If you’re wondering what is domain authority, why it’s actually important fo your website, and how to identify a good authority and check it properly, you got to the right article!
PeakyAds team has gathered all the most essential info in one article for you to understand all the main details of domain authority notion!
What Is Domain Authority?
So, what’s domain authority meaning? Basically, domain authority identifies how important the site is in the specific market or industry. Technically, it is a type of metric that tells whether or not a website has a probability of ranking high in Google’s search results page.
This metric was developed by Moz. Nowadays, it is applied by businesses all over the world since it influences their online strategies a lot.
But even being a well-recognized and respected benchmark in the industry, Google does not pay attention to it when making a rank of websites. Now that you have the answer to “what does domain authority mean”, we’ll explain why it is actually so crucial below!
Why Is Domain Authority Important?
Domain Authority is important for a number of reasons, especially when it comes to SEO and digital marketing.
Here are the key reasons why to check website domain authority:
1. Competitor comparison.
DA provides an easy way to gauge how your website stacks up against competitors. With domain authority scores, you will be able to tell where your site stands in your industry, which can help guide your SEO strategy.
2. Judging success of link building.
Since domain authority is impacted by the quality and quantity of inbound links, a rise in your DA score can be a good sign that your link-building efforts are paying off. This will help you to evaluate if your strategies for gaining new links are enhancing the site’s authority.
3. Planning your SEO strategy.
The higher your DA score, the higer is the chance you will reach further in SERPs for increased organic traffic. Knowing your site’s DA will help focus your key SEO efforts on something like content creation or acquiring links to improve the overall performance of your site.
4. Tracking website well-being.
Fluctuations in your DA score can reflect changes in your website’s health, especially concerning its link profile. A noticeable decline might signal lost links or penalties that require immediate attention.
5. Insights for content marketing.
Websites with a higher DA are considered more credible and trustworthy. This reputation can encourage other sites to link to your content, enhancing your content marketing efforts. Understanding your DA can help you leverage this authority to secure guest posting opportunities or collaborations.
6. Investment and partnership.
A good DA will help attract investors or partners to a business by recognizing the worth of a solid online presence. It may also be used as an influencing factor when offering ad space or sponsorships.
What is a Good Domain Authority?
So, what is a good domain authority? You first have to understand what the DA really is, basically it is the score can range from 1 to 100. Obviously, the larger the number, the greater the authority of that domain.
This metric was provided by Moz itself. This platform has prepared all tools necessary for websites’ performance analysis, which, by the way, can be very useful, along with the Keyword Explorer tool to check DA in particular.
Here’s the overall structure you can follow concerning how DA ranks:
- Scores of 40 to 50 are average.
- The range from 50 up to 60 is the considered a good DA score.
- Scores above 60 are excellent, those are high domain authority websites
DA scoring should also be comparative, research the average score of websites in the industry, as well as page ranking for desired keywords, etc.
Domain Authority vs. Page Authority
We’ve made a concise explanation of Page Authority (PA_ and Domain Authority (DA) for you to understand their distinctive features and differences.
Page Authority (PA)
There are several main peculiarities of Page Authority that you need to understand.
- Focus: The very purpose of the PA is for that it predicts the potential of ranking for a particular webpage.
- How it’s measured: Using data from Moz’s web index-including links counts and MozRank, plus all kinds of other stuff. The authentic measure of PAs stands on a machine learning constructed model to predict how would a page perform in search results.
- When to use: Apply PA to compare individual page strengths: either among pages within the same site or other sites. Effective for analyzing how well your content or specific SEO strategies perform.
Domain Authority (DA)
Now let’s see the aim and measurements of domain authority.
- Focus: DA measures the entire site or domain’s potency in ranking terms.
- How it’s measured: Hence, that DA score brings together and summarizes into one score different aspects of whether this site will surely be linked to by many other domains, or has many backlinks in total. A machine learning model predicts how likely the entire site is to rank in search results based on its link profile.
- When to use: In general, it is made for comparing the ranking potential of one site with another. It presents a broader picture of what the overall site can do at the SEO level concerning benchmarking and tracking over time.
