You know domain authority has something to do with SEO, but what is it really?
Domain authority (DA) is a metric created by Moz that gives your website a score based on the number of backlinks you have as well as the quality of those backlinks.
In this post, I define domain authority and its importance for SEO.
Domain Authority Defined
Domain authority, abbreviated as DA, is a metric SEO platform Moz created that predicts a domain’s ability to rank well in search.
Scores range from 1 to 100 with a higher score indicating a higher likelihood of being able to rank.
Moz has a tool called Link Explorer, which allows you to analyze a domain’s backlinks.
It uses data from this tool to calculate DA.
By determining how many backlinks a domain has and analyzing the quality of those backlinks, Moz is able to calculate a fairly accurate score that estimates your domain’s ability to rank on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Link quality is determined by the domain authorities of linking domains as well as those domains’ spam ratings.
What is Domain Rank and Domain Rating?
Domain rank and domain rating, both abbreviated DR, are additional terms SEO tools use to showcase domain authority.
For example, competing SEO platform Ahrefs uses the term “Domain Rating” in their user interface (UI).
Semrush uses “Authority Score” and shortens it to “AScore.”
In short, different SEO tools use different wording for this score, but they all mean the same thing: they calculate your ability to rank on SERPs, particularly Google’s SERPs.
Each uses their own data to calculate your score. As such, you’ll see wildly different scores across each platform.
What is Page Authority?
Page authority (PA) was also developed by Moz alongside its DA metric.
This metric predicts how well a specific URL will rank on SERPs. It, too, is graded on a scale that ranges from 1 to 100.
According to Moz, the following factors determine a URL’s PA score:
- Backlinks
- Backlink quality
- DA from Moz (also known as MozRank)
- follow links
- nofollow links
- Spam Score
- link anchor text distribution
- and more!
What is PageRank?
Although “domain authority” and “domain rank” mean the same thing, “page authority” is not synonymous with “PageRank.”
PageRank is a hidden score (that used to be publicly available) that acted as the basis for Google’s ranking system ever since its search engine was developed in the 90s.
The search giant used to assign individual web pages a PageRank score, which it used to determine where to rank pages on SERPs.
It’s since moved past this ranking system, and Google PageRank scores are no longer public.
Is Domain Authority a Google Ranking Factor?
No, domain authority is not a Google ranking factor, meaning Google does not use authority scores from any SEO tool to determine how to rank your pages.
However, backlinks are one of Google’s top ranking factors.
Search engine crawlers are designed to look for domains and (URLS) that link to your pages as well as the quality and spam ratings of those domains.
The higher the quality of URLs that link to your pages, the higher you’re able to rank (usually).
As such, DA is an indirect ranking factor, but because Google has around 200 other factors it uses to determine how to rank your pages, factors that aren’t based on backlinks, DA calculations are incomplete and should only be used as a guide on how to make your website more authoritative.
What is a Good Domain Authority?
It’s generally understood that in the case of Moz’s DA score, this is what each score range means:
- 0-20: Poor authority; often attributed to new sites
- 20-30: Low authority
- 30-40: Average authority
- 40-50: Good authority
- 60-70: Strong authority
- 70+: High authority
This doesn’t necessarily mean you should aim for a score between 40 and 50 and call it a day.
Instead, use DA as a metric to determine how your business is performing from a backlink perspective.
Go to Moz’s Domain Analysis tool right now, and enter your domain. Then, record the DA score you find.
Don’t think about this score as being good or bad. Just think of it as your starting point, and start monitoring it (alongside your organic traffic) from here on out.
If it goes down, you likely lost a few links. If it goes up, you probably gained a few.
Compare your DA to your competitors if you want some sort of idea of how you’re performing in your niche.
Follow these steps to get this done:
- Identify your competitors
- To do this, use Semrush (they offer 10 free searches a day). Alternatively, enter keywords you want to rank for into Google, and see what other sites pop up. Review ones that pop up for each search term, and make your best judgement call on whether or not they’re a suitable competitor.
- Enter each competitor’s domain into Moz’s analysis tool
- Choose wisely if you don’t want to pay. Moz only gives you three free searches a day.
If you feel your DA score is not equivalent to the amount of effort you’ve put into your blog, determine what you can do to increase it.
How to Increase Your Domain Authority
- Increase your brand name’s authority overall
- Launch a digital PR campaign
- Share original research on your blog
- Share personal stories
- Share case studies
- Share resource lists
- Create infographics filled with important facts
- Write about authoritative topics
- Respond to journalist requests
- Earn more backlinks with outreach requests
- Disavow harmful backlinks
1. Increase Your Authority
There are numerous ways to increase your authority overall.
For starters, create an About page on your site that lists your credentials, experience in your niche, and the purpose behind your brand.
Make sure your image is showcased somewhere on your site, and have each article you write appear under your name.
Post on social media under your brand name as well to increase your authority offsite.
2. Launch a Digital PR Campaign
Seek interviews with influencers and podcasts in your niche as well as media sites.
If you have a product, ask influencers to review it or feature it in their content.
This increases brand awareness and earns your site high-quality backlinks.
3. Share Original Research
Earn organic backlinks by sharing original research you’ve conducted for your niche.
It could be related to your brand or it could be related to an important concept in your niche.
Share it in a well-written blog post, then distribute it.
4. Share Personal Stories
Some experiences can be shared as personal stories on your blog instead of research that’s based on metrics and statistics.
I have the same advice regardless: share it as a well-written blog post, then distribute it.
5. Share Case Studies
If your product or service is crucial to your customers’ lives or businesses, interview them, and share their stories on your blog
Share metrics and the process you’ve taken to transform their lives and businesses.
6. Share Resource Lists
Share lists journalists and other experts in your niche would be interested in linking to as a source.
This mostly means statistics posts, but if you can think of any resources journalists and experts in your niche need to cite in their articles, write articles for them.
7. Infographics
Infographics get shared a lot, especially on social media.
When they don’t get shared on social media, they get linked to in articles, creating backlinks.
Condense all of the information you’ve included in an authoritative article into an engaging infographic, and share it at the top of your article.
8. Write About Authoritative Topics
Establish yourself as an authoritative figure in your niche by writing about authoritative topics related to your niche.
If there are core concepts you know every member of your niche needs to understand, write authoritative articles for them.
Identify other authoritative topics with keyword and competitive research.
9. Respond to Journalist Requests
Sometimes journalists make requests for information on social media or forums.
There are even sites like Featured and Help a B2B Writer where journalists and experts can connect.
It’d be really good if you have an article on the information they’re requesting that they can link to.
10. Earn More Backlinks with Outreach Campaigns
Use the following outreach strategies to acquire more backlinks:
- Asking a website that links to a broken link to replace the link with your own, very similar link
- Asking websites who have mentioned you (without a link) to include a link with their mention
- Guest posting on websites similar to yours
- Adding business listings to sites like Google and Yelp if you’re a local business
11. Disavow Harmful Links
While Google doesn’t recommend taking the time to have spammy links removed from the web as its systems are designed to “make sure that actions on third-party sites do not negatively affect a website,” it does recommend disavowing links you think may lead to manual action.
A manual action occurs when a human reviewer identifies a page that violates the search engine’s spam policies.
Such an action may lead to that page getting deleted from Google’s search engine and your site hit with penalties.
Backlinks you’ve bought with a paid backlink service may lead to your site getting hit with a manual action at some point.
It’s best to take the time to disavow such links, especially if it’s a site you’ve purchased and aren’t quite sure of how certain backlinks were acquired.
0 Comments