Digital Insights
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How to Increase Your Website’s Domain Authority

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Published: March 25, 2015

It’s no secret that Google’s unrelenting flood of search ranking algorithm updates is making SEO harder and harder to implement. Google rolls out approximately 600 of these rule-changing updates each year, which works out to 1.6 per day. To put it simply, the SEO technique that was perfectly acceptable yesterday may very well cost you a ranking penalty and loss of revenue tomorrow.

In the ever-changing world of SEO, domain authority is one of the few constants that have survived the various algorithm updates, and it remains one of the most important factors that Google uses to determine how well your site will rank. The higher your site’s domain authority, the greater the likelihood of your site having high rankings in the search results.

What is Domain Authority?
Domain authority is a term coined by Moz (one of the pioneers in digital analytic software) for the website quality score assigned by their proprietary algorithm software. Approximately 40 different factors are used to establish the domain authority score, which is determined solely by Moz. Domain authority is ranked on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 representing those sites with no rank and 100 representing a very select list of sites, such as Google and Facebook, that are considered to have the highest possible authority rank.

  • While domain authority is based on a number of considerations, these are typically link profile factors, and include the number of inbound links pointing to your site as well as the domain authority of those linking sites.
  • Practically speaking, it’s extremely unlikely that your site’s domain authority will ever hit the 100 mark. This number is the exclusive province of only the largest and most authoritative sites on the Web.
  • Domain authority is not easily influenced. Like many elements of SEO, increasing your domain authority requires a focused effort that takes time to effect positive change.
  • It becomes progressively harder to increase domain authority as you move up the scale. For example, improving your rank from 10 to 20 is a lot easier than moving from 60 to 70.

Improving Your Domain Authority
1. Create and promote relevant high-value content that generates inbound backlinks from authority websites and blogs. An effective content marketing campaign is one of the single most effective methods of improving your site’s domain authority. You need to think in terms of quantity as well as quality. Content marketing requires a lot of content in a variety of formats, such as straight text, text with illustrative graphics, infographics, and videos. Make a commitment to creating fresh articles and blog posts on a regular basis.

2. Be sure to maintain a strong SEO presence, both on-page and off-page. You can’t expect to be rated as an authority if your SEO is not in perfect order. This includes properly optimized title pages, metatags, alt tags, site navigation, relevant backlinks, social signals, and online reviews, in addition to citations and a Google+ Local presence if you’re trying to rank in local search.

3. Build interconnecting internal links across your website whenever possible. Make sure that there is a close connection between the pages, and that your audience could benefit from following the link. Don’t forget to do-follow your internal links.

4. Routinely perform a detailed audit of your link profile to find and remove any spammy inbound links. Schedule a profile cleanup every 30 to 60 days.

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