Does PR & DA not apply to Google?

[KristopherWho]

My PR & DA are much higher than my competitors, but I noticed that they outrank me in some searches. What's up with that?

[IPROdigital]

That's not unusual.

We outrank people with higher DA & PR for thousands of keywords. I would consider things on a page by page basis. Authority for a domain and page are not the same thing; this applies to PR as well. If you have a super high PR on your homepage, you might want to flow it around to pages which need it, for example. Your call. If I was to post a response on answers at yahoo with a link back to my site and there was nofollow, it would not mean that DA:100 would be a determinant factor. It's the PAGE itself which is relevant - there are several pages in that site with PA of 1 (i.e. 1/100).

[AeronInc]

A book I go and buy and hand to every new client "how moved my cheese" - expecting things to stay status quo is short sited, but preparing and embracing change will provide new growth and opportunity.

Maybe not owning the top spot was google's way of saying; "... the page just wasn't converting...next please.."

Have you looked closely at your Google webmaster tools, analytic, and your raw log files? have you defined a conversion funnel or experiment? Define what "success" is for your site past ranking, and you might find better money terms then the one's you've been using.

Note on logs: Google is good, but it process's the most common denominator. Have your host provider save your raw logs monthly and download and look to them from time to time. Google does a lot for you, but you'd surprised by the hidden gems your log files can give up for search terms you would never have though of.

Run the site like a business, track the ROI of the terms - including your work to return - and define your top money paths / conversion channels.

[KristopherWho]

I guess that's where I get confused. For the past 2 years I have ranked for everything, in fact I dominated my area like no one has ever seen.  Recently things have been a little different, I am still the dominate website for photographers in my neighborhood, I just do not own every top spot. I think with a little bit of help I can do some wonderful things.

[AeronInc]

When you say "some"  you should keep in mind that you can't always rank for everything. Focus on term to conversion as bounce rate is a big ranking factor now with any site, try to get down to at least 32% if possible for your site as a whole and below 30% for your SERP. Target your terms and your market.

[KristopherWho]

So where should I focus my attention?

[Klarke]

Pagerank just measures your link popularity.  Rankings are determined by it and hundreds of other factors.  That's why Google and good SEOs will tell you not to focus on PageRank.

You can be PR7 and not rank for anything worthwhile.