Internet marketers and bloggers have many different metrics to consider, one of which is Domain Authority (DA). DA is a way of measuring how reliable and authoritative a website is. The higher the domain authority is, the more likely the website will rank well in search engines like Google.
Domain Authority is a number (metric) that identifies the authority of your website. The higher your domain authority, the higher your chances of ranking higher on search engine result pages (SERPS) and getting more organic traffic.
Moz developed the Domain Authority metric, but other companies have created similar metrics that rank domains based on several factors and score them from 0 to 100.
The idea of rating domains based on their authority comes from PageRank, introduced by Larry Page (a Google Founder). It’s used until today as a way of measuring the importance of web pages and websites.
What is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority is a metric that Moz creates to gauge the strength of a website. All websites have a DA between 1-100. The higher your Domain Authority is, the stronger your website will be for the near future. A brand new website or domain will start with a DA of 1 and progress from there.
Moz designed DA to measure the overall power or authority of a website and how likely it’s to rank on the first page on SERPs. Although Moz created the metric, many other SEO tools themselves use similar metrics. For example, Semrush and Ahrefs have also developed their own metrics (zone scoring and authority scores), ranging from 1-100.
If you want to improve your blog and earn more money, increasing your DA will be a good move. This article comprises all the details you need to know about domain authority, along with some practical tips that you can apply to improve the DA of your website or blog.
How is Domain Authority Calculated?
Website domain authority is calculated based on many different factors. Unfortunately, like Google, Moz has not disclosed the crux of its algorithm.
However, Moz has confirmed some incremental details about the DA:
- Number of inbound links pointing toward a site or blog from different domains
- The quality of the website’s content and domain rankings on Google SERP
- The on-page SEO score of the website
- Contextuality of the backlink and the website linking to a domain
Moz has confirmed that it uses 40 different factors to check page authority. Therefore, it is more likely that an aggregate of these PA factors might be determinant in a website’s Domain Authority.
There are many websites whose DA is 90+. That said, it should not be a depreciation factor for low DA sites. Instead, DA scores should always be compared to those of your direct competitors.
Tips to Increase Your Domain Authority
1. Get The Basics Right
First things first, ensure your website is set up correctly. That means optimizing your content on a page, speeding up your website, and creating a mobile-friendly website that’s easy to surf on a phone or tablet. Here are a few tips to get you started:
- Don’t neglect your internal links as they help search engines like Google crawl and index content. Make sure your anchor text matches the page you’re linking to.
- Test your site for mobile compatibility. Optimized mobile websites provide users with a better experience and increase your chances of getting backlinks for your content.
- Make sure your website loads quickly with PageSpeed Insights. Slow sites tend to have high bounce rates, which is a big red flag for Google and other search engines.
2. Reduce low-quality backlinks
Not all links are created equal. To boost your domain authority rating, you need to ensure high-quality links and remove low-quality links. But it begs the question: What is a high-quality backlink?
A quality link comes from a reputable site. For example, a link to the ‘Times Now’ would be considered high quality because the publisher is known and respected. On the other hand, links to anonymous spammy websites would be considered to be of low quality.
The easiest way to remove low-quality links is to use a tool like SEMrush, which will help you identify backlinks that hurt your domain authority score. Once you have the complete list, remove them manually if possible, or disavow them via Google.
3. Create Linkable Content
To get high-quality links from multiple domains that MozRank and MozTrust use as key factors, you have to create high-quality content that is published regularly.
The more helpful your content, the more likely it is to link to another trustworthy website. It means that your site content should be relevant, informative, creative, and well-written for your brand and audience.
4. Make Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly
A large number of online users access the web through mobile devices. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile use yet, you’re far behind.
Not only will this hurt your mobile search engine rankings, but you will miss out on many visitors who will leave your website when they find out that it is not displayed correctly on their smartphone or tablet.
To check whether your blog or website is mobile-friendly or not, you can visit this mobile-friendly test page. It will analyze your web page and tell you how mobile-friendly your site is.
Final Verdict
Domain authority is essential for several reasons. First, it allows you to find the overall performance of your website. Second, it allows you to compare your scores with competing websites to see where you stand.
By identifying the domain authority of other websites, you can identify other websites that are linkable in your content and websites that are industry authorities that are worth building a connection with.
Get the job done and build the real authority that moves the needle for Moz and Google Metrics. It’s tough in the short term, but dividends pay off for years. Use Domain Authority (DA) to understand where you can compete affordably today and maximize your investment. Don’t let it just become a pointless thing.