Last Updated on by Artem K.
Increasing domain authority score may be one of the focuses for those who want their website to appear higher in Google search results.
In fact, increased domain authority one of the positive effects of when you work with a monthly link building service like LinksHero, where we help with E-commerce link building, SaaS link building and backlinks for other industries.
Domain authority metric can be implemented to compare the relevancy and contribution to a particular sphere or topic with other websites.
A good domain authority score helps to optimize a website for search engines and increase organic traffic.
However, it can also be a vanity metric as it’s not always clearn how to increase domain authority and achieve SEO success.
If you aim to improve your domain authority and do not know where to start, read further for detailed explanations and step-by-step instructions.
Later, we will talk about what it takes to achieve a high authority domain and some other important features that can make your website authority even better.
Domain Authority Explained
So, what is domain authority, and how does it work?
First of all, DA has nothing to do with Google as it’s been created by a 3rd party company – Moz.
In fact, there is an alternative to Moz’s DA that’s called Domain Rating (DR) that been created by another company – Ahrefs.
A lot of people in SEO community believe that Ahrefs is more accurate when it comes to measuring website’s authority.
Here is what the two tools show, when asked to show New York Times website’s authority…
Moz
Ahrefs
As you can see, the values are almost identical – 95 (Moz) vs 94 (Ahrefs).
However, frequently the discrepancy between the two are significant.
Whenever in dount, go with Ahrefs!
Building Out Domain Authority
Before starting to build domain authority for your website, it is important to understand what lies at the very core of it and what it consists of.
Here is a simple yet informative explanation of domain authority scores.
A website’s domain authority (DA) is a feature that allows website owners to compare their position in the search results with other sites.
A domain rating depends on the amount and quality of internal links and external links that the website has.
Although this ranking factor is often mentioned as the one that affects the position of a website according to Google’s search engines, it is important to note that domain authority is only one of the elements used to rank websites.
The external and internal link structure is analyzed by the domain authority checker.
To calculate domain authority, a metric created by Moz is often used.
It evaluated the site’s domain authority from 0 to 100, indicating the most authoritative websites with the highest score.
In simple words, the website’s domain authority score shows us what other sites have inbound links to our website.
The number and quality of links show how trusted the website is by others and how informative is the content of it. The bigger the link profile is, the more people are interested in referencing your website.
DA Score Ranking
Now that we know what domain authority is and how it is implemented as one of the SEO tools, we should find out what score a website should have to be considered the one with great domain authority.
Ways to achieve higher domain authority will differ, depending on your field of interest.
For instance, if you are trying to increase your DA score in the field of search engine development, you will be competing with some very authoritative websites. In this case, your domain authority should be as high as possible.
However, if you are trying to compete with some small local niche, it can be much easier to achieve better results.
There is an overall domain authority score classification that is often used to compare domain authority (DA):
- Poor DA is the one under 30;
- Below average DA is 30-40;
- The average DA is 40-50;
- Good DA is 50-60;
- Very good DA is 60-70;
- Excellent DA is one higher than 80.
The website’s domain score is usually compared to other websites’ scores that compete in the same field. That is why your best DA score will depend on what scores similar sites have, as they are the ones that you want to surpass.
High-authority websites that have a DA of more than 90 usually include such Internet giants as Apple, Microsoft, and Google. Reaching their levels is not always possible; however, it is not even necessary if you are trying to optimize a site that has a particular niche.
When you try to increase your domain authority, you will find it easier to do so if your initial score is of poor or below average level. As the scores go higher, it is more difficult to find ways to improve the DA score. Read further to find out the most effective methods of achieving high domain authority.
Calculating the Site’s Domain Authority
A website’s DA is quite easy to check, as there is some special software that allows you to do so. To see your Moz domain authority, you can use the website or the browser extension that Moz provides for free. It can get your domain authority calculated and also show page authority with the number of links in the site structure.
Another common estimate of domain authority is Ahrefs domain rating. It uses the same scale and demonstrates the link profile of any site you are interested in. This is an alternative way to calculate your website’s domain authority correctly.
Domain Authority Score Aspects
So, what features of a website are considered when DA is calculated? There are several main points that constitute a website’s DA. Let’s take a look at the most important of them so that we know what to pay attention to when improving a site for search engine results.
To determine whether a website has a good domain authority score or not, the following measures are usually implemented:
- The rank is compared through the number and quality of links pointing to the website;
- Root domains for the external links are checked to see whether the sites you are linked with have the same domain or not;
- Convenient site structure and good UX are used to determine the usability of the website;
- Internal linking structure is checked for high authority sites, as they are the quality links that can improve DA;
- The trustworthiness of high DA sites is proved by quality links from legitimate sites.
Thus, to increase web traffic and get better domain authority, one should consider different aspects of building the link structure. All of the elements combined can provide website owners with some effective results and better performance.
