Understanding domain authority and its importance

Everyone who works hard to create a website wants to make it findable in search engines. You’ve probably heard of search engine optimization (SEO) as a crucial way to make that happen, but what about domain authority (DA)?

While DA is not a direct search engine ranking factor, improving it will likely improve your overall SEO outlook. It can be an accurate way to predict how your search engine will rank. It should also help you make better choices when considering domain name availability.

This blog article will explain everything you need to know about DA, why it matters for websites, and how to improve yours.

DA meaning and why it matters

DA is a metric used to determine how well your site performs in search engine results pages (SERPS) compared to other sites in your niche or other competitors. Moz first developed the score, but other companies, such as Ahrefs and Semrush, now offer similar domain rank checker tools. 

Although how a DA score is calculated and shares similarities to SEO metric, it’s not an actual ranking factor used by Google or other search engines. However, it can still be a useful metric for gauging your website's health, tracking its ranking strength over time, and informing future strategies related to marketing, branding, and more. 

And even though it doesn’t directly impact your SERPS ranking, sites with a higher DA score do often rank higher in search engines. As a result, following best practices to improve DA will likely elevate the trustworthiness and authoritativeness of your site.

How DA is calculated

Calculate your site’s DA by heading to Moz, ahrefs, or Semrush and entering your domain into the tool. Each site has its own specific metrics for measuring DA, but we’ll focus on Moz in this piece.

Some key factors for calculating DA include linking root domains and the total number of high-quality backlinks leading to your website. A quality backlink is a link from a page with high authority, such as respected online publications, Wikipedia, or governmental agencies. 

A domain rating check tool will evaluate these factors and score your site between one to 100. The precise factors Moz uses to evaluate a site are unknown, as it uses a proprietary algorithm to determine your DA. These algorithms use machine learning to analyze various data points to predict how often Google uses a domain in search results.

Interpreting your authority score

A higher DA score generally correlates with a higher likelihood of ranking on SERPs, but it’s not the only thing you should consider when interpreting your score. Even if you don’t have an ultra-high score, you may still have a better domain score than similar sites in your niche. It isn’t helpful to determine whether a DA ranking is “good” or “bad” while interpreting it in isolation. It needs to be analyzed in comparison to DA scores of similar sites.

So, when choosing a target DA score, examine direct competitors’ scores and aim to achieve a higher one. Key factors for Moz and what they mean:

• Link profile – quality and quantity of inbound links.
• Root domains – the number of unique backlinks.
• MozRank – Moz's version of Google's PageRank, measuring link popularity.
• MozTrust – measures the trustworthiness of the linking sites.

How to improve DA

Here are a few practical steps you can take to help increase your DA score.

The right domain name

Don’t underestimate the power of the right domain name and how it can enhance the visibility and credibility of your site. You need:

• Relevant keywords –using keywords related to your niche in the domain name can signal your site’s content to search engines and make it more memorable to users.
• Effective branding –your domain is an opportunity to cement your brand from the get-go, letting customers know who you are and what you’re about.
• The right TLD – when properly communicating your brand and niche, the difference between the classic .com or a more quirky .coffee domain can be immense.

The right domain will contribute to starting your online journey right while potentially helping improve your site’s DA.

Quality link building

It’s better to have a few backlinks from relevant, reputable sites than thousands from low-quality sites outside your niche. Take the time to analyze your backlinks. Are they similar to the backlinks of your competitors? Are they dofollow links that allow search engines to crawl properly and pass on SEO value to your site? 

If you find many low-quality backlinks, you can request that the websites remove the links to your site or ask Google to disavow them (though this is considered a last resort).

Content relevance and consistency 

Don’t underestimate the power of quality content on DA. Well-written, educational content relevant to your niche will establish your site as an authoritative source of information. This will in turn lead to more backlinks to your site.

Site speed and mobile optimization

User experience is vital for SEO. Creating a website that loads fast and works across a variety of devices will positively impact how users interact with your site and how search engines rank it. Just a few seconds can mean the difference between gaining a new customer or losing them for good.

A real-world example of these tips making a positive impact is SEO company Backlinko. By focusing on creating quality content and following SEO best practices, it garnered a wealth of organic backlinks. This dramatically improved both its SERP ranking and authority score. 

Actions that can hurt your domain score 

If a good DA is important to you, the following must be avoided:

• Paying for backlinks.
• Participating in link exchange or link-building networks.
• Creating multiple websites to link to your main site
• Leaving irrelevant or spammy comments on other websites with links to your site.
• Mass submitting your website to low-quality directories.
• Overusing keywords on your website.

The power and limitations of DA 

DA can be a great tool in your SEO strategy arsenal. It can help identify how competitive a site is in search engine rankings and identify similar high-DA sites for potential backlink opportunities while increasing trustworthiness and brand reputation.

Even though it can positively impact your site, you need to remember Google does not use DA for ranking purposes. So it must be viewed as part of a broader, holistic SEO strategy rather than a standalone goal. If you use it alongside other SEO metrics and tools for a comprehensive analysis, DA will benefit your site in the long term. 

Start aiming toward a great DA score today with the perfect domain name.