Launching your website doesn’t end with getting a domain name. You need your website to be visible when people search for the content you provide. Thus, domain authority comes into play. But if you don’t know what it is in the first place, you may be doing your digital campaigns wrong.
Domain authority is simply a digital metric of how your website ranks in search engine result pages (SERPs) and how it compares to competitor websites. This metric, created by Moz, is being utilized by websites and companies to ascertain their domain ranking and web analytics.
It should be noted that Google doesn’t implement website SEO ranking. But it goes a long way in identifying how your website performs against rival websites. Thus, you should take your website’s domain authority seriously as you launch digital marketing services and web design for your website.
This article will explore everything you need to know about domain authority and how to increase your domain score.
What’s a Good Domain Authority Score?
One of the accrediting domain rankers, Moz, ranks websites on a 1 – 100 scale. A higher score means your website has the likelihood of better SERPs. And when you see a lower score, your website ranks lower on SERPs.
To ascertain your domain score, Moz or other SEO tools consider the quality of the hyperlinks inside the webpage. For instance, if a webpage contains backlinks from high authority meaning sites such as Statista, Wikipedia, major newspapers, or university journals, there’s a possibility that it will rank higher on SERPs.
Using the 1-100 ranking score:
- Scores between 0 – 40 are considered poor.
- Domain scores between 40 – 49 are classified as average.
- Scores between 50 – 60 are rated as good.
- Scores above 60 are excellent.
There’s a caveat to this. It is not so bad for a beginner business with an average score. It only means you have to do more optimizations on your web pages. However, if your brand website has existed for several years but with a poor or average score, it is a terrible sign. You need to identify how to improve your domain score.
How to Check Domain Authority Score?
With everything we’ve discussed so far, you’d want to find out how to check your domain authority score. You can check the domain ranking of any website or web page, not just your own.
You can check your SEO domain authority through Moz’s Link Explorer or the MozBar – a free SEO tool.
You need to input the URL on the website authority checker, and you will receive the result immediately. Moz reveals other important metrics such as the spam score, ranking keywords, and linking root domains.
Domain Authority Vs Page Authority
When it comes to ranking authority, two things are involved: domain and page authority. Most people often make the mistake of classifying them as the same thing, but they aren’t.
While domain authority shows the ranking of your entire domain or subdomains, page ranking deals with how each web page ranks compared to others. They are also ranked the same way (0-100), and the higher the score, the better the ranking.
We are going to address their differences below.
- Scope
Domain authority takes into account the entire website score. This comprises the entire domain and subdomains of the site under review.
For page authority, the ranking is based on the individual web pages and not the whole site.
- Purpose
Domain authority check lets you know how your entire website architecture ranks on SERPs and how it compares to others (since you can actually run a search on their domains).
On the other hand, page authority checkers allow you to know how a particular page rank on SERPs. With the information from web analytics, you can improve specific pages and rank better during a search.
- Data
The data used in the domain rating checker include the number of links, quality of links, brand search volume, domain age, keyword use, content quality, content optimization, and social media mentions.
The metrics for the page authority checker include user interface and experience, targeted keywords, external links, and other factors.
Domain Authority Checker
Different domain authority checkers are available that can reveal results on your website domain. We address them below:
- Moz
Moz is one of the best SEO domain authority checkers that provides basic and advanced features to boost the website ranking. Some of its features include:
- Top ranking keywords. Moz provides a comprehensive list of all the relevant keywords relevant to that domain.
- Competitive analysis. Moz also reveals what keywords your domain is ranking on and what your rivals are competing for.
- Scores. It reveals the domain authority, spam score, and linking root domains score.
When you subscribe to the premium packages, you get more value.
- Website SEO Checker
Website SEO Checker is another domain authority checker that can provide comprehensive domain scores. Some of the tools on the platform include:
- Backlink analysis
- Social sharing center
- Page authority
- Alexa ranking center
- Web analytics
- Difficulty in words checker
- Domain authority vs URL rating
- Domain age
You can compare the analysis you get from the platform with a competitor’s website and increase domain authority.
- SiteChecker Pro
SiteChecker Pro is yet another ranking authority tool to check your domain authority. Some of its unique features include:
- SEO tracking
- Backlink checker
- Domain authority
- Website health
It’s a website that provides a comprehensive package to analyze your website and that of your competition.
- SEO Review Tools
SEO Review Tools is also another domain authority checker that you can use to analyze your website domain score and look at other metrics, including:
- Mobile compatibility checker
- Backlinks domain authority
- Website accessibility checker
- Wikipedia keywords tool
- Bing keywords tool
- Keywords difficulty checker
How to Increase My Domain Authority
This is the part you’ve been waiting for: how to improve your domain score. If you check your domain authority and discover that it is poor or average, how do you increase it?
- Add quality backlinks. Ensure that every backlink posted on your website is from high-authority sites relevant to what the site offers. You need to prioritize such backlinks before anyone else.
- Create quality content. The domain, subdomain, and web pages must be filled with high-quality content. This content should be run through a plagiarism checker to ascertain its authenticity before launching them on the domain.
- Update older content. Take your time to peruse older content such as blogs on your website and update them as new information arises. Your readers will be keen to read new insights on an old topic, making your web page and domain rank higher.
- Identify your competitors. Take your time to identify all of your competitors and study how they build their websites and position their backlinks.
- Spread your content. After uploading on your website blog, spread the content via newsletter and social media platforms.
Constantly practicing these tips will raise the score on your domain rating checker.
How Is Domain Authority Calculated?
A domain authority check is usually calculated by assessing several factors. These factors include the total number of links, quality of links, linking root domains, and quality of content. After analyzing these factors in a couple of seconds, the tool will reveal the domain authority score.
You can use the information on the results page to re-evaluate the current content on your website and how it compares to others.
How to Build Domain Authority
We’ve discussed how to build domain authority in the previous section. But this is just a recap. Follow these simple tips:
- Add backlinks to high-authority websites
- Publish high-quality content
- Optimize your website structure for mobile compatibility.
- Improve your internal links
- Check your competition’s domain authority.
Conclusion
Domain authority is a vital aspect of being visible online today. To rank higher and thrive beyond competition, you must regularly practice those tips.