Domain Authority is a term that comes up a lot in SEO discussions and is a data point that influences most successful SEO strategies. This article will cover:
- What is Domain Authority?
- How you measure Domain Authority?
- How can you increase Domain Authority?
What is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority is a metric used by Moz (an SEO tool) that helps Marketers understand how likely a website is to rank in search engines for a given keyword. Domain Authority is scored on a scale of 1-100, where 100 represents an extremely established website that is well trusted and has high quality inbound links to the website. A Domain Authority of 1 represents a brand new website for an unknown business.
As an example, Amazon has a Domain Authority of 94.
The BBC website has a Domain Authority of 95.
Google has a Domain Authority of 100 and is the only website I’ve ever come across with the top score.
Domain Authority is logarithmic, meaning that it is easier to grow from 1 to 10 than it is from 50 to 60. The higher a Domain Authority becomes, the harder it is to achieve the next point.
How do I measure my Domain Authority?
Domain Authority is measured by an SEO tool called Moz. Other SEO tools will have equivalent metrics will might be scored slightly differently.
How to improve my Domain Authority?
Now, this is a bit of a trick question because Domain Authority is a measure of how likely a website is to rank. It doesn’t actually impact where your website ranks. Moz assigns a Domain Authority score based on a wide range of ranking signals related to a particular domain. Therefore, when we talk about increasing Domain Authority, what we’re actually trying to do is strengthen the ranking signals of the domain so that a website is more likely to rank. In turn, the Domain Authority score should improve.
So how can you improve ranking signals and Domain Authority?
For the purposes of this discussion, think about Domain Authority as a signal for trust. Google and other search engines want to provide the best results from trusted websites to their customers in order to retain their business. They need to provide high quality websites that provide the information that the user is searching for, while also being secure and reliable.
There are a few ranking signals that are known to impact a website’s trust and ability to rank.
1. Build high quality backlinks
Website links work a lot like the offline referral process where we’re more likely to trust a business that a friend has referred to us. In this way, links to your website act as votes of confidence that tell Google your website is legitimate and trustworthy. The more trustworthy that the website you received the link from is, the more your website will benefit from the link. The opposite is also true – links from spammy or suspicious websites can negatively impact your Domain Authority score.
2. Create high quality content
The goal of search engines is to provide the best content to their customers. With this in mind, creating deep high quality content that is useful to the people reading it will help your website succeed and rank more highly.
3. Ensure your website is fast and scores well for Core Web Vital metrics
Website speed is closely tied to the quality of user experience on-site. Optimising speed and Core Web Vitals will give our website the best chance of ranking.
4. Ensure your website is secure
If a website looks suspicious then users will leave. Therefore, ensure that your website is secure, encrypts data and has an SSL certificate.
5. Achieve traffic-driving links
Building a great backlink profile is a good start, but the true signal of whether the link is a good one is whether users follow the link and stay on the website (don’t bounce).
Final thoughts
When looking to improve search engine rankings, it’s important not to get caught up on improving Domain Authority. Instead, focus on providing a high quality user experience on your website and providing useful content that your audience will consume. If you do the this then your Domain Authority will naturally grow over time.
In my opinion, true SEO success that has an impact on lead generation and sales will come from creating an SEO strategy that benchmarks your current position and selects achievable keyword targets for your website. If your Domain Authority is modest then that’s something that can be worked with as part of a strategy. The key is to select keyword targets that are achievable rather than the biggest targets.
If you would like a free consultation to discuss how you can implement an SEO strategy within your business, contact our team at [email protected] or call us on 0203 0111 641.
