Domain authority plays an important role in evaluating the overall quality of your website and its influence within your industry. Authoritative sites are viewed as reliable sources of information in their niche by both search engines and site visitors.
That said, achieving high domain authority paves the way to thought leadership and search engine dominance.
In this article, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about this metric: from what it is to, of course, how to increase your site’s authority yourself.
Domain Authority (DA) is a metric developed by Moz to predict how well a website will rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). DA scores range from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater ranking potential. Essentially, it’s a measure of your domain’s strength, or “authority.”
Using domain authority as an indicator of how you’ll rank compared to your competitors is helpful, but keep in mind that Google doesn’t use it to determine your website’s position in search results.
Don’t confuse domain authority with page authority, as there is a slight difference between the two.
- Domain Authority measures the ranking strength of your entire domain (and subdomains).
- Page Authority assesses the ranking ability of individual pages.
A good domain authority score depends on your industry and competition. In general:
- A DA between 40 and 50 is considered average.
- A DA between 50 and 60 is good.
- A DA above 60 is excellent.
Higher scores indicate greater ranking potential, especially in competitive niches.
To give you an idea, popular websites with many visitors and backlinks, such as Google, Apple, or Microsoft, have a high domain authority (between 90 and 100).
On the other hand, if your website is new, its DA will be low (possibly between 10 and 20).
In general, it’s easier to improve your DA when it’s at low levels. As it increases, it becomes more difficult and requires time and patience.
Instead of setting a specific numerical goal for your domain authority, look at your direct competitors. Average DA varies by industry, so it doesn’t make sense to set a single number as a benchmark for “good.”
Remember that Google doesn’t use domain authority as a ranking signal, but improving your DA will help you indirectly by strengthening key signals like backlinks and high-quality content.
Now, here are 6 ways to increase domain authority.
Backlinks from authoritative sites are one of the most important factors in improving your domain authority. Having an authoritative domain linking to a key page on your site is basically validation that your content is valuable. The more root domains link to your site, the better search engines will understand your relevance.
High-quality backlinks
Relevance is key. The better a search engine understands not only your content but also its purpose, the higher it will rank your results. Backlinks can also generate referral traffic. It’s not an overnight change, but having links from high-traffic, high-authority sites is always a positive.
Priority strategies for getting backlinks
Create high-quality content:
The most organic way (no pun intended) to do this is to create high-quality, link-worthy content. This is the same advice Google gives marketers because it’s the best way to build authority without looking spammy. It’s not just limited to blog posts: high-quality infographics are also a great way to build a backlink profile.
Relationship Building / Guest Posting:
You can also establish relationships with websites or editors with whom you can collaborate to write guest posts. This will not only allow you to generate links to your own site but will also expand your reach in other spaces. Additionally, guest posts can improve your EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness) quality rating.
Identify broken backlinks:
Identifying broken backlinks on authoritative sites is an excellent opportunity to suggest replacing a broken link with your updated content. This strategy not only helps you gain backlinks, but also strengthens relationships by providing value rather than just asking for a link.
2. Optimize old content to increase traffic
Publishing new content every week is important, but updating your existing content to meet current standards can be a faster way to achieve a return on investment (ROI). While new content can also be effective, articles that are already published and ranked on the first page will respond more quickly to optimizations.
Raising the quality of all your content so it matches user intent , provides a better experience, and is well-optimized for SEO will improve your site’s overall structure and performance. As you increase organic traffic with these optimizations and new content, your domain authority will also benefit.
Priority strategies for content optimization
Keyword Research:
Review the keyword research for the article you want to optimize. Make sure it’s still relevant to your ideal client. Look at the search results (SERPs) and analyze what’s working for your competitors. Identify what you can incorporate to compete and offer more value.
Content quality:
Sometimes, a blog’s format can become stale. Think about what your audience needs and make sure your content is high-quality and relevant to their interests.
Title Optimization:
Title tags and headings ( <h1> tags ) remain one of the best ways to align your content with user intent. Making small adjustments to these elements can significantly improve your content’s performance.
Internal linking :
Internal linking is one of the most powerful SEO tools for domain authority. However, avoid over-linking. Be intentional with the links you include and the anchor text you use to generate clicks. Content well-aligned with its anchor text improves the user experience and strengthens your site’s authority.
3. Improve page loading speed
Loading speed significantly impacts user experience. If a site takes too long to perform an action, the user will become frustrated, abandon the page, and look elsewhere. Now that performance is a ranking factor, marketers must focus on improving the path to conversion. Page loading speed should be the first tactic implemented, as it represents a key factor for conversion.
