As you dive into the world of digital content, online visibility, and SEO, you will most likely encounter a whole new dictionary of concepts. Look up the letter D for Domain Authority and follow along this blog where we explain it all. That’s one key concept you wouldn’t want to skip.
What is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority (DA) is a quantitative score created by Moz, the well known SEO firm. Domain Authority estimates the likelihood that your website will rank on search engine results pages.
In simple words: a higher Domain Authority score indicates a higher potential for ranking.
How is Domain Authority Calculated?
DA calculations depend on multiple factors. According to Moz, the most influential factor is the inbound links pointing to your domain, also known as backlinks. Backlinks data is collected and constantly updated through Link Explorer index. The resulting DA score increases along with the increase of backlinks and unique referring domains.
But, if your goal is to earn new customers from search and craft successful SEO strategies, you have to cover all of the ins and outs of the DA calculation. Here are the essentials to know about DA:
- Domain Authority Is Only Descriptive
DA simply quantifies your page’s ranking potential without any interference in search engines such as Google’s ranking algorithm. This explains why newer websites with lower DA scores can still outrank competitors if their content is highly informative, optimized, and beneficial for users.
However, such examples hardly occur. The norm is often a positive relationship between DA scores and other SEO performance indicators like keyword rankings, positions, and organic traffic. In fact, many of DA score factors are themselves Google ranking factors, like the number of linking root domains and number of linking pages. Google’s ranking authority site is PageRank. Unlike DA, RankPage actively affects Google’s promotion of web pages.
- DA Is Always Proportional to SEO
As you know by now, DA calculation primarily relies on backlinks.
These backlinks are at the heart of SEO strategies like link building and digital PR. So, SEO off-page strategies can elevate different site authority metrics like the DA metric.
It’s true that you can simultaneously perform on-page SEO, such as using appropriate HTML and effective target keywords, however, this will not directly influence your DA as much as backlinks. Applying SEO for both earning backlinks and upgrading content quality would be a brilliant multidisciplinary approach that endeavors for outranking in search engines.
How to Assess Your DA Score?
DA score is measured on a 0 to 100-point scale. But guess what! You could get a 40 points DA score and rank higher than your competitors in search engine results; just like you could get a 90 points score but stay incompetent to rank higher than popular websites.
That’s to say there is no absolute good or bad DA score. The score metric is only comparative. But, if you must know, one can say that your DA score is good when it’s higher than the domains you hope to outrank.
How to Improve Your DA Score?
You can always improve your Domain Authority score if it doesn’t please you. Since you have no control over whether or not another website chooses to link to yours as an outbound link, here’s a list of your alternative, yet effective options.
- Citations Building
Getting your domain listed in online directories is expected to be one impactful and affordable way to increase your DA score. In the short term, Google will start to understand the markets and areas you serve. And in the long term, links back to your website will help elevate your DA scores over time.
- Unique Content
Another long term investment is your content itself. Create content that’s just so good that other websites will discover and link it. Your content should be mostly unique in terms of ideas, angles, explanations, and mind blowing links. The more original content you produce, the more likely you are to get cited, not replicated.
But, pay attention to keywords. Great keyword-targeted content that ranks will be easily discovered by other fellow content creators during their research. Hopefully they will link back to your site, and thus, elevate your DA.
- Guest Posts
PR is also an investment! You already produce top notch quality content. So, why not contribute some of this blog content, original research, or expertise to other relevant, high DA websites within your field. When you’re providing publishers with their content, you have the opportunity to earn more backlinks.
Seeking out guest blogging offers in similar publications that have topical relevance to your own content will elevate your DA way faster. Whether you’re a seasoned digital content creator or still brand new to the world of SEO, Domain Authority is a revolutionary metric to quantify and understand your potential ranking.
DA scores might seem impressive or hard to get, but, investing in your DA score is totally worth it. Prove to search engines that your domain is authoritative and well-trusted by other content creators, and you’ll outrank them all!
