With Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it is tricky to know how well your site is ranking and how it measures up against similar sites. Domain Authority (DA) is an SEO metric you can use to understand how your site is doing on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), and how it compares to competitors’ sites.
Let’s take a closer look at what actually is Domain Authority and how you can improve it.
What is domain authority?
DA is an SEO ranking score developed by the SEO platform, Moz.
By using several indicators, it can predict how well a site will rank on SERPs. Indicators include the number and quality of backlinks to your site, social media presence (including engagement), and how optimized your site is from a technical standpoint.
Scores range from 1 to 100, with sites like Google, Facebook, and Wikipedia scoring in the high 90s. However, DA scores are meant to be used as a comparative tool, and the goal is to score better than your competitors, rather than chasing a high score.
For example, if you owned an eCommerce store that sells gloves, comparing your DA score against Wikipedia’s DA score would be an ineffective way to measure how well your site is ranking. Instead, you would need to research the DA scores of your competitors and other online stores selling gloves, and see how you score against them.
Once you know your competitors and their scores you will want to focus on improving your DA score to outscore them, which will then help your site rank above theirs on SERPs. This translates into more visibility and more organic traffic for your site. The bigger the gap between your DA score and your competitors’, the more successful your site will become.
How to improve your domain authority score
Increasing and maintaining your DA score isn’t easy, but it is possible by using the following best practices.
Optimize your on-page content
SEO isn’t just for Google search engine ranking, it also affects your Domain Authority. Make sure that your page is fully optimized including your title tags, meta descriptions, image alt tags, and content.
Create linkable content
Become a thought leader in your industry by creating high-quality content that is published regularly, so that it is more likely to be linked to from another site. This will help you earn those important high-quality links from multiple domains.
Internal linking structure
You might be surprised to learn that internal linking is just as important as external links. Internal links help to direct visitors to different parts of your website. By having an easily accessible internal link, it will help with their user journey. In addition, internal links help keep visitors on-site and engaged for a longer time.
Remove toxic and bad links
You should be doing an audit of your website every once in a while and search for any backlinks that are bad or toxic. It is important to do this because you could potentially remove links from bad sources that could end up hurting your domain authority instead of helping it.
Promote your content via social media
Social signals are also one of the most important key factors in your DA score. Make sure you are promoting your content on social media in order to obtain those signals.
Mobile-friendly
If your website still isn’t mobile-friendly, now is the time. By not having a responsive website, you are not only hurting mobile search engine rankings but imagine how many visitors you are losing because they don’t want to deal with a website that doesn’t work properly on mobile or tablet.
Improve your website speed
No one has the time to sit and wait for a website to load. Having a slow website that loads slow will have a massive effect on your bounce rate.
Become an authority
By boosting your reputation as an authority within your industry, you will strengthen your brand identity. Not only will this help increase traffic, but it will help to increase the number of external links.
