By Shanon Roberts, on 29 April 2020
There are many different factors that have a hand in getting your website to the number one position in Google’s SERP (search engine results page). But how can you know if you’re on the right track to reaching that goal?
Domain authority is an important metric that will help you determine the success of your SEO Strategy, as well as determine how close you are to reaching that coveted spot on Google.
In this article, we’ll explain what domain authority is, how to check domain authority, and how to increase it.
What Is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority (DA) is a metric used to predict how well a website will rank on Google’s SERP. It was invented by Moz and is now an industry standard for all SEO marketers.
Keep in mind that DA is not a metric from Google and it doesn't determine you domain’s ranking. It is independent from Google, and it only meant to be used to help predict how well your website will rank and its authority.
DA is measured from 1 - 100, with 100 indicating a high domain authority. Brand new websites will always start with a 1, but the score will often improve with time and a proper SEO strategy.
Similar to DA, page authority (PA) is the metric used for individual pages within a domain. Put simply, DA covers your entire website, while PA covers a single page within your website.
What Is a Good Domain Authority?
According to Moz, there is no exact number for a domain authority to be considered “good.” They recommend that as long as your DA is higher than your competition, you have a good score.
Generally speaking, most experts agree that a domain authority between 40-60 is considered a good score.
How Is Domain Authority Determined?
Moz says they use several different factors to determine domain authority, but the exact science of their algorithm is unknown. They use machine learning to determine the score. Likely, the score is based on a mix of important SEO factors, including backlink profile, website traffic, on-page SEO and technical SEO, mobile compatibility, domain age, and social media mentions.
How To Check Domain Authority
Moz offers several different tools to check your domain authority. Link Explorer and MozBar are two free tools that allow you to check your DA as well as other SEO metrics. DA is also included in Moz’s paid tools as well.
Ahrefs also offers a free tool to check your DA, and you don’t have to give them your email.
There are several other websites online that allow you to check DA, but these two resources are the most reliable.
How To Increase Domain Authority
Have you just checked your DA and now you’re wondering how to you can increase it? Well, don’t panic. Keep in mind that DA takes a lot of time, investment, and strategizing. Don’t be discouraged by a low domain authority because it is possible to improve it.
Before trying to improve your score, it is important to understand how increasing domain authority works. DA increases logarithmically.
This means, according to Moz, that “it's significantly easier to grow your score from 20 to 30 than it is to grow from 70 to 80.”
So if you already have a relatively high DA, it will take more time and more work to increase your score than a domain who has a lower number. Also, no matter what tactic you use, your DA will not change overnight.
So how exactly can you improve your domain authority? Well, there is no clear cut answer and focusing on your domain authority shouldn’t be your number one priority. Instead, focus on improving your SEO strategy. This is because many of the tactics that you use to improve your SEO ranking will also play a huge role in improving your domain authority.
Remember, DA is a number that attempts to predict the likelihood of you ranking in the top position in the search engines. SEO is the tool that will ensure you end up in the top position.
In general, the actions that you will take to improve your DA will also improve your Google rankings. So continue to focus on link building, technical SEO, content, and improving your overall SEO strategy, and your DA will improve along with your actual rankings.
