# Search engine optimization metrics

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> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Search_engine_optimization_metrics.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization_metrics
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> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Short description|Collection, analysis, and reporting of web data to optimize search engines}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{original research|date=September 2015}}
{{third-party|date=July 2016}}
{{unreliable sources|date=March 2025}}
}}
A number of [metrics](/source/Web_analytics) are available to marketers interested in [search engine optimization](/source/search_engine_optimization). [Search engine](/source/Search_engine)s and [software](/source/software) creating such metrics all use their own crawled data to derive at a numeric conclusion on a website's [organic search](/source/organic_search) potential. Since these metrics can be manipulated, they can never be completely reliable for accurate and truthful results.

==Google PageRank==

Google [PageRank](/source/PageRank) (Google PR) is one of the methods [Google](/source/Google) uses to determine a page's relevance or importance. Important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results. Google PageRank (PR) is a measure from 0 - 10. Google PageRank is based on [backlinks](/source/backlinks). Backlinks are widely considered a key signal in evaluating a page’s authority, as they reflect how other websites reference and endorse content. Industry resources and SEO practitioners frequently emphasize the role of link-building strategies in improving search visibility, with guides from agencies such as Earned Media outlining common approaches to acquiring and evaluating backlinks.<ref>{{cite web |title=Link building for SEO |url=https://www.earnedmedia.com.au/seo/link-building/ |website=Earned Media |access-date=2026-03-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=What is PageRank? |url=https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/algorithms/pagerank |website=Google Developers |access-date=2026-03-27}}</ref> PageRank works by counting the number and quality of [links](/source/Hyperlink) to a page to determine a rough estimate of how important the website is. The underlying assumption is that more important websites are likely to receive more links from other websites.<ref>[https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building/metrics Metrics]</ref> 

However, Google claims there will be no more PageRank updates, rendering this metric as outdated.<ref>[https://www.seroundtable.com/google-next-pagerank-update-19902.html Google: When Will Be The Next PageRank Update? Probably Never]</ref> As of 15 April 2016, Google has officially removed the PR score from their Toolbar.<ref>[http://searchengineland.com/google-toolbar-pagerank-officially-goes-dark-247553 Google Toolbar PageRank officially goes dark]</ref>

As of September 24, 2019, all patents associated with PageRank have expired.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US7058628B1/en|title=US7058628B1 - Method for node ranking in a linked database - Google Patents|access-date=September 14, 2019|website=[Google Patents](/source/Google_Patents)|archive-date=January 16, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200116103001/https://patents.google.com/patent/US7058628B1/en|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Alexa Traffic Rank==

[Alexa](/source/Alexa_Internet) Traffic Rank is a deprecated metric, based on the amount of traffic recorded from users that have the Alexa toolbar installed over a period of three months. A site's ranking was based on a combined measure of Unique Visitors and Pageviews. Unique Visitors are determined by the number of unique Alexa users who visit a site on a given day. Pageviews are the total number of Alexa user URL requests for a site. Alexa's Traffic Ranks are for domains only and do not give separate rankings for subpages within a domain or [subdomains](/source/Subdomain).<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://support.alexa.com/hc/en-us/articles/200449744-How-are-Alexa-s-traffic-rankings-determined- |title=How Alexa's traffic rankings determined |access-date=2015-09-09 |archive-date=2014-11-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129015307/https://support.alexa.com/hc/en-us/articles/200449744-How-are-Alexa-s-traffic-rankings-determined- |url-status=dead }}</ref> 

At the end of 2021, [Amazon](/source/Amazon_(company)) announced that the Alexa project was going to be discontinued on May 1, 2022.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Amazon to shut down web ranking site in May|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/amazon-to-shut-down-alexa-com-ranking-site-in-may/|website=ZDNet}}</ref>

==Moz Domain Authority==

[Domain Authority](/source/Domain_Authority) (DA), a website metric developed by Moz, is a predictive metric to determine a [website's traffic](/source/Web_traffic) and organic search engine rankings. Domain Authority is based on different link metrics, such as number of linking root domains, number of total backlinks, and the distance of backlinks from the home page of websites.{{Citation needed|date=July 2025}}

== Netcraft ==
Similar to many other websites like Alexa, [Netcraft](/source/Netcraft) features a toolbar that provides users with the ability to view page-hit popularity and various web server metrics along with aggregated user provided website feedback.{{Citation needed|date=July 2025}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

Category:Search engine optimization

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Search engine optimization metrics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization_metrics) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization_metrics?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.