Forget Google Analytics. Forget complex spreadsheets.
There’s one metric you need. It goes from 0 to 100. It’s reliable. It’s simple. And it tells you everything you need to know about your search engine optimization: Domain authority.
It’s time to level it up.
So put your game face on, because we’re going to show you how.
Domain Authority: Establishing Trusted Networks
For some, domain authority is a general SEO concept that refers to the strength of a domain. But most mean “Domain Authority” as coined by Moz when they talk about it.
In this regard, domain authority is an aggregate score that predicts the likelihood of ranking in search engine results.
The rating goes from 0 to 100.
That makes it useful as an indicator of how your site performs when contrasted with competitors.
It isn’t one of the formal SEO metrics used by Google and other search engines. But, because it’s based on an accurate machine learning model, it’s a reliable metric.
Domain authority is calculated from a wealth of data. The most important?
Backlinks and traffic.
What Domain Authority Does For You
Once again: Domain authority isn’t one of the “formal” ranking factors used by search engines.
But that doesn’t mean you should write it off.
There’s a strong correlation between domain authority and SERPs. This is because backlinks are a crucial aspect of ranking.
Why?
Backlinks act as social proof in a landscape where anybody can upload anything. The logic is simple: If your content is good enough to reference and link to, it stands on its own merits.
The more links there are to the same domain, the more the internet’s collective consciousness proves that the source is trustworthy.
And what about traffic? Isn’t that important, too?
Yes. And no.
Whether or not traffic is actually taken into consideration by search engines is contested. Google says “no” – studies say “yes”. You be the judge.
Ultimately, domain authority gives you one simple number to work with:
- If it goes up, you’re doing something right
- If it goes down, you need to reevaluate your SEO strategy
What Domain Authority Is Ideal?
On a scale that starts at 0 and goes to 100, it’s natural to want to shoot for the top.
But it’s important to bear the size and scale of your business in mind. If you’re just starting out and your website has only just hit the digital high street, you’re starting from the bottom.
At the very least, the only way is up.
Improving Your Domain Authority Step-by-Step
Don’t overcomplicate things. That’s our motto, and that’s why we’ve broken down your domain authority strategy into three steps.
Step #1: Evaluate Your Domain Authority
Finding out your domain authority is the easy part. Using the right tool, you’ll have your result in seconds.
Here’s what the numbers mean:
- DA (0-100): Domain authority
- PA (0-100): Page authority
- Rank (0-10): A combined value indicating the overall score
- External links: The number of outbound links from your URL
Page authority assesses the individual authority rating of your pages. Use the URL of an appropriate subpage to assess it.
Overall, your domain authority is more important – but if you have a standout piece of content you want to push in the SERPs, it’s worth optimizing it to the best of your ability.
Step #2: Your Backlink Strategy
Before we go any further, understand that your backlinking strategy isn’t a one-and-done deal. It’s the fundamental ingredient of higher domain authority.
Your backlinking strategy underpins everything else you do. More backlinks mean higher DA…
But domain authority isn’t solely a numbers game.
The right kind of backlinks. That’s what you need. The right kind of backlinks is relevant.
Bot-generated links, spam, and hobbyist blogs won’t do much for you at all. The backlinks you need are URLs that harvest users from sites with high domain authority – and funnel them to you.
How do you do that? One word, two concepts:
Content. On-page and off-page.
On-page, you want killer content that draws in curious readers and keeps them where you want them. Content – and this is important – that appeals to your target demographic. That’s what your on-site blog is all about.
And off-page, you need quality guest posts that hook a portion of traffic and swing it your way.
What’s the content generation process like?
Assuming you’re human like the rest of us, you’ll struggle with ideas in the early days. You need a lot of it, you need the right keywords and you need a dynamite headline.
So let’s start with that: Generate the ideas at the click of a button and learn more about writing attention-grabbing headlines all in the time it takes to sip a coffee.
Step #3: On-Page Optimization
The factors influence domain authority directly are murky: They’re based on a machine learning algorithm, meaning they’re always in flux.
But optimization always pays off.
Your pages need to be optimized in two ways:
- The technical side
- The content side
On the technical side, your website needs to work. Flawlessly. Broken links hurt your rankings and harm your business by sending customers elsewhere.
Dead 404 pages hurt your reputation. A bad user interface is a big no-go. Slow loading times hurt.
On the content side, your website needs to put its best foot forward every time: Keywords to rank in searches, content to pull in readers.
And what makes for good content?
Here’s a secret: It’s not quantity. It’s quality. Quality content comes in many forms – but it has common denominators:
- Accurate
- Well-written
- Easily readable
- Informative
- Authoritative
- Trustworthy
Become an Authority in Your Domain
Don’t stay down in the dumps, even if you’re starting at rock bottom. Follow our strategy, backlink and guest post like crazy, and you’ll see winning results over time: Let your domain authority be your strongest asset, not your greatest weakness.
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