Domain Authority
What is domain authority?
Domain authority is a search engine ranking metric that measures the quality and reliability of a website, as well as its ability to rank in search engines. It was originally developed by Moz, a SEO software suite offering tools aimed to help plan organic strategies and improve search engine visibility.
Domain authority is considered to be one of the key metrics to take into account when planning a website’s SEO. It’s calculated based on a 100-point scale that evaluates over 40 factors such as backlinks, content and performance.
The four pillars of domain authority are:
The age of a domain. The older the domain the higher domain authority it may have.
The amount and quality of content published on a domain. Make sure your content is well-researched, as original as possible and answers the intent of users on your site.
The link profile of a domain. The number and quality of backlinks pointing to it from other websites. The link profile of your site is also important for your website’s overall SEO.
The apparent or perceived trustworthiness of the site. This is often determined by citations from other sites or backlinks to it.
Each of these core pillars plays an important role in determining a website's domain authority score.
It’s important to keep in mind that domain authority is a comparative metric, not an absolute score. This means the domain authority of a site should be compared against those of other websites in the same industry and with the same content, rather than considered a rating on its own. Furthermore, it’s worth remembering that these pillars are defined by Moz, and not Google itself.
When it comes to domain authority and SEO, it’s believed that the higher your domain authority score, the higher chance you have of ranking in SERPs. However, domain authority makes up just one of the many influencing factors on your site’s ability to rank. A high domain authority on its own is not enough to help a site rank well, or at all.
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Differences between domain authority and page authority
Domain authority and page authority are two different metrics used to measure the health and trustworthiness of a site. While domain authority measures the overall strength of a domain and website published under it, page authority evaluates the quality of individual pages within a domain.
Both were developed by Moz, and their score from 1-100 is said to impact how well a website (based on its domain authority) or specific web page (based on its page authority) can rank.
What is a good domain authority score?
A good domain authority score is generally a score that falls within the range of 40 to 60 points. This is among the middle range of the domain authority score, which ranges from 0 to 100 - with 0 being the lowest and 100 being the highest possible score.
However, how a good domain authority score is defined will vary depending on the industry and the other websites in the same niche. For a new, small website a score of 40 or above is generally considered to be good, while 50 and above would be considered excellent. For an older, more established or larger website this score would be considered to be low.
One must also be aware that websites which deal with YMYL (Your Money or Your Life content) are held to higher domain authority scores in order to prove their trustworthiness and credibility.
Learn more: Domain hosting vs web hosting
Why is domain authority important?
Domain authority is important because it provides an objective metric on how a website stacks up against competitors. It also helps identify potential areas for improvement to get a business found on Google and improve a website's ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Moreover, domain authority is an influencing factor when it comes to SEO and organic marketing strategies. A high domain authority score may mean a website has a better chance of ranking higher in SERPs for relevant keywords, and websites with high domain authorities tend to have more backlinks and social shares than those with low scores.
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