Iconoclast
Senior Member
- Sep 12, 2011
- 856
- 181
Why Google discontinued PageRank and why DA/PA or TF/CF is not very accurate (Part 2)
So let’s go back to the weight on a link and how it is calculated, that very same numerical value of usefulness that determines the power of a link that effects the positions your page in SERPS. All search engines use the same methods to calculate the value of a link in the same way but the quality of data gathering and analysis can differ.
With time the precision and quality of data analysis improves but the factors being analysed remain the same and, most likely, will always remain the same. This is because this factors and metrics of usefulness are fundamental and are based on fundamentals of human interaction in any society.
Let’s look at them in more detail:
A factor usefulness of a link for a user can be determined by the links click through rate. Obviously, if an anchor is relevant to the donor and receiver pages the click through rate will be greater. The position of a link within the donor page also makes a difference. So when users visit a donor page and click on a link they are hoping to find potentially useful information. Therefore, CTR is a great indicator of how relevant and useful the link is, or at least perceived to be.
On the other hand, CTR can only indicate perception but not the actual relevance. If, for example, you visit a site selling hardware and tools and click on a link with anchor “electric drill” and land on the page about dog food, most likely you will be disappointed and confused. Therefore, the second metric of usefulness is the relevancy of the anchor text to the content of the receiver page. However, if the content of the donor and receive pages are very similar the user is unlikely to receive much benefit. Even if the receiver page is more relevant to the anchor then a donor page the user will not receive the information they seek and quality of their search will suffer.
With this in mind, search engine algorithms attempt to not only measure the relevancy of the anchor to donor and receiver pages but also to determine the differences in the information presented there. It is at this point that the ability of a search engine to accurately measure the usefulness of a link directly depends on the ability of the algorithm to extract meaning from both donor and receiver documents
If some of you still think that Google is unable to understand the meaning of a page, I will not try to prove you otherwise here. I will just say that this is not the case. I might at some point cover this topic in more detail and talk about semantic graphs and automatic translation algorithms (that by the way use the very same technology rather than simply replace words with translations individually).
Another important metric while measuring the quality of a link is traffic on the donor page. No matter how relevant the link is it is not very useful if the donor page has no visitors. However, it must be said that SE algorithms do not measure actual traffic but estimate it based on the position of a page within SERPs. Any data Google might have related to actual traffic of a page are not used as a ranking factor. This information forms the main body of statistical data which is used by the search engines to improve automated learning and correct any inaccuracies in traffic estimates.
Of course, this process of weighing up and assigning a numerical value to each link is a very complex process and currently the margin for error is still quite high. However, over time it will improve.
Needless to say, DA/PA and TF/CF are not related to this metric in any way, shape or form which makes those indicators incomplete and somewhat outdated.
In Russia SEO specialists already have tools that allow them to measure links’ weight using the logic and methods described above. No doubt this technology will make its’ way here too but it might be few years before it does.
I hope this helps.
hi
I really like your thread and most of your information is very new. Btw I have been asking people this question and most just skip it, or say they do not know
So I am gonna ask you
My question is,
is google leniest on seo in third world countries (there is lots of money to be made in 3rd countries with seo) but my question is, is it easier?
Further, I see lots of low pa da tf cf sites getting ranked for terms on page one spot 2 3 4 5. So my question nn is,
would gsa blast >>>> tier one or sape >>>> money site = rank in #1/ #2 / #3??
Regards