Why authority scores aren't everything

I see this all the time in SEO...

"Our authority score is higher, why do they outrank us?"

Authority scores, DRs, DAs, they all focus heavily on your domain as a whole.

But page authority and page rank still matter just as much, too.

And more often than not, when you see a lower authority site outranking you, they have a BETTER page rank for the individual page.

They have more, quality backlinks pointing back to that specific page than you do.

So even with a lower authority from a domain perspective, that specific content page or collection of pages has higher relevance and authority to their domain.

This is why earning links at a page-level basis is critical.

Most domains focus on getting as many homepage links as possible.

Those are great, but you also need context specific backlinks to individual pages to rank to your full potential.

Think of it this way:

- Domain A has an authority of 60, but has 50-60 highly relevant, contextual backlinks to their page.

- Domain B has an authority of 80, but only has 1 link to their page

Google sees Domain A as a leader on that specific topic, as more people are pointing links to the page, effectively saying...

"This page is the most relevant, accurate information on this subject."

Keep building your domain authority score.

But don't neglect individual pages in the process.