Your domain authority score is a metric attributed to your website to signify how authoritative it is. The DA score is something that was developed by Moz, loosely based on Google co-creator Larry Page’s PageRank algorithm. Other companies such as Ahrefs provide similar rating systems.
It is widely believed that the higher your website’s domain authority score, the more likely it will be to rank favorably on search engine results pages (SERPs) and as a result, the more organic traffic the site will achieve.
The question many website owner’s ask is ‘how do you go about increasing domain authority?’
In this guide, we’ll look at some of the most effective methods of building your domain score and boosting your page rankings.
What Is Domain Authority?
A domain authority score is an attempt to simulate the ranking system that Google uses to determine where a website sits in the search rankings. Every website is given a score between 0 and 100.
The domain authority score of any given website is largely dependent on the information that Moz holds. It’s not uncommon for a site to have a low Moz DA, but actually rank in a good spot on Google.
It’s important to understand that if a site has been penalized by Google, Moz won’t hold any data on this, and this won’t be reflected in the site’s score.
Domain authority uses a logarithmic scale. This means that it’s easier to make advancements in your score toward the lower end of the scale than at the higher end.
A site’s DA score can take time to change, therefore when carrying out work on your site to increase its domain authority, you should allow plenty of time for the changes to be reflected in the metrics.
While a site’s domain authority score is not used by Google to determine ranking position, it’s still a great SEO tool to use to compare websites and to measure the potential success of your own site.
Get High-Quality Inbound Links
Building backlinks is one of the best ways to improve your domain authority. If you can get sites that are considered to be high-authority to link to your site, then this will boost your overall domain authority as well as your individual page authority.
Creating linkable content is one of the best ways of scoring inbound links for high-authority sites. By ensuring you have a steady stream of well-written, high-quality content that goes deep into a topic and will be of benefit to readers, you’ll naturally obtain some backlinks.
Remember, make sure that your content is relevant to both your brand and your audience.
The next thing to consider is providing guest posts on reputable blogs. Well-written and informative content posted elsewhere online is a great opportunity to sow links to your own site and build your brand’s reputation for creating articles that people want to read.
Creating guest posts yourself can be quite a time-consuming way of building backlinks and it may not be something you’re in a position to do. A much more efficient method would be to use our ‘done for you’ guest posting service which allows you to build links on high DA websites including on .edu sites.
It cannot be stressed how important it is to get genuine links from sites with high traffic volumes.
Say No to Spammy Links
If you have too many links heading to your site from low-authority sites, this can harm your domain authority.
Where low-quality links are present, you can ask the website owner to remove the link entirely or replace it with a ‘no follow tag. This will ensure the link is devalued.
Evaluate Your Internal Linking Structure
It’s not just the external links that point to your site that are important, internal links are also worth looking at.
Internal links help users explore your site and discover other relevant content. This helps to improve their experience.
Make sure that all internal links are relevant, and go to a page that is still live on your site. Dead links can be a source of frustration for users, and they can harm your potential DA score and rankings.
Optimize Your On-Page Content
SEO is essential for both your Google rankings as well as your domain authority score. For this reason, you should ensure that all on-page content is optimized. This includes everything from your title tags to your image alt tags, as well as the content you’ve worked so hard to create.
Make sure you’re using the correct headers within your content. H1s should be reserved for titles only, while H2s and H3s will help break up your content into sub-topics.
Use well-researched and relevant keywords. It’s important that these have high search volume and low competitor scores so ensure you’re carrying out a thorough keyword analysis for every page or post you add to your site.
Boost Your Page Load Speeds
The speed a website loads at can have an adverse effect on its bounce rate. In the days of super-fast broadband and 5G Internet, users expect sites to load within a couple of seconds.
Measure the speed of your website using Google’s Page Speed Insights. This handy tool will give a clear indication of what might be slowing your website down. Typical problems could be too many plugins, a bloated theme, or the use of uncompressed images.
By installing a lazy load plugin, clearing your site’s cache, and compressing your images, you should be able to boost your page load speeds.
Make Your Website Mobile Friendly
Google uses a ‘mobile-first index. This means that sites that are not mobile-friendly just won’t rank. It will also have a negative effect on your domain authority.
To find out whether your site is mobile-friendly, use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. If your site is not suited to mobile devices, you’ll get feedback and suggestions for improvement.
Need Help Increasing Domain Authority?
Increasing domain authority can be a slow process, but it is a worthwhile exercise as it’ll ensure your site is set up for success in the SERPs.
If all of this seems like a lot to take on board, or you need help boosting your score, get in touch today to find out how our services can help.
