We are all looking to improve our SEO because that means we’re getting more organic traffic (and new potential customers!) to our website. But doesn’t it sometimes feel like you aren’t doing enough to improve your SEO? Or maybe you aren’t investing time into it at all. Your SEO effort is reflected in your domain authority.
Not sure what that is? Then you’re in the right place! I’ll answer, “What is domain authority?” and share strategies to improve domain authority scores. You’ll have everything you need to increase the SEO for your website.
What is Domain Authority?
Let’s clear up the jargon! Domain authority is a ranking score developed by an SEO tool called Moz (notice how this is not an official score from Google!) On a scale from 1-100, this score predicts how likely your website is to rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). The higher the score, the more likely you are to appear in search results. You are considered authoritative in your niche. The score is calculated for your website as a whole, not individual pages.
How is Domain Authority Calculated?
Moz uses a variety of factors to determine your domain authority.
- Linking Root Domains: How many domains are linking to your website.
- Number of Total Links: How many times a page on your website is linked on a different website.
- Quality of Links: The domain authority of the websites linking to yours.
These points refer to backlinks, or other websites linking back to a page on your site. As you can see, this is a very important factor in your SEO! Search engines want to see how much other people trust you as an authority. It’s reasonable to think that if they link to your website, they trust the information and value you provide.
Some other factors are:
- Domain Age: How long has your website been published?
- User Experience: Not encountering a 404, quickly finding what they need, fast load times, etc.
- User Engagement: Signals like exploring multiple pages and spending time on your website.
The Bottom Line: If you provide a great user experience and share a lot of value that other people naturally want to link to, you will gradually improve your domain authority.
How Domain Authority Impacts SEO
Domain authority is NOT a ranking factor for search engines. Read that again! Your score does NOT determine your rankings. It is simply a prediction of how high you will rank on SERPs. However, it can influence your SEO strategy because, again, the higher your domain authority, the more likely you are to rank.
I like to use domain authority as a benchmark against competitors. I’ll see how clients stack up against their competitors, which can influence my SEO strategy for their website. Obviously, I want them to outrank their competitors. If my client falls below the average of their competitors, I know some major SEO work needs to be done.
It also encourages genuine SEO practices. Since backlinks are a major factor in your score, you are more incentivized to publish high-quality content that others want to link to. You won’t try scammy SEO practices because they won’t improve domain authority rankings.
Everything you do to improve your SEO compounds over time. As you work to improve domain authority, you create a strong foundation for long-term ranking success. Every little bit helps, even if you don’t see results right away.
Strategies to Improve Your Domain Authority
So, onto the fun stuff! Let’s talk about actionable steps you can do (even right now, today!) to improve your domain authority.
Build High-Quality Backlinks
This is probably the biggest one, and luckily, there are a lot of strategies within this tip for you to choose from! Increasing the number of high-quality backlinks will improve domain authority scores. Here are a few ways you can do that ethically:
- Guest blogging
- Guest podcasting
- Look for unlinked mentions of your brand
- Get featured in directories and listings
- Collaborate with people in your network
- Provide testimonials for products or services you use
- Contribute to forums and communities
- Speaking engagements
- Sponsor events
Consistently Publish Valuable Content
Create valuable content specifically for your target audience. The most common way to do this is through blogging or podcasting with show notes on your website. Write content that answers their questions, solves problems, or shows them how to do something. These posts should be evergreen so people can always come back to you as a resource. You can also use formats like tutorials, videos, case studies, and in-depth reports.
Psst… this will also help you increase your backlinks!
Improve Your Technical SEO
You can do this one even if you aren’t techy! Step one is to use Broken Link Check to find and fix broken links. No one likes to land on a 404 page, so make sure all your links are updated and correct.
Next, see how your website looks on mobile. Most searches now come through mobile instead of desktop, so it’s crucial for your website to be optimized for mobile. Make sure buttons are big enough to click, the text is legible, and it’s easy to navigate.
Finally, use Google PageSpeed Insights to see how quickly your website loads on desktop and mobile. Fix any issues that are slowing down your website.
All of these tips will help you improve user experience, which we now know is a factor in your domain authority score!
Tracking Your Domain Authority
The important piece here is to be patient. Domain authority is a very difficult metric to grow, but once you do, it’s unlikely to fluctuate significantly. You earned that score, and as long as you keep working on ethical SEO strategies, your score will increase over time.
I like to use Ubersuggest to track domain authority rankings for my clients and me. This tool also gives you tips to improve your overall SEO, which will impact your domain authority. It all works together!
Improve Domain Authority Scores with Woods MarCom
Domain authority is an important metric to track related to your SEO. Even though it’s just a prediction of how well you will rank in search results, it can influence your SEO strategy and implementation. My goal is to improve domain authority rankings for my clients because that means they’re getting more organic traffic to their websites.
If you’re ready to outsource your SEO and see a boost in your domain authority, let’s hop on a call! I’d love to chat about what a solid SEO strategy can do for your business growth goals.
