Domain authority (DA) is a score developed by Moz to evaluate websites and predict their rankings in search engine results. This score is greatly important in search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, and it can be impacted by a wide variety of factors. Similarly, page authority addresses individual web pages and their search result rankings.
Improving and maintaining each of these are absolute musts for site owners who want to stay competitive. Read on for more information about your website’s DA and what you should do to maximize it.
How does DA work?
Domain authority is scored on a range from 1 to 100. The higher a site’s score, the more likely it is to have a high ranking in search engine results. Obviously, getting to the front page requires a high score, but just how high your DA needs to be depends on your site and its competition.
Generally speaking, a site’s DA is determined by factors such as the number and quality of backlinks the site has. Basically, this means the quality of content you link to has a direct effect on the quality of your own site. Other sites providing backlinks to your own, and the quality of those sites, can influence your DA as well. No site is an island; any content your site is associated with can have an impact.
With that said, it’s best to view your DA as a comparative measure instead of an absolute measure of the quality of your site. To put it another way, you don’t necessarily need to have a near 100 DA to appear as a top result — you just need to outdo your direct competitors.
This is significantly easier to do at lower scores. Because of the wide variety of factors contributing to a site’s DA, sites with scores in the 70-80 range or higher can have their work cut out for them, which is why large businesses often have a team of SEO experts to focus on this and incessantly be on the watch for better seo links for business.
What is my DA?
If you’re interested in checking your own site’s DA, or those of your competitors, it’s as easy as plugging the information into a DA checker. Just keep in mind that it’s common for scores to change frequently, and this can happen for plenty of reasons.
The internet is an incredibly complex web of ideas and connections, and your score can and will be impacted by forces outside of your control. For instance, when the highest authority sites experience a substantial growth in links, this can skew the playing field for everyone. Your DA is also more susceptible to frequent/drastic changes if it’s a lower score.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see the results you want at first. In fact, it’s unlikely you will. Growing a site takes time.
How can I influence my DA?
Figuring out how to directly improve your site’s DA can be tough, since it’s determined by an aggregate of metrics, but boosting your site’s SEO efforts in general will be your best bet. Many SEO professionals consider this the hardest part of their jobs, but improved link building is your fastest way up the rankings.
Why not use the fact that different sites affects each other’s DA scores to your advantage? For example, you could reach out to other sites in your industry to build relationships with other influencers and link each other’s content. This sort of networking helps everyone, and more backlinks to your content in other websites increases your traffic.
Once you’re an established influencer in your area, you’ll have a better chance of making an impact with unique content. Remember, especially if your site is still relatively new, your DA doesn’t mean your site is necessarily good or bad. It’s best used as an indicator of where to focus your efforts.
Image Credits: Domain Authority from whiteMocca/Shutterstock