Increasing Website Domain Authority
Now it is time to discuss the strategy that will help you to get the domain authority to grow. There are several options for doing so, and by implementing as many of them as possible, you should be able to achieve a higher DA ranking without any problems.
Let’s explore in more detail what steps can be taken toward getting high domain authority.
Put Out Quality Content
Probably one of the easiest ways to improve your DA without any link-building strategy is to produce content that is truly link-worthy. With good and useful information presented on your website, more sites would want to refer to your content, and therefore, you would get more backlinks.
The relevance of content should be provided according to the hot topics of your sphere of interest. Whether it is putting out completely new information, making useful guides and tips, or posting interesting information that can attract the attention of others, the website can reach higher levels of DA rank simply by making high-quality content.
Another way to get users more engaged with your website is to use interaction formats that are currently trending in the media world. For instance, if a blog post does not work very well in your niche, try adding new formats, like podcasts, videos, or infographics.
A very informative post can attract more people to your website and, thus, make it more attractive for other site owners to link.
Start Link Building
One of the crucial steps in improving domain authority scores is to have websites from your field of interest or from others link to your content.
However, for the websites that have just launched, it might be difficult to obtain all the useful connections with other web pages.
But do not worry; we have some great ideas on how you can start your link building from scratch or improve the already existing link structure.
Here are several most effective ways to obtain high-quality links from others and make your DA score bigger:
- Post informative and entertaining content that is worthwhile to be linked by others;
- Do guest posting with websites that are from different niches than yours;
- Suggest websites to buy backlinks from them;
- Exchange link posting with some websites;
- Just contact other site owners to add links to your website in their content.
We have already discussed the benefits of posting good content in the previous point, so let’s consider all the others.
A guest post might be an effective way to get the DA score to go up, as it not only promotes your website for some other audience but also adds to the structure of your backlinks. While exchanging guest posts, you can be stumbled upon by more high authority links that would want to link you as well.
Another possible solution is to simply offer websites money for them to add links to your website. Although it might not always be an accessible option, it still works in the majority of cases. You can purchase a link to be added to some already existing materials or to be mentioned in future content uploads. Here you can use the broken link-building method and suggest replacing the links that have been damaged or removed with links to your relevant content.
While exchanging link posting with another website, make sure that it is of a different topic sphere. There would be no benefit to you if another website is from the same niche and shows up on the same SERP (search engine results page) as you. Although you might gain some more DA from such a collaboration, the same would go for the other website, and in the best scenario, both of you would simply move up.
As you only start developing domain authority, one of the options is to contact websites that might be interested in your content.
You can simply ask them to look through your website and see what they can refer to in their content. Just keep in mind that others might want to do the same thing, so you have to make sure that the content you offer really stands out.
Remove Toxic Links
Although at the very beginning of your link-building journey, you might want to add as many backlinks as possible, you should always be careful. Sometimes, harmful links affect the way your website is treated by search engines, and that is why you should regularly check what types of websites refer to you.
With the help of special software, you can easily remove or ignore all unwanted links. Such websites might include spamming pages, those that got penalties, and websites with potentially dangerous content.
You should also pay attention to the quality of your internal links. It is better not to link to sites like the ones mentioned in the previous paragraph. With proper checkups for the content of your link structure, you should be able to achieve good domain authority results.
Build Good Website Structure
The importance of a properly structured website should not be underestimated. First of all, it greatly improves user experience and makes your website more pleasant and convenient to visit, generating more traffic. Second of all, a nicely structured website can be considered by search engines as a more preferable one, thus, putting it higher on SERP.
What is more, mobile access to your website should be properly developed. With new changes in Google, the search engine checks the availability and functionality of each website in a mobile version. This point is also connected with UX, as users who are content with visiting your website from a mobile device are more likely to choose it over some other website that does not provide such an opportunity.
Also, do not forget about the security of the website. Whether it is implementing security plugins or acquiring SSL encryption for your site, the safety of users’ data should not be neglected.
Link With Authoritative Websites
Last but not least, one of the most effective ways of making your DA bigger is to connect with sites that have very high authority. Probably, the best option is to receive links from professional press and journals; however, it is not that easy.
The benefit of getting backlinks from high authority domains is huge. As your website starts to grow, it gets harder to grow domain authority with any possible links. The amount of them will not make that big of a change, so you should opt for the quality. Successful implementation of such a strategy can make major changes to your DA score.
Although finding ways to contact highly authoritative websites might be difficult, there is special software and service that can help you with that. If you do everything correctly, you might get a mention even from the top websites on the results page.
There are many off-page SEO tactics that a website owner can perform in order to make domain authority score bigger.
With proper link building and relevant content posts, your website can go up in the ranking of SERP and make your web pages more attractive for new users.
By trying out different techniques and doing them faster than your competitors, you can achieve highly effective results.
