What is domain authority?
Domain authority (DA) indicates how authoritative a website is, on a scale of 0-100. The more authoritative a website is, the more likely to be ranked high in Google Search Results. DA is a metric that is calculated by third party SEO tools like Moz, SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Majestic. The score is largely based on the quality of links leading to a website.
It’s important to remember that this score is an estimation made by a third-party company and NOT Google itself. The estimation is highly accurate and gives a trustful impression about the quality of the off-page SEO for a website, but the results are not absolute. In this article you will learn the right way to use Domain Authority score to optimize your website.
What is page authority?
Similarly to domain authority, page authority (PA) is an estimate of the authority of a specific page or URL on a website.
Why are authority metrics important for SEO?
There are over one hundred trillion (that’s a 1 followed by 14 zeros) web pages indexed by Google alone.
There’s bound to be more than ten (the number of pages included in the first page of the search results) good answers for each search query.
To determine which pages to rank above all others, search engines rely heavily on the authority of pages and websites.
Search engines have found that the more authoritative (a.k.a. popular) a web page (and the website the page belongs to) is, the more likely it is to provide better answers to its users.
In SEO, this authority is mainly determined by links, called Backlinks. Backlinks are the links from other sites that that lead to your website.
The problem is that search engines are not public about how they calculate authority, so several tools have developed their own metrics for these.
That’s what the Domain Authority and Page Authority metrics you’ll see on this place are.
In general, here’s how you should think about authority:
- A page with a higher PA is more likely to rank higher than a page with a lower PA
- If two pages have similar PA scores, DA determines which one will gain likely higher ranking
Are Domain and Page Authority ranking factors?
Yes, websites with incoming links from high domain authoritative websites rank statistically higher than websites that have backlinks from lower authoritative websites. Both DA and PA play a significant role in what pages the Search Engines will show first on their search results. Of course, you’ll find this is often not the case. Domain and Page Authority are very important metrics for the SERP ranking, but not the only one. So you work on your website’s DA, but not forget to include all the ranking factors in your SEO efforts.
How is Domain Authority scored?
Domain Authority score is calculated on a 100-point logarithmic scale. That means, it’s significantly easier to grow your score from 15 to 25 than it is to grow from 75 to 85.
How do you increase your domain authority?
In SEO, authority is mainly determined by links—more specifically, links from other sites to yours.
You can think of a link as a vote.
When a site links to your site, search engines will view that link as an endorsement of the content on your site.
Off-page optimization, also known as link building, is the process of strategically acquiring links from third parties to your site to increase the authority of your pages.
Generally speaking, more links = more authority.
However, not all links are created equal—here’s the summary:
- Links from unique domains are more valuable (for example, 10 links from 10 different sites are better than 10 links from a single website)
- Links that come from high-authority pages and sites are more valuable (that is, pages and sites that also have a lot of links pointing to them)
- Links that come from sites that are relevant to the theme or topic of your content are more valuable (that is, links from sites about a similar topic are better than links from sites about a completely unrelated topic)
- Links that include relevant keywords are more valuable (for example, a link that contains your target keyword is better than one that just reads “click here”)
- Links that are placed in the higher parts and inside the body of the page are more valuable (vs. links that are lower in the page, in the footer, sidebar, or header)
Link building is considered to be the hardest part about SEO—which is why, if you manage to master it, you’ll have an unfair advantage against the competition.
How do I check my domain authority?
To check the domain authority of a website, choose a web SEO Domain Authority Checker tool of your preference. Simply enter the URL into the input box and click the go button. You’ll then be able to see your score in the DA column.
Most popular Domain Authority Tools
- Moz Authority Checker
- Ahrefs Website Authority Checker
- SEMrush Backlinks Analysis
- Majestic SEO tool
- Site Checker
Free Domain Authority Tools
- Webite seo checker
- seo review tools
- small seo tools
- prepostseo
- the hoth domain authority checker
- sure oak domain authority checker
What is a “good” domain authority score?
There is no rule, since it’s a comparative tool, there isn’t necessarily a “good” or “bad” Domain Authority score. For sure, the higher the DA score, the better possibilities your website has to rank high on Google Search Results. The essential part of this task though, is to understand when your DA score is ok for the given period of time. I recommend that you start by checking a page on your own site vs a page on a competitor’s site. Make a list with your competitor’s DA score and compare it with yours. It does not matter if your DA score is high or lower. It does matter if your DA is higher than your competition’s DA.
Where can I get help to improve the Domain Authority?
1. Improve DA yourself using popular tools
DA score improvement is one of the most difficult and time-demanding SEO tasks. Online SEO tools are always an option for you though. If you are familiar with SEO optimization, you can follow the recomendations of the tools to start SEO improvements and organic search result campaigns. You can get also free tips for the steps you should follow by YouTube videos and also search for best-practices from online marketing blogs.
2. Ask for a Digital Marketing Agency to help you improve the DA of your website
If you do not have enough time, or you prefer to enjoy a professional SEO help, here, in Marketernity we can definitely help you to improve the DA of your website. Our Advanced SEO services go beyond the basics on SEO optimization. We are happy to discuss with you a tailored solution to your needs.
There is certainly a great deal to know about this subject. I like all of the points you have made.