While Google keeps their algorithms under wraps, tools like Moz’s Link Explorer help to give businesses a fairly accurate picture of how they stack up in search results with Domain Authority.
So… What Exactly is Domain Authority?
Developed by Moz, Domain Authority is a composite score on a scale of 1-100. It estimates how credible Google is likely to find a website based on their 200+ factors, i.e. the likelihood of ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
While Moz isn’t affiliated with Google, the company’s Domain Authority scores are well-trusted in the industry amongst SEO experts as the company has done extensive data analysis and testing. Full disclosure: We use it at Social Light!
Moz makes it clear that Domain Authority is not a ranking factor for Google and has no impact on SERPs. Having said that, Domain Authority represents an educated guess at how likely it is that Google will include a domain in its results.
Why Does Your Domain Authority Score Matter?
Facebook has a score of 96, Kate Spade has a score of 68, and Social Light rolls in at 32.
Most small businesses come in somewhere between 10 and 20, but it could be lower if they haven’t put much effort into search engine optimization.
This is important to know because small businesses are unlikely to outperform the giants of industry.
To showcase this, we ran an analysis on the keyword “consulting services.”
As you can see in the image below, the top three results have a domain authority of 79-87. That means if your website has a domain authority of 15, it’s going to be tough for you to get on the first page of Google’s results.
What To Do If You Have A Low Domain Authority?
If you have a score in the 20s, all is not lost! It just means you’re going to have to be extremely mindful about the keywords that you choose to go after (or jump to the head of the list using Google ads).
Being selective about keywords is not a bad thing. After all, what does “consulting services” really mean? It includes everything from security, operations, and even hospitality. General terms like this are tough to rank for because not only is there a lot of competition, there could be a lot of different intentions behind the keyword.
A better approach is to use what we call long-tail keywords. These are longer phrases that get into the specifics of what people are looking for. An example would be “cybersecurity consultant for small business.”
Sure there will be fewer searches, but it also means that the people who are searching those longer terms are the ones that actually need your services.
There will also be less competition, which gives you a shot of ranking well.
Any score above 60 is considered excellent, and tactics can be used to boost this score and improve your SEO.
Having a responsive site that loads quickly helps boost your Domain Authority. Backlinks from external sites have a major impact (beware of spammy links!)
Additionally, how a particular page on your website scores with Page Authority is helpful to know.
How Do You Increase Your Domain Authority?
Content is (Still) King
Quality content, that is. When your content is great, you are more likely to generate more, and higher quality, backlinks. For example, if your blog post is on a popular news or trade website, Google is going to follow that link.
Backlinks matter. In fact if you check the images above you’ll see that just under the domain authority score is a list of the number of links to a page as well as to the website as a whole. As a rule, the more links you have, the higher your score.
Making sure that your content targets exactly who you want to reach with well-researched keywords can help ensure the relevancy of your content and help boost your rank for certain keywords. Domain Authority.
Useful content is going to encourage your more social media activity and shares, which drives traffic to your site. Another important ranking component!
Newsletters, email marketing, advertising and PR can also help bring your audience in.
Beating Your Competition
An old proverb says, I don’t need to outrun the bear, I just need to outrun you. The same can be said for search performance.
We don’t need to beat the big guys. We need to go toe-to-toe with our direct competitors and come out ahead.
The key is finding out how well your competitors perform, and that is the real beauty of SEO projects. You can find out:
- How do your competitors compare with what you offer?
- What keywords are they ranking for?
- Are they getting more high quality links than you are?
Find out where their strengths lie and find out where you can fill the gaps they have.
On the flip side, you might also find out you have gaps they are taking advantage of. Consider if you can add or update content to increase the relevancy of your website and come out ahead.
At the end of the day, good SEO is a long game, and algorithms continue to evolve. Getting familiar with Domain Authority is a great step in the right direction.
Need help improving your SEO or wrapping your head around Domain Authority? Let’s Talk.