How the Domain and Page Rank Are Calculated

Domain Rank (DR) and Page Rank (PR) are scores derived to measure the authority and relevance of a website or web page based on its backlinks. These ranks are calculated using a mix of metrics, logarithmic scaling, and normalization techniques.

1. Backlink Analysis

• Metric Used: Number of backlinks (incoming links from other websites to a specific domain or page).

• The more backlinks pointing to a domain or page, the higher the potential rank.

• Key Insight: Not all backlinks are equal. Backlinks from authoritative websites carry significantly more weight than backlinks from low-authority or spammy sites.

2. Referring Domains

• Metric Used: Number of unique referring domains (websites that provide backlinks).

• A single website linking multiple times carries less weight than multiple unique websites linking to the domain/page.

• Key Insight: Unique referring domains are given more importance than the total number of backlinks.

3. Backlink Quality

• Metric Used: Quality of referring domains.

• Backlinks from higher-quality domains (domains with a higher Domain Rank themselves) contribute more to the score.

• Key Insight: A backlink from a high-quality domain is exponentially more valuable than from a low-quality domain.

4. Logarithmic Scaling

• The raw backlink and referring domain data are transformed using a logarithmic scale to ensure that scores are distributed evenly across a wide range of values.

• Key Insight: This scaling ensures that the rank difference between two low-authority domains is smaller than between two high-authority domains.

5. Normalization

• The calculated scores are normalized to a scale of 0–100 to make them easily interpretable.

• A score of 100 represents the highest authority, while 0 represents the lowest.

6. Page Rank vs. Domain Rank

• Page Rank (PR):
  Calculated for a specific page using the above principles.
  Focuses on backlinks and referring domains pointing directly to the page.

• Domain Rank (DR):
  Aggregates the authority of all pages under the domain.
  Takes into account the distribution of backlinks across the domain’s pages.

7. Time-Based Adjustments

The algorithm considers the timeliness of backlinks:

• Recent backlinks may carry more weight.

• Stale or outdated backlinks may have reduced importance over time.

8. Exponential Weighting

• Backlinks from pages with their own strong Page Rank (PR) contribute exponentially more to the rank.

• This creates a cascading effect of authority across the web.