What is Domain Authority?

Your website domain is a vessel that carries all of your onsite content. Domain Authority is a measurement of any website’s overall trust and authority with search engines.

Domain Authority (DA) has proved to be one of the most influential components of SEO. It represents the strength of a website’s domain on the internet.

Domain Authority (DA) is a score from 0 to 100 which decide how well a website rank on search engine results page (SERPs).

DA was developed by Moz to help predict how well a domain will rank on Google. This SEO factor is determined by the number of links or external reference domains that point to the webpage.

The general rule is this, the higher the DA the better the website and the higher the ranking. A good domain authority website with a DA of 20 or above generally has a higher chance of appearing on the first page of SERPs.

Domain authority allows you to measure the backlink profile of a website, the number, quality and authority of the links and the age of your website.

A score is calculated depending on the linking root domains, the total number of links and how well a page will rank for related queries. These are combined to give an overall DA score.

Google doesn’t use domain authority itself, the algorithm uses all the factors into account when ranking a page.

Domain authority is based on a logarithmic scale meaning that going from a DA of 10 to 15 is orders of magnitude easier than going from 70 to 75.

Domain Authority is an unparalleled metric that is indicative of some key, fundamental truths about SEO. SEO is a complex and ongoing process in need of constant evaluation and effort.

Domain authority scores remind us that SEO is about:-

• Internal and external link building
• Creating compelling, original, keyword-focused content
• Responsive, effective web design and development
• Popularity and community engagement

Domain authority will place a website in search engine results by ranking over 200 different factors within the website such as:-

# The number and types of links – The amount and quality inbound links from other websites are an important reflection of a website’s trustworthiness.

A website adding links from to your website shows that your domain includes functional and reliable information.

Links to websites can provide evidence of domain popularity among browsers. Domain authority can be improved by a solid link building strategy.

# The age of the website – A website’s age talk about the domain’s reputability. The older domain shows more consistency and depending impact on the search engine. Domain age is a sign of survival and strength.

# The size or amount of content on the website – The domain size indicates the amount of possible inbound links.

The size and number of pages with a greater amount of inbound linking can generate more traffic. The website with a large number of pages has the possibility of lead generation through linked information.

What is Page Authority?

Page Authority is also a score developed by Moz. It shows how a specific page will get ranked on the search engine results page (SERPs). It’s measured by a score ranging from 1 to 100.

Page authority is based on data accumulated from web index. PA scores on the 100 points logarithmic scale. The page authority is frequently updated, so you can find your score to fluctuate from time to time.

It’s used to determine which pages have more powerful link profiles than others. It’s a comparative tool.

Importance of Domain Authority –

Domain authority is a way of understanding the performance of your website. It’s considered quite important with respect to online presence.

Domain authority is similar to Google and influencing metric that considers many factors to calculate your ranking.

High domain authority can increase the chances of your website’s ranking in search engines. You can make a difference when trying to rank for the most competitive keywords.

Benchmarking Website vs Competition –

Domain authority is a good way to quickly benchmark your website vs your competitor. Websites with higher DA have more credibility in search. They have an advantage to rank high for any piece of their content.

If your competitor has a DA of 70 and you have a DA of 20, then your competitor’s website will most likely rank higher for a piece of similar content.

DA increasing has becomes a matter of survival for any content marketing strategy.

How to Check the Domain Authority –

There are different SEO tools on the market to know the domain authority of a webpage. None of these tools will give you exactly the authority of a webpage.

You can combine the metrics of all the tools to have a global vision of the authority of your domain.

# Mozbar – It’s a tool which is par excellence to measure the authority of a webpage. You have to download your Moz Toolbar extension for Google Chrome.

This tool will tell you DA and PA. In addition, this tool will tell you which links are do-follow and which are no-follow within the webpage.

# Domain Rating (DR) of Ahrefs – It’ll give you an idea about SEO off-page level. This tool DR will show the strength of your link profile.

