In this article we are going to discuss a subtopic of SEO. If you don’t already have a good understanding of SEO go back and read our intro guide to what SEO is and who needs it.
By the end of this article we hope you will have a good understanding of what Domain Authority is, how to find your DA score and how to improve your DA.
A high Domain Authority is important for anyone looking to be a trusted source of information online. No matter your industry, Domain Authority should always be a top priority.
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What is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority is a score given to your website that indicates how relevant your website is to your website’s topic.
A high Domain Authority has a direct influence on your search rankings as it is an indication of trust from Google.
Websites that are used in Google’s featured snippets generally are on the upper end of the DA spectrum.
Domain Authority is calculated through machine learning. Through analyzing data indexed by Google, the domain authority is determined based on over a dozen factors.
How to find your Domain Authority?
There are online tools that will give you an estimate on your Domain Authority. Some tools we use are Moz’s Link Explorer and Semrush.
You are also able to check the Domain Authority of other websites. This will give you a good indication of how your competitors are performing as well as indicating good websites to help inspire your digital marketing strategy.
Domain Authority is measured on a scale of 0 – 100. 0 being a low Domain Authority and 100 being highly relevant and trust worthy.
How can a website’s Domain Authority be improved?
There are a lot of ways to improve your website’s Domain Authority but there are 2 that are most effective.
Website Content
The first of these is to provide a lot of fresh and relevant website content. Give expert advice and explanations on what your website does. If you are a solicitor, have content on areas of law and important relevant information. This content can be in the form of images, text, video or audio.
Backlinks
The second way of improving your Domain Authority is backlinking to other websites that have a high Domain Authority. If a website that has a high DA score has you as a reference or source of information on your website, this indicates you are a trustworthy website.
When you are starting off, backlinks can be very difficult to get. One way that may work is writing content for other sites and in exchange asking if they would include a link in the articles.
Some of the best websites to get backlinks from are .govs, .edu and wikipedia. Government websites, educational institutions and wikipedia are all websites that Google deems to be a credible source of information.
What are factors bringing down your domain authority
We have discussed how to improve your Domain Authority. Now we are going to discuss factors that may reduce your Domain Authority.
Irrelevant links
Irrelevant links are links to your website on other websites that have no relevance to your website. This is a form of SEO called black hat SEO and is considered cheating the system.
If you are a solicitor who has most of its backlinks coming from irrelevant websites such as a body building blog, this indicates to google that you have just paid someone to find you cheap backlinks.
Broken links
If your website uses references to information from other websites that no longer exist, this indicates your information is outdated and no longer relevant.
If this happens to any links on your website, we recommend replacing that link with another link that is relevant to that topic.
Website Domain Authority takes time
If you have taken all the above into account but you are still struggling to see improvements, don’t worry.
When it comes to organic search, there is no quick fix. It can take weeks for the Google crawlers to index your website and update any changes and improvements.
If you remain steady and continually improve your website, you will eventually begin to notice results.
Conclusion
If you have been struggling with getting found online it may very well have something to do with your low Domain Authority.
If you want help improving your website’s Domain Authority, drop us an inquiry below and a member of our team will be in touch to discuss your website.
Government grants for websites
If the cost of implementing is the reason for your business not having a digital marketing strategy, you are in luck. The Local Enterprise Office is offering a grant for small businesses looking to increase their online reach.
If you think the Trading Online Voucher is for you, let us know and we will get you started on the first steps.