Domain Authority Importance
Now that you have seen numerous ways of making your domain authority better, you might ask yourself why we need to improve this metric at all.
Is it that important if there are plenty of other factors that affect the website’s ranking in the search list? Well, it surely is, and we are going to tell you why exactly it is useful to improve your domain authority.
For those who are launching a website for the first time, domain authority might be a great indicator of success in SEO. The same goes for websites with very low DA scores, as they are basically at the starting point as well. With more and more backlinks added, the optimization of your site will also show its results.
However, keep in mind that implemented in such a way, the DA metric will be representative of SEO only at the very beginning. With better development of the link structure, you will need more than domain authority to improve the position of the website in the results of the search.
What is more, by matching your domain authority to those websites that already take high positions in the search engine results page (otherwise called SERP), you can increase the chance of ranking higher. It can be done by targeting specific keywords of your field.
Overall, with the increased domain authority, you get more opportunities to improve the performance of your website even further. As the site gets more traffic and backlinks, the DA grows, making it even more preferable for other web pages to provide links to your information.
This process can help one to reach the most efficient results of optimization.
Other Influential Metrics
As we have mentioned, not only domain authority affects the position of the website on SERP. There are some other factors that have to be considered in order to reach higher rankings among other results of the search.
For instance, one has to take into account the number of linking domains connected with the website. Also, it is important to check the amount and quality of links pointing to the site you are interested in improving. Do not forget about checking the spam score and excluding any low-quality links.
Some other points that should be considered include incoming traffic and target word rankings. Last but not least, the SERP ranking of the website on average should be analyzed as well.
Page Authority
Page authority is often used alongside domain authority. However, these two are not the same. While DA is a metric that analyzes external and internal links for the whole website, PA rates one particular web page. It could be a blog post or an article that stands out from similar content to your competitors.
Sometimes, page authority is considered to be even better than domain authority, as it allows you to appear higher in the search results with a single web page. It is easier to achieve than to increase your domain authority as a whole, which is why it can be used as an effective instrument.
In the process of improving PA, your DA will get developed as well. The more pages you have with high PA, the easier it will be for you to achieve high domain authority.
Dealing with Low Domain Authority
So far, we have spoken about various ways to increase your domain authority. But what if we tell you that having a low domain authority score is not always bad?
Well, almost all websites start with a pretty low score, and there is nothing to worry about, only if they are not built on existing referring domains.
However, high-quality backlinks might not be your goal, and therefore, there is no point in trying to improve DA. Instead, your site can be ranked according to keywords with low competition. This is a nice alternative that can also increase the traffic of the website.
What is more, highly ranked domain authorities might not even indicate good-quality sites. There are some web pages that are based on domains that have already expired or been penalized by Google. Their DA might be high, but the overall traffic and quality of content are usually quite bad in such cases.
Therefore, as you strive to increase your domain authority, keep in mind that you should not aim for one metric only. With different aspects to it, domain authority can become a powerful tool for the search engine optimization of your website.
Domain Authority Takeaway
Domain authority is a great metric that allows website owners to improve their positions in the rankings of search results, as well as to compare their efficiency with other representatives of the sphere. This comparison is crucial for determining your strategies for website development and promotion.
With plenty of ways to increase your domain authority, any website can drastically improve its performance and increase traffic. Whether you choose to get a variety of linking root domains and high authority links or to provide quality content, the improvement of DA is quite complex work that requires a lot of effort.
Building up your domain authority slowly and gradually will get you successful results. Being a long-term process, it can take quite a lot of time, but every part of it will be worth it as soon as you see fruitful results.
Frequently Asked Questions — FAQ
How fast can you increase domain authority?
When you want to increase domain authority, you should be ready to understand that it does not happen overnight. It is quite a long process that requires constant development and improvement. To be able to compete with other website pages in search rankings, you should create a proper strategy for the improvement of your domain authority. That is why it might take longer than you expected.
Why is it important to increase domain authority?
Increasing the domain authority of your website is an essential step if your goal is to improve the performance of the web page, increase traffic, and get more people interested in your content. By getting other sites to link the pages you put out, you increase the chances of receiving an even bigger flow of users. Moreover, higher domain authority can result in a higher ranking in the results of searching among all other similar websites.
How to check your domain authority?
Domain authority can be easily checked with special software that is developed exactly for this type of analysis. The idea of domain authority ranking is implemented by Moz software, and you can check your DA using its website or special browser extension. The former only requires you to put the link to the site you want to check, and the latter automatically shows you the metrics for all Google searches and other search engines.
Is a low domain authority score bad?
Although it is better to have a higher domain authority score, having a low one is not always bad. It all depends on what scores other websites in your topic field have and how much you want to surpass them. When the competitors have very low scores, it is not difficult to increase your DA just a little and get your website more links. However, generally, the higher the domain authority, the better.
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