Domain authority (DA) is one of those SEO concepts that tends to be for ‘advanced users’ only. It really shouldn’t be. DA is actually a helpful metric that can be quite useful for improving search engine result page (SERP) performance. The thing that makes it unique is that we do not have to guess how it works. Its creator has put all the details out there for anyone to see.
Should website owners seek to increase their DA? Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that a higher DA should ultimately result in better SERP performance. But not in the sense that it should not be pursued at the expense of fundamental SEO practices. This is because DA is a third-party metric. It is not one that we can say for sure that Google, Bing, etc. use.
DA In a Nutshell
Domain authority was developed by Moz as a way to measure the strength of a particular website – including all its pages and content – compared to others of the same type or industry. Its goal is to ensure that your site competes extremely well within your industry so that, when Google has to choose between your site and a competitor’s, yours carries more weight.
We know that Google has a similar metric in PageRank. The two main differences between DA and PageRank are that:
- DA ranks entire domains while PageRank focuses on individual pages
- Moz tells us how DA works while Google hasn’t divulged many details on PageRank.
Before getting into how DA can be increased, there is one more thing you need to know. DA is based on a score from 0 to 100. The higher your score, the more difficult it is to improve it.
How to Increase Your Site’s DA Using SEO
Raising your site’s DA doesn’t require jumping through any hoops. Many of the strategies that make Google happy also apply to DA. These include:
Strengthening Your Link Profile
Of the forty metrics DA takes into consideration, none is more important than link profile. The best thing you can do is improve the volume and quality of backlinks. The idea is to have as many backlinks as possible AND for those links to come from high authority sites with unique domains.
Strengthen Your Content
You will find that strengthening your content is an excellent way to help strengthen your link profile. Other sites will link to your content if it is relevant, useful, and well-written. If you target SEO relevant keywords to your business with your content strategy, you will be able to increase your site’s visibility and reach. We say it all the time: content is still king!
Audit Your Site
Just as strong links can boost your DA, bad links can harm it. You need regular audits to locate bad and spammy links so that they can be removed. You should also remove any dead internal links on your site. Failing to do so tells Moz you are not putting in the effort to keep your site up to date. If you need someone trusted to regularly audit your site, we offer that as a service under our SEO services.
Optimize Site Structure
Moz actually measures a website’s structure as one of its metrics. The easier it is for their spider to crawl your site and make sense of it, the better your DA will be. So optimize site structure to both please Moz and make a better experience for your visitors.
Do not let anyone tell you that DA isn’t important. It may not be a metric used directly by Google, but it is a metric that can help strengthen your site against the competition. That should lead to better SERP performance.
If you need help with DA, do not hesitate to contact us at Webtek. Increasing DA is among the many SEO services we provide in SLC, Austin, and beyond.
