How To Increase Domain Authority

If you have been researching how you can rank in the top search results on Google, then you must have come across the term Domain Authority (DA). Those that are working on SEO strategies need to know that DA is not exactly a ranking factor.

Working on DA improvement helps improve SEO which in turn boosts the chances of ranking. Today, we shall look closely at domain authority and its importance. Let\’s get straight to it!

What is Domain Authority (DA)?

DA or domain authority is a metric to predict a website\’s ranking on any search engine. The creator is Moz, and websites are scored between 1 and 100. A higher score means a better chance of ranking top in the SERPs (Search Engine Page Results).

Alternatively, domain authority can also be considered a metric that shows how relevant your site is to its industry or niche. It can therefore be viewed as the strength of your domain and its chances of ranking higher.

However, DA and page authority should not be confused:

Domain authority indicates domain/subdomain strength to rank.
Page authority indicates the strength to rank for individual pages.

Why Does DA Matter?

Domain authority is essential because it shows how well your website will rank. It allows you to assess brand credibility and enables you to understand where you stand compared to competitors.

These metrics also help you polish SEO strategies. Backlinks from a high DA site are considered worthy, while those with little to no domain authority have no real value. So, target sites with better DA when you work for backlinks and guest blogging opportunities.

What Is a Good DA Score?

Several factors go into DA calculation. Famous websites like Google, Apple, or Microsoft, for example, will have a DA between 95 and 100. A new website, on the other hand, will have a lower DA that could be between 0 and 20.

The good news is that it is possible to increase your website\’s DA if it is somewhere between 20 and 30 as compared to being between 70 and 80. Let\’s look at what DA scores mean below:

Below 30: Poor
Between 30 and 40: Below average
Between 40 and 50: Average
Between 50 and 60: Good
Between 60 and 70: Very good
Above 80: Excellent

Domain authority is not directly a Google ranking factor, but it is a good predictor of your website performance in the SERPs. Therefore, DA should be used for comparison with competitor sites.

How To Calculate Domain Authority?

There are several tools you can choose from to calculate DA, but each produces results based on a different methodology. Moz, for example, uses 40 different factors before giving a score. The top factors used by Moz include:

Link Profile

This accounts for the external/internal links from your website. If a post or content links to a high DA website and also has backlinks from renowned websites, you are likely to get a good score.

MozRank

This factor counts the number of sites and their quality linked to a particular webpage.

MozTrust

This checks whether the sites backlinking to your content are trustworthy and reputable. This means backlinks from a renowned business, organization, educational institute, or medical research site will allow you to get a good score.

Root Domains

When assessing your profile, Moz also accounts for the number of unique backlinks to your content. 50 links from a similar site will be considered as a single root domain. Therefore, it is necessary to get backlinks from various sites to get a higher score.

User Friendliness And Site Structure

Your website structure should be user-friendly and easy to use so search engines like Google find no difficulty in crawling your pages. This will also ensure a great site experience, so you will be likely to get more visitors.

How To Boost Domain Authority?

Create Engaging Content

If you curate and post content that others cannot resist linking back to, then most problems should be solved. Helpful, engaging, and informative content is bound to get shared, which increases the chances of acquiring high-quality backlinks from well-known governmental sites or educational institutions.

Links from various sites will help increase your root domain which will help get a higher DA. You can create:

Lengthy guides
Tutorials
Podcasts
Slides
Infographics
Videos
Articles

It is also a good idea to monitor the web page that gets the most visitors, clicks, and traffic so you can replicate similar content and topics for your other pages.

Acquire Backlinks from Renowned Websites

Backlinks are a huge factor in determining DA. Around 55.24% of sites do not get organic traffic due to a lack of backlinks. The good news is that there are several ways you can acquire backlinks to strengthen your link profile.

Begin by looking at your top referral sources and searching for similar sites for backlinking opportunities. You can also monitor your competitors to identify their backlink sources and send requests to the same websites later. Guest posting or blogging is another foolproof way to get high-quality backlinks.

Remove Broken Links And Audit Your Website

Inbound links are necessary for your site’s DA, but bad links are not good at all. Links from a spammy website can cause your DA to drop and get you a penalty from Google.

Audit your site to remove spammy and toxic links immediately. Use various SEO tools to identify harmful links by analyzing a complete link profile of your site. If all fails, use Google Search Console to ignore these links so the crawler won\’t take these into account when indexing.

Optimize UX And Site Structure

An important factor used to calculate domain authority is a website\’s structure and UX (User Experience). A proper structure enables easy crawling and successful indexing into search results.

You can create a sitemap in WordPress with all your essential pages to aid search engines in smooth navigation. UX can be improved by making your site mobile-friendly. Make sure your site loads up fast, is easy to navigate, and appears perfectly on a mobile screen. Lastly, you must ensure website security by getting SSL certificates and transferring your site to HTTPS.

Improve Internal Linking

You can work on improving your site structure by focusing on internal linking. Links help direct readers to other informative pages on your site, which keeps them engaged. Effective internal linking also helps search engine bots easily crawl your site for indexing.

A solid internal linking structure also helps transfer link juice from one page to another. Link juice refers to the page value passed onto other pages that further ensures trustworthiness.

Endnote

Your website\’s domain authority cannot exactly be controlled. You can only help it increase steadily by positively influencing DA factors. Note that it takes time to get a high DA, and results do not set in overnight. A long-term strategy and plan will slowly but surely help you land better rankings in the SERPs, given that you follow the tips above.