Having a clear understanding of domain authority can help you improve your marketing plans significantly. In fact, it is by far one of the most asked questions by website owners, what are the various ways to increase their domain authority?We have curated this article, with the intent to discuss all the metrics and some of the most effective tips to achieve the perfect domain authority for your business.
In Layman terms, Domain Authority (DA) can be best described as the relevant backlinks your website can achieve from other reputed websites. It is the relevance of the backlinks that contributes to the score. The term Domain Authority was coined by Moz, for a clear understanding of the businesses where they might rank on SERP. DA estimates the possibility of the page’s ranking based on various factors. The DA score can be used to compare your competitor’s website while finding its ‘ranking strength’ over time. It’s not just the backlink, but implementing keywords naturally and strategically also contributes to the overall score.
Google doesn’t consider Domain Authority as any metric for their ranking process. On the contrary, a study conducted by Ahrefs suggests that there’s a direct correlation between your Domain Authority and SERP ranking. Based on the study, your website’s DA can be used to determine the amount of organic traffic you receive from Google. So, in order to opt for a higher SEO ranking, it is very important that you start working on increasing your Domain Authority.
It is imperative to understand that websites with high-quality external links such as the likes of Google or Wikipedia help to achieve a higher Domain Authority. On the contrary, a handful of inbound links would drop your DA score.
Just bear in mind, Domain Authority is meant to predict your website’s ranking, so it shouldn’t be the only goal. So, ensure to use it as a comparative metric and acquire important link profiles within the website. That being said, there is no set metric that determines your DA as good or bad.
Making significant changes to your Domain Authority score can get hard at times. After all, it is not something like Google’s SERP ranking, where tweaking your content with some on-page SEO tactics will bring forth result. So, put in the effort, and it would certainly reflect in the DA score over time. That being said, here are some of the most effective strategies you can implement to increase your Domain Authority.
1) Always Start with Quality Content
This goes without saying, high-quality engaging content is the key to a good DA score. You should invest your time in long-form content which is worth linking for. Neither less to say, the long form of content always attracts backlinks naturally.
In fact, with a higher number of keyword usage, these types of content have a great chance of ranking higher. In other words, you end up making your website highly optimized while improving the domain strength at the same time.
2) Perform a Link Audit
In the meantime, while you are creating high-quality content, assign your team to perform a complete link audit. It is very crucial that your website is at least 3 to 4 months old. Make use of the Moz Link Research, and identify all the links that point to your website.
This tool is extremely effective in finding out the total number of links you have gained and lost over time. You need to pay close attention to the spam score for each of the domains.
In fact, one of the primary reasons, your DA score decreases is due to the total number of spammy domains you end up linking. Generally, your spam score for the website should be higher than 30%.
3) On-Page SEO Audit is a Must-have
If you want to get backlinks from websites with high Domain Authority, your website should be devoid of any errors whatsoever. In fact, there are a plethora of on-page SEO errors that go unnoticed.
Implement some of the most effective on-page SEO strategies so that you don’t have any issue lurking around behind your back. You can also make use of some of the free SEO audit tools like Screaming Frog to get the right assistance with your on=page SEO audit.
4) Technical SEO Still Exists
While the difference between on-page and technical SEO is slowly diminishing, it is still an important aspect to look for especially while building domain authority. Websites with technical errors have hardly any chance of acquiring a higher SERP ranking.
This, in turn, means you are going to have a hard time getting those natural backlinks. One of the most effective strategies is to use the Moz Site Crawl tool. It can provide you with comprehensive support for all the ways you can improve your DA score.
One of the most common technical SEO errors your website might experience is with redirects. Robots.txt, canonical errors packed with a slower loading time. Now, these are very critical in order to get a better ranking in Google.
5) Work on Your Link Building Strategy
Now that you have checked your website inside out, it is the best time to start working on link building. For starters, churn out a handful of long-form content that website owners would prefer to link back.
Find prospective websites that can be used for successful blogger outreach. Some of the other link-building strategies include link reclamation, broken link building along unlinked brand mentions.
6) Don’t Forget Social Medias
Last but not least, social media has a huge role to play in improving your Domain Authority. Once your content is live on the outreached website, make sure to start sharing them on different social media handles.
Similarly, you can also request the publishers to promote your content. Chances are people might find them interesting, while giving you a link back in the process. Repeat uploading new content and link-building strategy, and you are good to go.
Note: With all the above-mentioned points, it is very important to understand the achieving a 100 DA score is not the end goal. In fact, your primary focus should be to score higher than your closest competitor. It can be a clear indication that you have a higher chance of ranking above them.
Why Domain Authority Changes?
For better or worse, there are several factors that can cause changes to your domain authority. Sometimes pinpointing the exact reason can get tedious at times. Some of the potential reasons that can actually influence your Domain Authority score includes:
The Right DA for a Better SERP
In the beginning, Domain Authority might seem as complicated. With various factors influencing your DA, it is very important that you analyze them and make your way accordingly.
While getting a hang of it, Domain Authority is always worth monitoring and optimizing for a better SERP ranking.