Authority Score Booster!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB130797721593423019.html
Authority Scores are used as a way search engines can quantify “relevance” in order to rank search results by relevance. The authority score is calculated by the number of references to a particular webpage found in the search results. Thus the more references a webpage has, the higher the authority score and ultimately the more relevance to the search. In addition to this, each reference to the webpage is weighted based on the authority score webpage with the reference. For example, if a particular webpage like www.facebook.com references a particular webpage then that webpage’s authority score will increase more than a reference from an unpopular webpage. Thus the authority score can be increased by both the number of references and obtaining references from webpages with high authority scores. This concept was used outside of the realm of search engines, but in a student’s career opportunity.
Marian Schembari, a graduate from Davidson College in 2009, masterfully used the authority score of Facebook to increase the authority score of her personal website and land her first job after graduation. Schembari was very much interested in getting her foot in the door to become a publisher and used Facebook to get her name out to potential employers.
Schembari’s use of Facebook demonstrates the concept of webpage authority scores. Schembari bought multiple Facebook ads targeted to her potential employers – with links to her personal webpage. “Liking” the pages of potential employers created a second link to her Facebook profile from the company Facebook page. More links Schembari created were links between her Facebook profile and her personal webpage and resume, as well as a status update with her progress on a particular company including interviews and other updates. All these actions created links from a high authority score webpage, Facebook, to her personal webpage. As a result her webpage’s authority score increased. Ultimately, she received thousands of clicks (visits) to her pseronal website within just 2 weeks, which led some viewers to send the links to Human Resources department where she was contacted for interviews.
This illustrates the power of the authority score and how using it strategically can be a powerful tool.