Domain authority (DA) is a big deal for the credibility of your website and where you show up in search engines. If your site is more visible in search results, it’s likely to attract more visitors, leading to a more successful business. But if we’re being honest, boosting your DA for your website can feel like throwing darts at a wall, hoping that something hits.
So rather than speculate, let’s walk through the steps that are effective in improving domain authority.
What Even is Domain Authority?
Domain authority is not an official metric used by Google to rank websites in search results, but rather a metric SEO professionals use to estimate the strength of your site. Imagine it like a scorecard indicating how your site will likely perform in search results based on aspects like backlinks or how authoritative your content is.
DA score varies between 1 and 100. A new website typically starts up at the bottom, whereas established websites with loads of backlinks and great content score much higher.
Now, this isn’t what you call a stress test, where you need to reach 100 — that’s not really the objective here. What you desire is to outshine your industry rivals. So, if your competitor site’s DA is 45, then you would want to get a higher DA than that instead of striving for perfection.
How to Achieve Quality Backlinks Without Breaking A Sweat
Now, the biggest thing about DA is basically backlinks. But not all backlinks are created the same. Using websites that are shady or irrelevant can harm your rankings and that is the last thing you want. What you actually want is a link from a reputable, relevant site.
For this, you can go ahead with some professional link-building services like LBHQ. When you make quality links with LBHQ, you improve your website’s visibility and ultimately, your rankings. It’s like having someone do the heavy lifting for you, and that’s always nice.
But if you’re more of the do-it-yourself type, it’s incredibly important to make content that people actually want to share. Like, really in-depth guides, well-researched articles and even reports from professional organizations. When your content is really helpful, other sites will be more inclined to link to it.
A good method to gain backlinks is guest posting on other reputable sites within your niche. Think of it as your own podcast guest spot — you can share your knowledge with their audience, and in return, you’ll get a link to your website.
Resolve Technical Hurdles That Restrict You
Your site might have great content, but if it is extremely slow or full of technical issues, your DA will suffer. Search engines heavily favor sites that are fast, mobile-friendly and simple to navigate. So if your site has broken links, slow loading times, or isn’t optimized for mobile devices, you have to change that ASAP.
Your first step should be to run a technical SEO audit. Tools such as Google Search Console come in handy to identify issues such as broken links, crawl errors, slow pages, etc. Resolving these issues improves usability and also tells the search engines that you have a well-maintained site.
Also, don’t forget to improve security. Be sure that your site is using HTTPS, as unsecured sites are flagged as dangerous, and it’s not doing your DA any favors. And while you’re there, get your URL structure tidied up. Keep your URLs simple and descriptive, so that search engines and users can see what a page is about at a glance. Mastering these technical details provides you with a solid base to build on.
Ensure On-Page SEO So Your Content Gets Seen
On-page SEO is basically everything you do on your site itself to help it rank better. And without doing this step, even the greatest content could be neglected by search engines.
Begin with your title tags and meta descriptions. They are the first things people see when they view search results, so they should be clear, catchy and contain relevant keywords. Organize the content with header tags (H1, H2, H3) so that readers and search engines can follow.
Where you place keywords also matters, but don’t go overboard. You also don’t want your content to sound robotic. Simply incorporate keywords naturally in your title, headings and the body of your content. You also need to include internal links (links to other pages on your website) and external links (links to other authoritative websites) in order to build credibility.
Another important thing is the use of images. Ultimately, large unoptimized image files will lead to slow load times on your site, which will detrimentally impact your overall rankings. Optimize your images and write descriptive alt text to tell search engines what your images are about. Such minor adjustments can make a huge difference.
Design Your Site so It’s Easy and Fun to Use
UX is a big thing for DA. If your site is slow or difficult to navigate, people will leave. And when that happens, search engines take note, and may penalize your site.
One of the biggest culprits is page speed. Nobody likes waiting for a site to load — and neither does Google. Certain tools can show you what’s causing your site to slow down. Compress images, use a content delivery network (CDN), and eliminate code you don’t really need to speed things up.
Your site navigation should be easy as well. Visitors shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get what they need. A clear menu, breadcrumbs (those little links that tell you where you are on the site) and a search bar can help a lot. And for real, ensure your site functions properly on mobile. Many folks are scrolling on their phones, and a site that does not render correctly on mobile is an instant mood killer.
Good UX will make your visitors hang around longer, which makes your site look better to search engines.
Track Your Progress So You Know What Is Working
Enhancing your DA is time-consuming, and you must also be diligent about tracking your progress. Otherwise, how else will you figure out if what you’re doing is really working?
Several SEO tools can reveal your DA score and give you insight as to what is actually getting better. Also, Google Analytics is another powerful tool to track traffic and see if you are improving your rankings. If you’re not getting the results you want, adjust your approach. Perhaps you need to build more backlinks or perhaps your content needs to be more relevant.
Since SEO is a continuous process, you need to monitor your performance to keep you on track.
Your domain authority isn’t something you can inflate by simply throwing random SEO hacks at it and crossing your fingers for something to stick. This is all about having a structured plan including resolving all technical aspects along with content issues. And remember to monitor your progress and modify your strategy as appropriate.
It takes time and a little effort, but your DA will increase, and so will your ranking. Keep doing what works, be consistent, and see your domain authority soar.