Key Differences
There are three main points that make PA and DA different, let’s see how they actually differ below.
- Aim.
PA is more towards individual pages. DA, on the contrary, is concerned for regular domains or subdomains as well. - Application.
PA touches on excelling a few pages, learning about their performance. DA keeps insight into the higher-level strategic decision concerning the entire competitive prowess of a whole site. - Comparison usage.
Both of these metrics are best used for comparison purposes, instead of being treated as standalone measures of success. Most value is placed in comparing your pages or domain against competitors.
How Important is Domain Authority for SEO?
Not many site owners understand why DA is actually crucial for SEO. PeakyAds CEO, Vasilii Gamov, explains “SEO is a process that requires constant observation and updating. If not monitores regularly, the rankings of your website may go really low. Keeping a close watch on DA will ensure high-ranking positions in SERPs and help gain much more traffic”.
Obviously, top ranking continuously requires SEO practices. And DA is the thing that will help to show where one stands. Take into account that competitors are also working for the same result, so only DA metric would not be enough; using keywords and maintaining all other SEO requirements is a must.
SEO is still highly relevant today, with Google continuously improving its algorithms. Knowing what comprises good DA will help in analyzing the performance of your site and, therefore, improve on traffic and relevance.
Besides, measuring DA is a necessity competitor analysis.The comparison of your site with others leaders in the market will tell you how much work is needed to be on top.
How can I check my Domain Authority? Two Domain Authority checkers
Ther are two easy ways to check your domain authority, both of them are free domain authority checkers and really easy to use!
1. Moz’s link explorer tool
Just add your website URL, and it will give you your domain authority score, the total number of backlinks, how many of those links come from unique root domains, and the keywords you rank for.
2. Ahrefs
The most formidable competitor to Moz is Ahrefs, but instead of calling their metric «domain authority,» they call it «domain rating.» Although the name is different, the concept is basically the same.
Moreover, Semrush provides an Authority Score based on the general quality and SEO performance of a domain or webpage.
Keep in mind: these tools use different algorithms to generate their scores. They also operate using different crawlers, so there might be variations in reported backlinks and keyword rankings.
How To Increase My Domain Authority?
There are a few key optimization areas you need to focus on to make your DA higher. These elements will be highlighted below with ways through which you can optimize them!
4 ways to increase your domain authority
1. Check your website’s responsiveness
From mobile phones to tablets, your website should work well on all devices. A responsive design means a good user experience, no matter what device is being used. Google considers responsiveness as one of its ranking factors, which means if your site adjusts well to different screen sizes, it will positively affect your SEO and therefore help boost your DA score.
2. Optimize page load speed
Fast loading times are crucial to getting a good Domain Authority. You need to check your website’s speed from time to time.
You can use various tools to do so, like PageSpeed Insights. Your pages should load in 0.5 to 2 seconds, preferably. If your website is taking more than this, that means it’s time to start some optimization to improve on speed.
3. Create backlinks
Backlinks play a vital role in increasing your website’s Domain Authority. It’s important to acquire these links naturally through mentions or partnerships with relevant companies in your industry. A strong backlink profile is a major factor in determining your DA score.
To gain quality backlinks, consider the following strategies:
- Seek opportunities from top referral sources.
- Use outbound links to create partnerships.
- Apply Google Search Console Reports to find sources of backlinks.
- Observe your competition.
- Generate valuable content.
4. Guest Posts
Guest blogging is an effective means to exchange backlinks with other reputed businesses in your field. This will help you get in contact with brands with good Domain Authority, adding value to your website too.
Make these links for mutual benefit: it means you will not only win some good backlinks but also the experience of your partners. Try to include guest posts in your monthly content plan; just one or two guest posts every month might bring huge changes to your website authority after some time.
Now you have the real answer to “how to increase my domain authority” — see, it’s quite easy!
Conclusion
Now you can be called an expert in domain authority, knowing why it’s actually important for website owners as well as how to calculate it and improve your score.
Reach the maximum potential of your marketing efforts with PeakyAds team and get highest DA easily!
