Google only displays results from highly authoritative websites. As such, you may struggle to rank if you do not have a high domain authority score. Larry Page, one of Google’s founders, introduced the idea of ranking websites based on their authority. Google uses domain authority to measure your website’s importance. Today, we discuss how to increase your domain authority score.
What is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority (DA) is a score between 0 and 100 that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines. The higher the number, the better. However, it is not the ranking score Google uses to rank your site. Moz developed the DA metric to try and simulate Google’s ranking algorithm (PageRank). Moz considers all factors that affect ranking and provides a score to domains. You can only use this score for comparison purposes. As such, Google does not consider your DA score when ranking your website.
Moz calculates domain authority by considering 40 ranking factors, including;
- Your incoming links
- Quality and relevance of the links
- Quality of your website’s content
- Social signals
- Your SEO performance
The domain authority does not account for Google penalties. As such, your domain authority can be high while the website is under a penalty. Google’s PageRank considers hundreds of factors when ranking websites, while Moz considers only 40. However, having a high DA score tells you you can rank high on Google. To determine your domain authority score, go to the Moz domain analysis SEO tool and type your domain. The tool will give you the results.
How to Increase Your Domain Authority Score
Here are the best practices to increase your domain authority score.
1. Work On Your Off-Page SEO
Internal and external links are significant contributors to a high domain authority score. Websites with a strong and clean link profile have a higher DA than others. A website with an excellent link profile has backlinks from reputable and authoritative sites; the links are related to their content, and the links are from unique domains. Making your link profile stronger requires creating quality content that naturally attracts links from other websites. You can also contact other webmasters to let them know you exist.
2. Optimise Your On-Page SEO
Improving your on-page SEO in Adelaide will help you rank high on Google and increase your DA score on Moz. On-page SEO does not directly affect your DA score. However, doing it wrong will affect your Google rank, and this will reflect in your DA score. Experts recommend using the On-page Grader tool provided by Moz to optimise your on-page SEO factors. Some of the factors that Moz considers when checking your on-page SEO score include meta title, description, internal links, keyword optimisation, and content quality. The tool will also indicate the areas that require immediate attention.
3. Increase Your Social Signals
Social signals are another factor Moz considers when deciding your DA score. Although Google has yet to confirm whether it includes social signals in its algorithm, most websites that rank high on its search results page have a high social share. As such, ensure you are active on social media and share interesting posts on these platforms. You can add a social media button on your website so Google can understand the signal.
4. Improve Your Page Speed
Page is a known factor Google considers when ranking websites. Increasing your page speed will improve your rankings, increase your domain authority, and make your user experience better. Many technical elements affect your page speeds, and it can be challenging to optimise them if you are not a developer. However, check the following to improve your website’s loading speed.
- Remove unnecessary plugins
- Optimise your images
- Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) if you have big CSS files
- Upgrade your WordPress and plugins to the latest version
5. Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly
A mobile-friendly website is a mandatory thing to have since most searches occur on mobile devices. Most people begin searching on their smart devices and continue on their desktops. Mobile-friendliness is also a significant ranking factor, and Google is working on mobile-first indexing. As such, not having a mobile-friendly website will affect your SEO and domain authority score. Please go to Google’s Mobile-friendly Test and check whether your website is mobile-friendly. Google will give you a detailed report and recommend ways to optimise your website for mobile.
Conclusion
Increasing your domain authority score is not something you can do overnight. Your efforts will take time since Moz crawlers will need time to read and evaluate your website. However, ensure you follow these tips and be patient.