If you’re reading this right now, chances are you got here from clicking on a link from another webpage.
Unless you’re a business owner or you work in search engine optimization (SEO), your daily clicks might go unnoticed, since your only concern is moving from one webpage to another. Still, hyperlinks (or simply links) are crucial for online competitors, because they allow search engines to determine how well a website should rank, and how much traffic it will receive.
According to a Moz survey, page-level link features take up over 19 percent of the search ranking factors. That means link source quality is extremely important for ranking your site higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). That’s where Domain Authority makes an entrance. Read on to learn more about it.
What is Domain Authority (DA) and why is it important?
Domain Authority is a ranking score developed by Moz, which examines a website’s overall “strength” to rank higher on search engines like Google. It takes multiple factors into account, and one of them is the number of valuable backlinks it has. A website’s DA score ranges from one to 100 — the higher the score, the higher a website will be in the SERPs.
Let’s use Google as an example. It is a reputable search engine with strong visibility over the web, owing to the numerous high-quality sites that link back to it. Therefore, it boasts a dominant DA score. For the same reason, new or lesser-known websites have lower scores, since no high-authority websites have created outbound links directed to them.
Having a high DA score is also a powerful marketing tool. It means your site is influential within your niche. The more reliable and well-known your source is, the better the chances of other equally noteworthy sites creating external links pointing to your page.
What is the difference between page authority and domain authority?
Page Authority (PA) is similar to Domain Authority because the same technique — a 100-point logarithmic scale — can determine both scores, and notable outbound links to a page also boosts its PA. However, Page Authority focuses on predicting the ranking of a particular page, instead of a whole domain or subdomain.
What is a DA checker, anyway?
If you’re curious about how authoritative certain pages are, a DA checker gives you the info you need. It will analyze the data of multiple domains at once, so you can compare the influence of different sites more easily, including your competitors.
By using a checker, you can see high-ranking sites worth linking to or even partnering with to grow your business. DA checkers are well-known among SEO experts, as they work with link building techniques. Link building is one of the hardest parts of on-site optimization due to its critical importance on ranking websites.
How can I increase my site’s DA?
Since Google measures search engine rankings through a variety of factors, you could improve them all in order to rank better. This way, you’ll expand not only your number of backlinks, but also your brand’s awareness and traffic. A high DA can benefit your online business in a major way.
To earn external links from trusted sources, there is a number of steps you can follow to increase your page authority. Remember: search engines are hungry for quality! Owning an SEO-friendly website is a rule of thumb if you want to outrank competitors. Be sure to optimize your entire on-site structure — web crawlers will respond to and index your content a lot better if you do.
Promote your content, too. Social media plays an important role in SEO, since it greatly helps with engagement. The more a piece of content is shared, liked, and commented, the higher its worth becomes. Additionally, guest posting on renowned websites is a great way to earn outbound links from recognized industry sources. Build relationships with related (and quality) websites to boost your online reputation.
A website’s DA is a simple, yet essential representation of its influence. Make a good impression by escalating your numbers and monitoring them with a trusted DA checker.