Increasing your Domain Authority should come naturally if your content and SEO strategies are well developed and executed. However, as you develop your strategies, you will inevitably come across this metric, and your natural SEO instinct is going to wonder how do I increase my Domain Authority.
Looking to increase your domain authority? Its not as difficult as you might think.
Follow the easy-to-action tips in this article to give your site the advantage through a higher Domain Authority.
According to MOZ, inventors of the Domain Authority Metric:
Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score that predicts how likely a website is to rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). It ranges from one to 100, with higher authority scores corresponding to a greater ability to rank.
Domain Authority is calculated by evaluating multiple factors, including linking root domains and the number of total links, into a single DA score. This score can then be used when comparing websites or tracking the ranking strength of a website over time. Domain Authority is not a metric used by Google in determining search rankings and has no effect on the SERPs.
In other words, Domain Authority is a metric developed by MOZ to predict your sites ranking ability.
Domain Authority is scored on a 100-point logarithmic scale. This means its a lot easier to boost lower scores (20 to 30, for example) than it is to raise higher scores (e.g. 70 to 80).
The best way to use Domain Authority is as a comparative metric to measure against your most direct competitors. Use it to compare your brand to competitors in the same industry, vertical, aiming for the same keywords, topics, etc. This way youll have a real business-driven way to use Domain Authority instead of just as a vanity metric where you just want to get to 100 for the sake of it.
There is a complex algorithm that Moz uses to determine your DA on a daily basis. We will break it down for you and give you the essentials that you need to know.
Moz takes 40 different signals into account to calculate a websites Domain Authority. These include factors such as:
To find your Domain Authority all you have to do is go to Mozs Free Domain SEO Analysis Tool and enter your domain. However, there are other tools out there with similar metrics that are also helpful. These include:
Remember domain authority is a metric by Moz that tries to approximate the trust and authority factor that major search engines use. It fails immensely, as it does not take into account the quality of the links that point to a site.
Sounds obvious to some but increasing your domain authority is something thats always going to deliver benefits to you.
Before going on to the how. Lets spend a couple of minutes answering the why. Should you focus on improving your Domain Authority? Why? Why not?
By now, it should be clear to you that DA is not a metric used by Google to rank your website. In fact, Google has more than 200 different ranking factors and Domain Authority does not directly impact the rankings on Google SERP.
However, Mozs Domain Authority and Googles algorithms do share some common factors. Thats why websites with higher Domain Authority are usually found on the top of the search results. This has given Domain Authority a level of trust as a metric and is also considered a good standard to measure a domains authority across the world.
The point is that a higher DA should not be your end goal. Of course, its better to have a high DA than to have a low DA. The goal, however, should be to use Domain Authority as an indicator to compare against your competition.
Read how an e-commerce provider increased their domain authority.
In order to understand fluctuations (positive and negative) in your domain authority, you must first understand that the metrics that affect your DA depend on numerous factors. So, even if you work to improve your sites SEO, your Domain Authority score might not reflect that.
Here are some of the factors that can negatively affect your Domain Authority:
The only remaining question at this point is how can you increase your domain authority? Lets get right into it.
Building your Domain Authority should be a consequence of a well-executed tactical content and SEO strategy. Regardless, there are tactics you can use to try to give your Domain Rating a Boost.
The following tips have been divided into On-Page SEO, Off-Page SEO, and Technical SEO ways to boost your Domain Authority by following some basic and simple SEO principles.
To make your link profile stronger, you need to:
A comprehensive and personalized backlinking strategy is the best way to build a strong link profile. With a well-built strategy, you can gain more links naturally by offering great content, and get high-authority, high-quality, and high-relevancy links by reaching out to sites and bloggers that could agree to a backlink.
Your on-page SEO is all about optimizing your pages and their content. The most important factors to keep in mind and check to maintain a healthy on-page SEO include:
The most important factor, as stated by Google in one of its SEO guides, is to keep your content fresh and up to date.
The key here is to get your technical SEO right from the start. The items to check at this level have more to do with web development details that need to be set up correctly. Once thats done, all you need is regular maintenance as your sites grow and a system in place to add pages, links, images, etc. in an SEO-friendly way.
Remember that not having your technical SEO in order can have a huge impact on your Domain Authority and rankings.
Some of the most critical SEO settings you need to check to include:
There are other very important technical aspects to consider if you want to continue to boost your Domain Authority. Lets go over the most important ones.
Google ranks websites on a mobile-first index policy. This means mobile is now more important than desktop regarding rankings. This is due in part to the fact that mobile searches are now more than desktop (about 60%), and most users start their search on mobile and then continue on Desktop.
Adding AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) support to your website is a great idea. Plus, make sure you check Googles Mobile-Friendly Test and run the test for your domain. You will get a report with recommendations to help you make your site more mobile-friendly.
Having a website that loads fast is a great way to boost your Domain Authority Score and Google rankings. On top of that, this will also improve your user experience better, which hopefully translates into more sales, leads, signups, etc.
Its always best to work alongside your developer when fixing speed or other technical issues. Some of the aspects to consider include:
Google has time and again stated that social signals are not part of their ranking algorithm. However, real-life experience shows a clear correlation between pages that rank high on Google and have abundant social signals such as likes, shares, and tweets.
Having a comprehensive Social Media strategy that focuses on giving value to your audience will help you increase your social signals, thus boosting your Domain Authority and Google rankings.
Increasing your Domain Authority Score takes time, it will not happen overnight. Once you perform an action on your website, such as an update or something, Moz, just like Google, takes time to crawl your site.
The best approach is to build an SEO and Content strategy that focuses on giving value to your target audience at every possible touchpoint, with relevance and intent. Make sure it has a solid technical foundation, and you will no only boost your Domain Authority and your Google rankings, but it will also boost your business.
