There are billions of websites all over the internet, but have you ever wondered how Google ranks these websites on top of its search results?
Whenever a query is asked by a user on Google, it does not list every site on the top.
Here, the domain authority is one of the significant factors that foretell how properly a particular blog or website will rank in search engine result pages (SERPS). It is developed by Moz, a popular SEO site where companies can control their SEO via numerous kinds of tools. The DA is calculated by evaluating various elements (like Google’s search algorithms) and is used for SERP rating power.
In today’s post, we will discuss Domain Authority (DA), how you can check your website (or any other website’s) DA, and how to improve your DA scores for SEO. So, let’s get started. Here’s an overview.
What is a good domain score?
DA scores range from one to a hundred, with one the lowest score and one hundred the top. It means the higher the DA, the extra the potential of the website to rank in SERPs. A logarithmic scale is used to score the domain authority. Increasing a DA rating from 10 to 20 is far much less difficult than raising a rating from 50 to 60. Very loosely speaking, a DA score above 50 is widely accepted to be a good domain score.
In simpler words, a higher DA suggests a better chance of ranking in search engine outcomes at the same time. A lower DA score can tell low ranking and possibly lack of traffic.
In place of taking into account domain authority as a measure of your search engine optimization attempt, consider it as a metric against the different competitor’s websites. So, if you compare your website’s DA score with that of your competitor’s web page, the site with the better DA rating is probably ranking higher in search engine results. Thus, the website with a better DA rating will have a good domain authority score.
Companies providing SEO services, such as SEO by Sentius Digital, choose sites with higher DA when they need to build links for a client. Getting links from sites with high DA can also boost the authority and ranking of another website.
Well, you will also find a term called ‘Page Authority’ or PA. Both are more or less the same thing, with a basic difference. While DA measures the ranking potential of the entire domain in the search results, PA measures the ranking potential of that particular page. In the case of a domain, the PA can measure only the root URL or a particular post URL. It gives an idea of the strength of that particular page, rather than the entire domain. This is the difference between DA & PA.
Can you check your domain authority score?
Checking domain authority scores is easier than ever before. There are several tools available that can help you to check the domain authority of your website. Check them below.
Moz Domain Authority Checker:
The Domain Authority Checker was originally developed by Moz. It still remains as one of the easiest and authentic DA checkers. Later on, the tool was renamed, and it is currently known as the Moz Link Explorer.
Using the Moz Link Explorer is easy. All you need to do is visit the link above and submit the URL of the website you want to perform a DA check on. It will ask you to create a Free Moz account with your email id. After you sign up and log in to your account, you will be able to access the Link Explorer.
In all, the Moz domain authority checker is a working DA checker, but let me make you aware, its free version only allows you to check the authority of 10 websites maximum per month.
SmallSEOTools:
The SmallSEOTools DA checker is a free tool that you can use in case you need to test and compare more websites. The best part about this tool is that you possibly can test DA score of 10 websites at one go. It saves time and creates reports in a couple of minutes. Try them out.
Well, other than DA checker, SmallSEOTools hosts hundreds of Free SEO Tools, like Plagiarism Checker, Article Rewriter, Word Counter, Image editors, Keyword Tools, Backlink Tools, Website Management and Tracking Tools, Proxy and Meta Tag Tools, and more. You can get a whole bunch of free tools for your blogging needs from there.
SEOReviewTools:
SEOReviewTools come handy as a good website authority checker. Using it, you can test both your domain authority and page authority. You can also take a look at the age of your domain.
Similar to SmallSEOTools, SEOReviewTools features 41 real-time SEO tools that you can use for your projects.
Prepostseo:
Prepostseo is a bulk domain authority score checker for professionals. It allows you to check the website authority of 500 URLs at one go. It is a unique and more reliable tool for bulk-search and sorting the results according to your needs. Additionally, after completing your work, you can download the report as well.
Prepostseo also has a Chrome Extension that comes handy while you are browsing other websites.
How can you improve your domain authority?
You can improve your domain authority by following a bunch of essential tips while doing earlier maintenance to improve the score, some of them are discussed below.
Choose the right Brand name:
From the start, it is essential to pick a short brandable name that must be relevant to your website. In the long term, it should help create a brand for you. For example, our blog name HiTricks, it is a short seven-word domain name, which revolves around tech and tricks. You get the idea, right?
Write High-quality content:
You should create high-quality material so that it delivers ‘value’ to your audience. This will not only leave an impression to your users, it will prompt them to share your article more. Other blogs might also link your article if they think your content as a good resource. The better resources you provide, the more chances of improving your domain authority score.
But what makes high-quality web content? Here are some of the good qualities you must look out for:
- Unique And Relevant: A high-quality content is unique and contains relevant details that would be useful to a reader.
- Error-Free: A great content is free of misspellings and grammatical errors. It is well-structured and professionally written.
- Engaging And Interesting: High-quality content attracts more readers and potential customers through the interest it creates. People are more likely going to share, comment, and generally engage with the post if they find the information useful and valuable.
Optimize your content:
Optimizing the On-page SEO of your content is an extremely important factor that contributes towards your DA score. SEO not only has a more significant impact on your domain authority but is also for Google search engine ranking. Correct Grammatical Errors with Grammarly or Microsoft Editor. Use any SEO Tools like Ahrefs, RankMath, Yoast, or TheSEOFramework. Making sure of your page optimization such as title tags, meta description, and content also play a role in improving domain authority of a website.
In SEO, title tags are like a book title wherein readers can get a general idea of what to expect when they click the site. Aside from the users themselves, the title tag also gives search engines an idea of what your page or website is all about. SEO crawlers or robots can prioritize your web page and its content whenever a user types in a keyword that is found on the title tag.
On the other hand, the meta description pertains to a short paragraph that describes the web page’s content. It appears under your web page’s URL or link in the search results called a snippet. It works as a summary for your page.
Eliminate the toxic or bad links:
You should take a look at your website once in a while, and if you find any link that can harm your site instead of improving it, immediately take appropriate action against it and remove it. Toxic links may include links to non-existent sites, expired domains, 404 pages, redirected URLs, and pages with thin contents.
Improve your Page speed:
No one has time to wait for a website to load. Everyone wants to read the main content within seconds of visiting your website. So, improving your page speed will greatly improve the user experience. I have written a Pagespeed Optimization Checklist, where you will find some actionable steps to load your website under 3 seconds.
Social factors:
Promoting your content through social media plays a crucial role in improving your domain authority quickly. Google loves social signals a lot and uses it to rank websites in their search results. Some Twitter retweets, Facebook shares, Pinterest pins, and Quora/Reddit traffic is going to boost your Domain Authority a lot.
Conclusion:
Well, just checking the DA score of your website won’t help you to maintain a good DA score on the site. Numerous tools are online available for free of cost that can help you improve your website’s score, but it all depends on great efforts and the market you’re competing in.
So, work hard to set up a blog and maintain it, and over time, you will keep earning Domain Authority.
That’s all about DA. I guess I was able to solve all your doubts revolving around it. If you still have any further queries, just drop a comment below, I will be happy to help. Keep visiting HiTricks. Don’t forget to join our Telegram Channel for getting the latest tech updates.
Nirmal Sarkar is a Biotechnologist from the city of Joy, Kolkata. He is the founder of this blog and covers a wide range of topics from Gadgets to Software to Latest Offers. You can get in touch with him via nirmal@hitricks.com
Would love to improve the DA score for my website! Want to help local artist get some exposure in my area and need to work harder on the website!