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What is domain authority and how does it impact my search rankings?

Domain Authority was developed by a SaaS (software as a service) company called Moz. Domain Authority is a search engine ranking score which was developed to list websites in a manner to suggest their ranks on the result page according to their given scores. This authority plays a major role in determining whether a website comes in the best or worst category, depending on their search ranking score. Websites compete against each other, and the site with the best score will be displayed higher than the others on your search engine results page (SERP's).

What is Domain Authority?


Scores are displayed in a number of 1 to 100 and the website rank is determined by the domain score and page score.  It is also measured by the average number of monthly searches that lead back to the page or domain. The domain score or page score is very important as it highlights the significance of the website.

The trust score is also part of the scoring system, as it calculates the amount of website trustworthiness by determining the number of trusted resource links leading to that specific website (backlinks).

To find out the popularity of a domain, the domain authority score evaluates the best rounded results by using the domain score, page score, backlinks and trust score for its calculations. 

Websites that have a large number of high quality external links are included in the top priority list of the domain authorities, which include Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and many more. Newer websites start with a domain score of one because of the very few links.

Competition

While domain authority predicts a rank for websites, increasing your domain score should not be your sole focus. Your main aim should include competing with other websites by looking at the SERPs, and keeping track of their ranks. This tracking for different ranked websites is used solely for comparison, and not for determining if a website is good or bad. There is no such thing as a good or bad website but a preferred website by users. Remember that while looking for competitive websites, always make sure to keep track of the ones most relevant to your business.

Improve your domain authority score

A domain authority score is never supposed to be static - it is either increasing or decreasing. This depends on the number of offers your website gets for advertisement, sponsors or affiliate. Don’t lose hope if your domain authority score drops, as there are several ways to increase it:

  • Gain a Domain:  The fastest way to build your domain score is to get a domain made as soon as possible. The longer you have a domain, the sooner your score will increase. Keep track of the expiry date of your domain which can drastically affect your domain authority score.
  • Create Links:  The most common way of increasing a domain score is to get as many backlinks in your website as possible - specifically to/from existing trusted resources within your industry. These external links help you to improve your score, and then indirectly your rank. Make sure to always use internal links too when creating a blog post or website page. You can add links to your existing content too, by linking them to newer pieces of content. Use Google Search Console to see who is trying to link to you.
  • Attractive Content:  You won’t get visitors if your content isn’t attractive or of a high standard. Try to engage your readers and choose specific topics that are entertaining and relevant to them. Your rank will increase if you publish posts on a daily basis and promote them via your owned and earned channels (like social media and email). 
  • Social Media:  It is a good sign of promotion if your posts are being shared on social media sites, or are gaining likes or being commented on. Social media plays a huge role in marketing your website’s content, and is an easy way to do it too. It does not improve your ranking directly, but it can help to advertise and spread awareness of your posts and insights which can be a great benefit in the long run. Make sure that your website has the option to share content on social media, to encourage your readers to share the message. You can share daily posts on your social media page yourself, and keep track of the number of people engaging with your content. This will help you identify which content is most relevant to your audience, and what you should be focusing your efforts on.
  • Time consuming:  Writing and setting up a website is very time consuming and it can be very hectic. The important thing to note is that to increase your domain authority score, you need to be consistent in your efforts as you will slowly see your rankings increase in your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).  Try uploading new and interesting content every day (or weekly) that will help you attract more and more people to your site.

Why does domain authority change?

Why does my domain authority go up and down?

Everyday, new content is uploaded on numerous websites which can be more relatable or higher in quality. If those websites increase their search rankings via their new content, then your website would probably decrease in its score. If a linked website on your page somehow decreases in its domain authority, then it will also affect your site by dropping your search ranking.

If you change your domain or URL then it actually means that you will need to start from ground zero to create a new ranking or score. Because your domain score is based on one specific name, it would affect your entire website if you change it to something else. It is suggested that you build your own domain as soon as you develop your website, so you have the opportunity to begin your efforts to increase domain authority straight away.

In conclusion, domain authority has a high impact on your search ranking and maintaining and increasing your website score is the most important way to rank your site higher for search. This authority plays a major role in determining whether a site falls in a preferred or least preferred category in search engines. If you have never checked your website’s domain authority, then use this post as a guide on how to check your domain authority score. It is never too late to start working on your domain, and to improve your website content. It takes time but it isn’t impossible either. Search engines, and especially Google, have developed the idea of search ranking throughout the years as it was very much flawed, but now everything is more precise and it's easier to know what you need to do to rank higher. Your blog might be just a few steps away from achieving a higher search rank! 

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