Page Rank, Domain Rank, Link Building....Oh my!

[PatBausemer]

Hi Everyone,

So I am looking into a couple of sites that we can use for press release distribution. Naturally, I am looking for sites that will improve our SEO (sites that have a high domain authority). I guess I am just trying to wrap my head around the whole domain/page authority and how it effects our SEO.

So for example, I am looking at prlog.org. They have an overall domain authority of 91...sweet! Is this all I should be looking at when I am looking to place a press release, which will include targeted links using appropriate anchor text?

If I drill down even further to the actual section that the press release will live on, which will be the security section of the site, the page authority is a 49. Is this what I should be looking at?

Do I have to drill down even further and look at the page rank for the actual URL that my press release will actually live on? I am assuming since it will be a totally new page that the page authority will be very low. Is this correct?

Should I be looking at a combination of the two? The page authority of 49 is pretty low but the domain authority is very high. What does this mean for my SEO and my links?

In a nutshell I need to know what I should be looking at for SEO purposes, is it domain authority, is it page authority of the section the site will live on or is it the actual page that my press release lives on. Is it a combination? What would you do in this situation?

Also, could you give me a little more insight into when a low domain/page authority can actually hurt you. What the threshold where you get no link juice or are actually penalized? Do you have any insight in the domain/page domain number that is considered not worth it?

Thanks all!

Pat

[RedRobotMedia]

I'm late to the party but just wanted to say thank you for this. I've been discussing PR with a colleague and this has helped me to make a few decisions which I was stalling on.

[Klarke]

Believe it or not, your goal with press releases, isn't to get backlinks from press release sites or insert keyword rich urls to your page.  It's to raise awareness and get reporters, bloggers, publishers to notice your content or "news".  Once they know about it, they may take action - link to you, contact you for more information, republish your release, or write their own story based on your release.

Don't expect PR sites to count for much, REGARDLESS of their domain authority.  ezinearticles.com has a sweet DA of 95.  Guess how much Google values a link from them ?  PR sites were impacted by Panda just the same as sites like EZ were.

So needless to say I think you're looking at it all wrong.  In choosing a Press release distributor pick one that can offer you the widest distribution for your newsworthy content.  Unfortunately, you're not gonna achieve that with the free options.   Why would you put your awesome content on sites that humans don't read anyway ?

In summary, stick with PRweb/Prnewswire and avoid putting targeted anchor text in your release.

-Just my opinion.