This metric will tell you from 0 to 100. The URL Rating (UR) shows the strength of the page. It can be considered as a replica of the Page Authority metric.

# Majestic SEO – It’s another great tool to measure the SEO authority of a domain. It’s based on the number and quality of links your website receives.

The Citation Flow (CT) indicator is based on the number of incoming links to your webpage.

It shows your domain authority. The Trust Flow (TF) metric will indicates the quality of the links that your webpage receives.

# DA Checker by Small SEO Tools – It allows you to check the domain authority of a website quickly with ease. It’s a free and powerful tool that allows you to check domain authority of up to 10 domains at a time.

It’ll automatically generate a report that shows the strength of your websites on search engines. It shows your domain authority as well as page authority details.  

#13 Easy Steps to Improve Domain Authority (DA) –

Domain authority scores are determined by a range of different factors which all combine to give search engines an indication of your website competition. The do-follow links can improve your webpage DA.

The greater number of links to your webpages the greater will be your domain authority. No-follow links don’t pass authority or link juice.

Positively influencing your DA will increase your website’s credibility to search engines and ranking higher for your website.

# Audit Your On-Page SEO / Technical SEO – A solid technical SEO strategy is a key to improve your domain authority.

You should optimize your on-site content which helps to search engines to scan and index your website. You should optimize your page speed and create a fully responsive website to endure that you’re using the right header tags and Meta description.

On-page ranking factors have a huge impact on your page’s visibility in SERPs and its authority. If search engines and people can crawl your website easier, then your DA will go up.

You have to meet all your technical SEO factors include:-

• • Optimize Meta Title and Description
  • Mobile rendering
  • Add a sitemap
  • Create a robots.txt file
  • Add Breadcrumbs / improve navigation
  • Add SEO friendly URL structure
  • Add Alt Tags for Images
  • Image optimization, etc.

# Create Quality Content – Quality content is the king. People love to link you in their article when you create quality content.

It’s true that content is king when looking to improve the authority of our website. It acts as the backbone of any winning website.

You should generate great quality content to obtain organic and quality links as people will more likely to share your valuable and informative content.

SEO friendly content will meet your user’s needs. Content marketing is important for a great link building strategy. Your content should be appealing to attract quality and authoritative backlinks.

# Improve Internal Linking – Internal linking goes hand-in-hand with improving ranks. Internal linking builds the authority of pages across a website.

It helps Google to identify the most important pages on your website and the keywords that relate to these pages. It’s impossible to be full control of every link pointing to your page.

But internal linking between the pages on your website has complete control. Linking different pages helps to create a better user experience.

It helps in proving your visitors with more relevant and valuable information along with boost ranking. It’s generally agreed that two internal links harness the power of one good quality external backlink.

Structured site architecture with proper internal linking strategy builds a powerful network within your website.

The organized internal linking strategy makes your readers as well as search engines to crawl your pages and navigate through easily.

Linking to old blog posts make your recent posts more informative and attention-grabbing. You shouldn’t fail to check the relevancy of the internal linking pages.

# High-Quality Backlinks – A backlink is known as a clickable hyperlink on a website links back to your website from another website.

Google had ranked websites with its Page-rank algorithm giving top ranks to websites with the most links from other high domain authority websites.

It led many to black-hat SEO practices with building many low-quality links on spammy websites and link farms. Google picked up on these trends and changed its algorithm.

Now, when it comes to backlinks, it’s quality over quantity. Link building is a crucial aspect of a great SEO strategy.

Businesses need to be careful from where they get their link juice when it comes to external link building or backlinks.

Businesses should aim to focus on links for credible relevant websites with high domain authority. You should list your business in directories like GMB or Yelp or guest posts to blogs in your niche.

The websites you want links from having to be relevant to your own website. Your website becomes much more authoritative in natural Google search once these relevant links are created.

