An important aspect of a website’s rankings online is its trust and domain authority. The latter concept refers to a ranking score that demonstrates how likely your page will show up in search engine results page (SERPs). It is a useful metric to measure search engine performance and compare how your website is doing against your competitors.
Domain authority scores were developed by the software company Moz to rank websites and their relevance. Moz uses domain authority as a predictive tool that takes many factors into account to calculate how your website will rank. In this article, we will describe the best ways for your website to increase your domain authority. This improvement will help your business in the long run.
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What is Domain Authority?
The concept of domain authority is that it rewards websites with certain qualities that mark themselves as a trustworthy resource. The score awarded by Moz aids search engines in their rankings and lets websites see how they are perceived. Search engines like Google do not put domain authority as the number one determinant of its algorithm, but it does play a part.
Domain authority is important because it is an indication of a website’s status in the online world and influences organic traffic. It can be used as a part of a company’s SEO strategy. The higher the score, the better your website is performing in SERPs. It works as a helpful tool, but should not be taken as an absolute measurement. However, a good domain authority score is a useful metric of website relevancy, efficiency, content quality, and legitimate SEO practices.
Why Does Domain Authority Matter?
Ever since Google said that they do not utilize domain authority scores for page rankings, lots of people began to question if it really matters then. The truth of this statement is really that even though they do not officially use domain authority metrics, websites with high domain authority are associated with legitimacy and high-quality backlinks. Despite the claims, Google not using domain authority metrics does not mean the scores have no value. Whether or not Google uses the domain authority scoring system is irrelevant because websites with greater domain authority have a better reputation, relevant content, and quality links which helps with page rankings.
How is Domain Authority Calculated?
There are numerous factors that go into a website’s domain authority score. Some of the most significant ones include the number of incoming links, link quality and relevancy, website content quality, website, popularity on social media (social signals), and general SEO. Although Google has said that social signals do not play a part in their ranking process, there is a correlation between high-ranking pages on Google and social signals. The most influential aspects of domain authority scoring are high-quality links (both internal and external) and great, relevant content. It makes sense that pages that have been shared and have lots of likes are going to rank highly on Google. A website having good SEO is going to boost the score of various metrics including domain authority.
How to Build Domain Authority
A large component of a website’s domain authority is the site’s reputability and whether it has backlinks from other legitimate sites. These backlinks work as a form of verification to search engines that they trust the information from these websites. The process of building backlinks from respectable websites is a key part in gaining domain authority. This takes time and effort because your website has to produce consistent, quality work in order to build these relationships. Higher domain authority does not occur overnight and requires patience so do not get discouraged if you do not get instant results.
User Experience
An important step in building domain authority is making sure that your website runs smoothly and efficiently. Nothing makes a person leave a website faster than a slow-loading page, which translates to a high bounce rate. This is a huge red flag to Google, so do your best to minimize this metric and reduce your website’s bounce rate. A mobile-friendly website creates a better experience for users on their phones and increases the probability your website will be backlinked. Most searches these days are from mobile devices so it is extremely detrimental to your website if it is not easy to use. It actually hurts your domain authority score if your website is not mobile-friendly or if it runs slowly.
Keywords
Another factor of a website’s authority is relevant keywords which are a huge part of SEO. Some popular brands possess an existing authority because the keywords they use are so on target. In order to reach similar websites that have authority, you have to use the correct keywords so that they backlink you. Also, by utilizing the right keywords, you establish your website as a legitimate platform.
High-Quality Content
The next part of building domain authority is to make sure that the content your website creates is high-quality and engaging. This ensures that your work is better than your competitors so that websites with high authority backlink you. So, relevant and high-value content leads to more backlinks from reputable websites and increased domain authority.
How to Improve Domain Authority
Domain authority can’t be improved overnight, but there are some ways to increase it in the long run. This process requires continual work and upkeep but is worth it if your website wants to raise its domain authority to solidify its competitiveness within its niche.
Link Audit
The first step in improving your website’s domain authority is conducting a link audit. The purpose of this is to ensure that the links on your website are legitimate and are clear of any black hat SEO methods. After the audit is complete, it should be relatively simple to remove poor-quality links, irrelevant keywords, and information from websites with low authority. Just doing this should raise your website’s domain authority. It essentially works as a spring cleaning of your website to make room for quality content and links.
Consistent Posting of Valuable Content
The next part of building domain authority involves more labor and time-intensive work. An important aspect of your website is ensuring that the content you produce is high-quality, uses relevant keywords, and is posted consistently. This goes along with organic link-building which again takes time to do correctly. Your website should publish content more frequently and that your work is better than competitors. The reason this works is that it will drive more links from high authority websites back to yours.
Regular posting that is free of errors, properly formatted, and with correct citations demonstrates trustworthiness and quality on the part of your website. It is worth it to note that your website’s content must provide value for the user. If it does not, then this will not help your score. In terms of value, we mean relevant content that fits your target audience so that you earn links. Good quality links from legitimate websites earn the same back.
Fix Bad Links
Let’s get back to the topic of link-building. It comes down to two activities – removing bad links and gaining good ones. Proper SEO methods will assist with building quality links that will increase domain authority. It is imperative to only use legitimate SEO tactics and avoid black hat SEO at all costs so that your website will not face the consequences of penalization from Google. An important note is that Moz does not factor in Google penalties for domain authority. But it is still best to avoid them.
Make Content Shareable
It helps to make your content shareable online so that it can reach the maximum number of people possible. This enables your content to have increased shares and likes, which can help improve the domain authority. This will help circulate content within a couple of networks and maximize reach. Your website could implement social media buttons so that your users can easily share content online.
What is a Good Domain Authority Score?
After you have implemented these tips, you might be wondering what number makes a good domain score. The magic number that would make your website above average is anything over 50. The number that really matters is how the domain authority score of your website fares compares to your competitors. It is easier to raise your score from a lower number of 30 to 40 than it is to increase your domain authority from 70 to 80. Moz makes it so the higher your domain authority score the more difficult it becomes to improve it. This stems from the fact that once your score is so high, your website has the basics completed. After that, it takes more work to increase.
FAQ:
- Who created domain authority?
- How long does it take to improve domain authority?
- Can I calculate my own domain authority score?
- Does Google use domain authority?
- Can I raise my own domain authority score?
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