Loading speed can be a difficult challenge to solve, especially if your site has a complex structure. Although it may be complicated, Google and other search engines will still prioritize it, as their goal remains the same: to provide the best answer as quickly as possible.
4. Audit your site and remove technical barriers
Having a clean website is another key layer of user experience optimization and increasing domain authority. If a user encounters nonexistent pages or redirect loops and has difficulty navigating the site, they will lose trust in the brand.
Technical SEO barriers should be monitored weekly, as new issues may arise as you delve deeper into your site analysis.
Priority technical barriers to be resolved
Optimize images:
Reducing file dimensions and size through compression can significantly speed up your website and increase domain authority. Since images are typically larger files compared to HTML and CSS files, optimizing them can reduce loading times in the short term.
Reduce HTTP requests:
When you have many scripts and resource dependencies, you’re likely to generate a lot of HTTP requests. Reducing or prioritizing these resources is critical, as this is often the first hurdle a search engine must overcome to analyze the page. Everything else will have to wait until the resources are downloaded.
Use browser caching:
Some marketers may want to manage the cache of certain files or file types. Static site resources that rarely change can have a longer cache lifespan; this will eliminate the need for the browser to download these files every time the user visits the site. These static elements can be stored in the browser.
Remove render-blocking JavaScript:
Render-blocking resources can be one of the most difficult aspects to optimize. Unnecessary code or overloaded scripts that take a long time to load will block critical page content. If you have a large website with multiple contributors, you likely have excess code, and untangling it can be complicated and tricky.
Limit redirects:
Redirects can lengthen load times from a fraction of a second to several seconds, even when necessary. Excessive use of redirects can cause performance and domain authority issues, especially on larger sites with multiple authors. Reducing unnecessary redirects requires establishing clear redirect criteria and regular reviews. Whenever possible, marketers should focus on minimizing redirects.
Minify CSS and JavaScript files:
Minification involves removing non-essential elements from your code, such as comments, whitespace, and unnecessary semicolons. This results in smaller CSS and JavaScript files that load faster, consume less bandwidth, and improve performance.
Use efficient external services:
Ensure that third-party services critical to your website’s operation are efficient. Focus on hosting, DNS, caching, and security.
5. Optimize your website structure and internal links
Internal links are your best allies. Too many links are your enemy. Providing clear and purposeful links to complementary content not only makes navigation easier for the user, but also opens more doors for search engines to explore your site’s content. Internal links are a powerful way to communicate which pages should have greater authority within your site, but they’re not the only strategy you should implement.
Using global site elements, such as the main navigation, footer, and sidebars, is another great way to increase domain authority and the number of internal links to key pages on your site. Many marketers are using these elements to direct authority to pages with higher conversion rates.
Priority tactics to improve site structure
Clear and logical hierarchy:
You know your business well, but that doesn’t mean everyone who visits your site understands it the same way. Take a step back and evaluate how you’re communicating your company through the main navigation and the paths from the homepage. Use specific and clear terms about what the user will find on the next page or in the next stage of the conversion funnel.
Internal links:
Internal links again? Yes, and rightly so. Internal links are a powerful tool in your strategy. They’ll improve the visibility of a page that’s more than three clicks deep in your site structure. Find opportunities to link and elevate these pages to increase user engagement and search engine ranking.
Optimized URLs:
URLs are not only used by marketers and SEOs, but are also increasingly consulted by users to gain more context about a page before visiting it. Having SEO-optimized URLs is a critical element of achieving a clear and effective site architecture.
Sitemap:
Keeping your sitemap up-to-date is the fastest way to inform a search engine about a newly published or edited page. Most website management systems generate them automatically. If you’re working with a site that doesn’t have this capability natively, investigate your options for creating one; it’s essential. Make sure your sitemap is properly submitted and recognized in Google Search Console.
Remove duplicate content:
Every page on your site has a purpose: to move users from one point to the next within the conversion funnel. Duplicate messages can cause confusion or undermine brand trust.
Duplicate content can be a problem not only from the user’s perspective, but also from that of search engines. Remove all redundant content from your site to keep each page focused and effective.
6. Monitor and respond to mentions of your brand
Monitoring and engaging with your brand mentions is an essential part of increasing domain authority. By paying attention to where your company is mentioned online, you can identify opportunities to engage with your audience and build relationships.
Use tools like SEMrush, Mention, or Google Alerts to track mentions of your company name, products, or key employees. Once you find them, spend time engaging with them. Respond to comments, thank users for their praise, and address any issues or criticisms.
Being proactive in managing your online reputation demonstrates your commitment to communicating with your audience, which can improve your company’s authority and visibility.
