It’s no secret that every marketer’s dream is position #1 on a search results page. It makes perfect sense since the CTR in the first position is at least 200% higher than on position #2. And, logically, the CTR decreases as the number goes down.
The Search Engine Results Page or SERP ranking depends on several factors. The search engine takes into account how user-friendly your website is, whether you are using correct keywords and it also checks the backlinks syntax. Besides that, it looks at your Domain Authority score.
First, Let’s See The Domain Authority Definition
Domain Authority or DA is a score, a calculation designed by Moz to check website ranking in search engine result pages.
For instance, Google uses the Domain Authority as a metric and in this case, it doesn’t impact SERPs directly. Basically, DA is used to compare websites and observe and track their ranking potential over time.
Even though it might seem like a harmless tool by a given definition, it’s still a crucial factor to consider for some legit reasons.
What Makes Domain Authority So Important?
Your business success has a straight correlation to the visibility of your brand. And what DA score reflects is how much users trust your website. In other words, your website authority affects your business image in comparison to your competitors.
If you are unaware of your domain rating at all, you are most likely missing out on relevant traffic and, as a result, you lose potential revenue to your competitors who are on top of DA metrics.
So as we’ve settled on the Domain Authority definition and hopefully convinced you how important tracking your DA score is, let’s talk practical solutions to improve it.
How To Improve Domain Authority?
While restoring your Domain Authority, you should analyze your current score first. Though we gotta admit that there isn’t a clear answer on what is a good domain authority as the metric is rather comparative than scalable. Meaning, an ultimate DA score should be better than your competitor’s as there is no certain number to hit.
So good news is that there isn’t a good or a bad score, and it’s just pure competition. And this is what makes it interesting.
After you’re done with the analysis, we suggest the following 5 steps below.
Choose the right domain name
A domain name is very important for your brand. It increases your site’s credibility, shapes up your brand recognition and affects your website SEO. And as a result, a good choice of name improves your domain rating.
What are the signs of a good domain name?
- It should be short and memorable;
- Avoid using special symbols and unusual spelling;
- Choose .com names whenever possible;
- The name has to be relevant to your business niche.
Optimize your content
Another thing domain authority checker takes into account is the quality of your content. First of all, it’s important to fill up your website with relevant and engaging content for the sake of your users. Second of all, you gotta optimize your content to make it appealing for search engine algorithms.
So how can you impress a domain checker with your content?
- Use niche-based relevant keywords;
- Customize meta-descriptions;
- Add internal links;
And in general, produce informative, useful and engaging content.
There are basic principles, just to name a few.
Get rid of spammy links
Every search engines and DA checker tend to penalize spammy links. For instance, the Google Penguin program launched in 2012 was developed just to target spammy links so that the website using those would be pushed way down in search results and marked as suspicious.
So to keep a good website authority score, you need to:
- Stick to trustworthy resources and avoid linking shady websites;
- Don’t participate in link buying and exchanges and follow the natural link building policy;
- Regularly check on your website spam score.
Make sure your website is mobile-friendly
Statistics say that 51.65% of the web page views globally are made from mobile devices. So based on this information, by not optimizing your website, you are losing half of potential traffic. And as you already know, the domain checker calculates the score by comparing your website to your competitors. So if your competitors have a mobile-friendly website and are getting traffic from mobile users, the domain authority checker will push you way down this list.
The easiest way to avoid this rookie mistake is to start your website development with a responsive web design.
The most basic principles of responsive design are:
- Simplified tablet and mobile menus;
- Adjust the content to maintain its readability;
- Adjust the fonts and buttons so that they fit smaller devices.
To understand whether your current website falls under mobile-friendly criteria, we recommend running it through this Mobile-Friendly test provided by Google.
Keep improving your SEO
As you already understood, you can’t hide any flaws from the Domain Authority checker. Of course, the advice above is related to the quality of overall Search Engine Optimization of your website and digital marketing in general. So as a result, we can see a clear correlation between the domain checker score and a the quality of your website’s SEO.
So here is the check-list to make sure your website is SEO-ready:
- Responsive mobile-friendly design;
- Optimized XML sitemap;
- Great page loading speed;
- Internal links optimization;
- Key keywords are included in image alt text;
- Optimized custom URLs;
- Using of SSL certificates;
- Lack of errors;
- No external broken links to the website.
And that’s pretty much the scheme to restore you domain authority and make it to #1 in search results.
In Conclusion
Restoring a domain authority is a thorough process. Yet, it is essential if you want to make it to the #1 search results position.
Knowledge is power. We hope you came across this article at the right time and are already taking a first step to improve your DA.