Domain Authority (DA) is a third-party metric developed by Moz.com. The score ranks a website from 1 to 100 with the higher scores correlating to an increased likelihood of ranking on the search engine, which can be used to measure website strength over time. The DA ranking is calculated using various factors such as root domains and the total number of links and considers both the quantity and quality of links to a webpage. If a website or page has backlinks from authoritative sites such as Google, Wikipedia, well-renowned magazines, or newspapers, it has an increased chance of having a better score. However, there are situations where you do not want websites with a high DA score linking to your site, as they are either in a different industry and/or are irrelevant to your business.
Do I need to monitor my Domain Authority?
It is important to note that domain authority is not a Google ranking factor and does not have an impact on the search engine results page, although it is a very good indicator that will help you assess the performance of your website against competitors.
Despite the search engine not using domain authority as a direct ranking factor, case studies have shown direct correlations between SERP rankings and DA. Google aims to provide its users with the best possible experience, which means leading them to the most trusted and relevant sites based on their search query. DA ratings are designed to work in the same way as Google’s algorithm, making it a valuable metric as domain links are one of the most important ranking signals and it can also be useful in identifying trustworthy websites.
How to improve your Domain Authority?
When it comes to DA there are a few things to keep in mind, one of those being that it’s not about the total number of links or number of domain links to your website, but the quality of those links. There are various methods to help develop these links, including; creating high-quality content and update older content as it makes it easier to gain natural backlinks, improve pages with low authority, and add new information of interest to the user. Additional link-building strategies include blogger outreach, content marketing, press releases, and social media, which can also help improve your domain authority.
Building your DA is a long-term strategy that takes time and it is highly unlikely to see immediate results. Hence, following these practices will help develop the website’s visibility on the search engine results page to increase traffic to the site. DA can also provide a great indication into whether you need to review the current links to the site, which is vital to get rid of any spam-worthy or toxic backlinks that could be impacting your score.
At Verto, we have the experience and knowledge to help improve your domain authority as we have for many of our clients’ websites. Contact us today if you think we could help or want to understand what we can do for you.
