Domain authority can be confusing to grasp at first. This numerical score doesn’t define your site’s security, nor does it actively improve your ranking on Google, leaving people asking why it matters at all. The quick answer is that domain authority, though it can’t directly impact your search results ranking, is tied to it. A higher domain authority score usually leads to a better ranking. Don’t worry, we are going to break it down to make this concept easier to understand. Here’s what you should know about the role that domain authority plays and why improving yours is valuable to your overall Search Engine Optimization strategy.
Domain authority (DA) refers to a numerical score that predicts how well your website or domain performs when compared to similar sites. A domain’s score, which will be a number between 0-100, is going to be determined by analyzing multiple SEO factors, such as how many quality backlinks your site has, how many poor-quality sites link to you, the keywords that your site uses, and more.
Let’s be clear: this score it isn’t a Google metric. This ranking system was developed by Moz.com, a software development company. You can use free or paid versions of the domain authority checker on Moz.com or SEMrush.com. The resulting score is meant to give you an idea of how well your website will rank in Search Engine Results.
Did you look at your DA score and panic a little bit? While we know a lower score can be disheartening, it isn’t the end of the world. For starters, when your site has only just launched, it will start out with a score of 0. It takes time to improve that number. Another thing to remember is that the score can be changed. It may drop overnight if, for example, one of your competitors adds multiple new backlinks or webpages, increasing their ranking and score. It can also increase as you improve your own website. The reality is that your DA score changes and fluctuates over time and should be used to gauge if you need to look for ways to improve your site.
A clarification for those wondering about the Ahrefs domain authority ranking. While these two ranking sites are similar, Ahrefs and Moz measure your domain authority in different ways. And the difference matters. As Ahrefs explains on their free Website Authority checker page, their ranking measures the website authority based on the quality and quantity of external backlinks to a website. In contrast, Moz takes backlinks and a multitude of others factors as well.
Ahrefs is best for when you are trying to judge the authority of your backlink profile while Moz is best for when you want to get an idea of how all onsite, offsite, and technical SEO factors add up.
We already clarified that your site’s DA score doesn’t directly impact its rank on a SERP. That said, your site’s rank is still tied to your score. The many factors that the checker considers are SEO ranking factors, like keywords, internal links, and external links. The same factors that impact your search engine results rank are used to determine your DA score. It’s correlation, not causation: the higher your score, the more likely it is your site will rank well in the search results.
To improve your domain authority score, you need to look at your overall SEO strategy. Here are a few ways to improve your position in both ranking situations:
Have you found backlinks from spammy websites tied to your website? This can hurt your domain authority and your search results ranking. When you find bad backlinks, disavow them with Google so they don’t continue to drag you down.
Take time to assess the SEO keywords that you are using in your webpage content, blogs, and other content. Are they really helping your site? It helps to be critical about your keyword strategy to identify if you need to adjust the keywords you’re using to improve your rank.
If you need to adjust your keywords, then it is also a great time to look at the state of your site content. Every webpage should serve a purpose and provide something of value to anyone visiting your website. It is worthwhile to adjust, trim, or add to page content as needed, so long as it improves the clarity and quality.
Having a larger number of quality backlinks can help make your website easier to find and increase its authority. This is because backlinks are a part of your offsite SEO which also factors into the ranking and authority of your site. When you produce quality content, it can increase the chances to earn good backlinks. You can also achieve this through social media links, guest posts, and more.
According to OBERLO, up to 51.52% of all web traffic came through mobile phones as of May 2023. Optimizing your website to be mobile-friendly will benefit your ranking and DA score because it will increase your mobile traffic in the long run.
Taking the time to adjust these and other SEO factors on your website can go a long way in helping to improve how visible it is to your ideal audience.
SEO best practices change frequently so it is advisable to work with a professional team to make sure your website stays in good standing with a good DA score and good search results rank. When you opt into our organic SEO services you can relax knowing Varga Marketing, Inc. will keep your website optimized and ranking well.