• • Keyword relevant anchor text is important
  • Not all links are good links
  • Website content and quality is very important
  • Too many links created in a short span of time can be problematic
  • Competitor links are a goldmine of insights

# Disavow Bad Links – Search engines put link penalties to websites when they use black-hat SEO techniques. So disavowing spam and removing broken links is an important part of any backlink strategy.

Disavowing links means telling Google that you don’t want them to include certain links in your website crawl. There are some links that will negatively impact your website’s SEO if they remain active.

If you wanted to see an increase in your domain authority, then you’ll have to reduce the number of bad links.

# Alt Text Improve Your Images – It’s good to SEO practice to add images to your website. It helps to improve the relevance of your post to targeted Google keyword searches.

It also ensures that all users can appreciate the content on your website.

# Mobile Responsive Website – Now people spend more and more time on their tablets and mobile devices. It’s worse than clicking on a page if the website doesn’t fit on your screen.

The low webpage speeds and poor designs are key factors that contribute to low domain authority and high bounce rates in all campaigns.

Google search ratio during mobile devices is higher than desktops. You have to pay extra attention to your mobile suitability. You should build up your website with responsive design and optimize it for mobile suits.

# Loading Speed of Website – A website with slow loading speed can lead to an increase in bounce rate. If your website takes more than 3 seconds, it means you need to make more efforts on speed optimization.

Visitors don’t have the patience to wait for a page that is slow to load. If you’re running an e-commerce business, then you should be more concerned about loading speed because visitors avoid using low-speed websites.

There are several ways to improve your page speed that includes:-

• • Defer JavaScript loading
  • Use the Content Delivery Network (CDN)
  • Minify your CSS and JavaScript
  • Minimize HTTP requests
  • Use image compressor to compress the size of the images

# A Subheading About Headers – Headers should be used in all posts for your visitors. Because an attractive header certainly grabs the attention of readers.

Search engines appreciate headers such as H1, H2, and H3. You should use them to highlight the most important parts of posts.

It allows readers to scan through your post and decide whether it’s something they are interested and reducing bounce rates.

# Guest Blogging – Guest blogging is a good opportunity for endorsing the brand. You can find the highly reputed websites in your niche and then do guest blogging.

You can provide quality content to targeted websites and in return can get backlinks to your domain. Root domain linking is the crucial aspect of calculating domain authority.

If you do guest blogging in a proper way, it’ll definitely help you to increase domain authority.

# Incorporate Long Tail Keywords – The long-tail keywords enhance the chances of your website being ranked in search engines.

Long tail keywords are those 3+ word phrases that are very specific to the products and services that you offer.

When customers search using long tail keywords, they know what they want. Long tail keywords are often less competitive and easier to get ranking on search engines.

# Improve Social Media Presence – One of the best ways to get your articles discovered and shared is through social media.

Improving your social media presence also helps bring referral traffic as well as brand authority. Social signals play a role in your domain authority.

All social media websites have a higher DA. You should share your content with linking your page on these high DA websites.

Your great content can go viral with no time and will get more social shares. You should attract social media profiles, grow your followers and build a network.

You should share social floating buttons on the homepage to enable your readers to share your content with easy clicks.

If your website actively participating in social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Mix, Pinterest, Reddit, etc Google will increase your website to top 10 rankings of the first page, if your website’s social reach is highly popular.

The website DA will surely go up gradually and will affect your website rankings in search engine positions.

# Domain Age – Domain age is also an important factor in calculating domain authority. If your domain age is high, it increases trust and serves your audience for a long time.

The domain age is a deciding factor in the establishment of a good website. It signals to the search engines that these long-lasting websites are trustworthy.

You should expand your domain for the next 3-5 years and it’ll help in the long run.

Conclusion – Domain Authority (DA) is a fundamental factor in an SEO strategy. SEO is based on on-page and off-page factors. The best way to influence the domain authority metric is to improve overall SEO. Domain Authority doesn’t get in top position overnight and you need to follow the guidelines.