paint so that they can understand, what we can do from here (without moving the blog) and what that looks like.

Your answers have been so tremendously helpful to guiding the millions of thoughts in my head to something that's actionable and a great way to explain it and I just wanted to thank you both very much for your answers because I know you're also busy people, with a lot to do.

Thanks so much!

[MrWhippy]

You are more than welcome.

I know I really enjoy answering questions on here and I suspect that EffectDigital does as well.

Please do let us know how you get on either directly or by replying to this post, that is one thing that is lacking when we respond to questions on any forum. People don't always let us know the results of our answers.

I wish you all the best working with what sounds to be a good client and hope to see more of you on the forums.

Steve