5 steps to improving the domain authority of your website

Guide notes from Travel PR

Your website’s DA (domain authority) score is important because it indicates how authoritative your site is. Scored on a scale of 1 to 100, DA allows you to get an idea of how high your website will rank in SERPs (search engine results pages). So, it might be no surprise that the advice you have heard about improving SEO (search engine optimisation) is very similar to the advice you’ll read below; simply think of DA as your SEO score.

How is DA calculated?

The DA metric, created by MOZ, is primarily determined by how many backlinks (from authoritative sites) are pointing to your website. Additionally, if sites with higher authority are linking to your site, that will ripple down to all the other links that are connected to it. Moz uses a logarithmic scale to calculate a website’s DA, which means that it’s much easier to increase your DA from 10-20 than to increase it from 60-70. The score also considers the age of the site, with newer sites ranking lower. Only well-respected, extremely popular websites such as the BBC, Wikipedia, Twitter and Facebook come close to a DA of 100, so it’s important not to lose sight of what might be a “good” DA for your website – this could be anything from 20-50.

Simple steps you can take to improve your website’s DA:

Publish clear and concise content, that both solves a problem and provides a valuable user experience

Although terms, measurements and algorithms continue to change, well-written, high-quality content is still the foundation of a solid SERP ranking. By answering a question or resolving a problem, your content is more likely to be shared. This is sometimes referred to as seeded content, with the idea that it is targeted to relevant influencers in your industry and then organically scattered across the internet, providing backlinks to your site.

Website Optimisation

If you aren’t an SEO guru, there are tools and plugins that can help. Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that can help make sure your meta descriptions and titles are engaging and concise. Be sure to do some keyword research and think about popular search terms in your industry. Use a tool like Moz Pro Crawl to scan your website for broken links and fix any problems that might be showing up, such as links that lead to 404 Error pages – these will lower your DA score. Also, make sure your site speed is not too slow and that your website is mobile-friendly.

Embedded links to other authoritative sites that offer more information on the topic

Some believe that linking out to outside pages is a lost opportunity when you could be using internal links and keeping readers on your page. Internal links are certainly a good idea; however, there is evidence to suggest (*) that not only does linking to other pages not harm your ranking, but it can also make your site appear more trustworthy, could bring in new traffic and encourages positive participation, with algorithmic rewards.

Guest posts and interviews

Guest blogging is an effective way to reach new audiences. By publishing articles on other popular websites, you’ll get your content in front of new readers and win more exposure. Increasing your DA is not just about the backlinks, but also about increasing your online reputation and even your social media following.

Look for companies that conduct interviews and let them know what expertise you have to offer. These interviews could provide valuable backlinks to your site and improve your reputation.

Seek support from a PR company

It’s difficult to get people talking about you if they don’t know who you are. You can spend time networking and emailing to your heart’s content, but it goes without saying that a PR company can provide invaluable connections to journalists and influencers to help spread the word about your business. Good PR can build traffic that is more credible than paid advertising.

This is not a comprehensive guide, but hopefully, there are a few ideas here that, if you haven’t tried, might help improve your ranking. If you remember just one thing from these notes, it’s that you need to gain authoritative links that lead to high-quality content.

Contact us to assist with your PR and help support your link-building strategies.

(*) source

By Mandy Haakenson