What is Domain Authority? | How to Increase Your Site's DA(6 Steps)
Wondering how to get your website to rank #1 on Google? Then you’ve probably come across the term “domain authority.”
For anyone involved in SEO (search engine optimization), it is important to know that domain authority is one of Google’s 200 different ranking factors.
In this article, we’ll explain what domain authority really is, how important it is to your website’s ranking, and how to improve it. It’s a long story, so skip to the part you want to read.
What is Domain Authority?
The term “domain authority” (DA) refers to the number of relevant backlinks that point to your website from other trustworthy websites. Your score is influenced by the relevancy of those backlinks as well.
For companies to determine their potential position on search engine results pages, Moz developed the Domain Authority statistic. They calculate a page’s potential ranking by using a variety of factors, such as connecting root domains and the total number of links, into a single DA score. This rating may compare websites or monitor a website’s “ranking strength” over time.
Certain companies exude authority without even trying. This is because the keywords that are present on their web pages in their natural form will have some weight.
The Ways of Calculating Domain Authority
Domain Authority is determined by combining several characteristics, such as connecting root domains and the cumulative number of links, into a single DA score. This rating may then compare websites or monitor a website’s “ranking strength” over time. The Domain Authority does not impact the SERPs and is not a Google ranking benchmark.
Since the release of the Domain Authority 2.0 upgrade in early 2019, a domain’s Domain Authority (DA) score is calculated based on predictions made by a machine learning algorithm on how frequently Google will include that domain in its search results.
Because DA is dependent on machine learning equations, the rank of your site will frequently vary as more, less, or different measured values become available and are included in those equations. There will be fewer high-DA spaces available for other sites with weaker link profiles since more established and authoritative domains, such as WPBeginner, will have progressively bigger link profiles. Because of this, it's crucial to utilize Domain Authority as a comparative indicator rather than an absolute one.
Examples of a Good Domain Authority Score
One to 100 are the possible domain authority scores. Improvements in web traffic and SERP ranks are more feasible when your domain authority score is higher.
A newly launched website domain authority score will be one. As per Moz, websites with a lot of external links typically have better DA scores than small company websites and websites with few inbound links.
Comparing your site to other related or similar sites can serve as a reliable measurement of its performance. Your DA may change over time, and because there are so many factors at play, it can be difficult to pinpoint the cause of the shift. Really shouldn’t give up though.
Domain Authority score of 40 to 50 is rated as average. A domain authority of 50 to 60 must be considered excellent. Scores over 60 are considered great for domain authority.
How Do You Check Domain Authority?
If you want to check your website domain authority score, here are some free tools to check the DA of your website.
MOZ Free Domain SEO Analysis Tool
Moz Free Domain SEO Analysis Tool is one of the best or might be the best to determine the domain authority of any website. Enter the website address that you own or a rival’s to check the domain authority.
The tool offers details on the number of distinct backlinks, root domains, and keyword rankings for a particular domain.
Additionally, you may view more information by scrolling down, including the most popular sites, top anchor text, and most followed connections to this site.
SEMRUSH Domain Overview Tool
Many SEO experts use SEMrush Domain Overview, a program that also offers information about a website’s domain authority.
Go to Backlinks Analytics in SEMrush to see the DA of your website or those of your rivals. View the Authority Score under the Overview tab.
How to Increase Domain Authority(6 Steps)?
Domain Authority is mainly determined by backlinks, off-site tactics such as link building are the most effective way to enhance your score. However, despite how simple it may seem, we do not influence whether or not another website decides to connect to ours.
Additionally, certain link-building is regarded as a “black-hat, technique” which means that Google may punish your website if it looks to be buying backlinks or using spamming linking techniques.
However, there are several secure techniques to raise your domain’s overall authority and, consequently, your DA ratings. The link-building techniques listed below are some of my favorites since they work well and adhere to Google’s guidelines.
1. Write Killer Content
The greatest strategy to raise your domain authority is to provide excellent content that attracts links. What makes your material amazing? In any case, once people found your posts useful, they’ll begin to spread the word. This boosts your chances of receiving backlinks from websites with high authority, such as universities or governmental agencies.
You’ll also improve your root domains if other websites connect to you. Each of these factors will help you get a high DA. You may now produce several sorts of content, including articles, in-depth tutorials, videos, infographics, podcasts, presentations, and more. Examining your website’s most popular pages, though, is a terrific place to start. You may produce related themes and content categories in this way
2. Bring in High-Quality Backlinks
As you may have seen, backlinks are quite important for determining domain authority. In fact, among the two most crucial ranking criteria is the number of backlinks. According to a survey by Ahrefs, 55.24% of websites receive no organic traffic because they lack backlinks.
It is logical to assume that you require backlinks, particularly high-quality ones. There are various techniques to acquire backlinks and improve your web presence. You might start by examining your top referral sources before looking for similar websites with backlink potential.
3. Improve Internal Linking
Another strategy to improve your site’s user experience is to pay attention to your internal link structure. You can retain users on your site longer and lower the bounce rate by providing connections to other educational websites.
Additionally, internal links make it simpler for search engine crawlers to access your website and index your content. The ability to move link juice from one page to other thanks to an effective internal link structure is another advantage.
The value of a page that is sent to other websites is referred to as "link juice" in SEO. More links pointing at a page provide the search engine a vote of confidence since they demonstrate the page's reliability. The sum of these factors increases domain authority.
4. Audit Your Site and Remove Bad Links
Having poor links might do more harm than good, even if inbound connections are essential for your website’s DA and ranks.
The domain authority of your website may decline if links are collected from a spamming website. And in some circumstances, it can even result in a Google penalty. To avoid this, check your site for poisonous connections and remove them as soon as feasible. By looking through your website’s whole link profile, you may utilize several SEO tools to find any problematic links.
Additionally, you may utilize Google Search Console to ignore or disavow those links if you are unable to delete them. As a consequence, when crawling, Google’s crawler won’t take into account any spamming or artificial backlinks.
5. Make sure that Your Website is Responsive
Now it is necessary, not just good to have, to have a mobile-friendly website.
Here are a few of the causes:
- Nowadays, mobile searches dominate desktop searches by roughly 60%.
- The majority of people begin their searches on smartphones and then go on to desktops.
- A ranking criteria (for appearing in Google’s mobile results) is mobile friendliness.
- Google is building a mobile-first index, and websites that are not mobile-friendly will immediately be excluded.
- Your total Domain Authority Score will suffer if your website doesn’t have a mobile-friendly or responsive version.
- The easiest place to start if your website isn’t mobile-friendly yet is to go to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and run the test for your domain.
6. Optimize Your Site Structure
Keep in mind that your site’s design and usability were key aspects for deciding domain authority. Search engines can simply examine and index your website if it is properly structured.
You may make a sitemap in WordPress to assist web spiders. A sitemap helps search engines easily browse around your website by containing all of the key pages.