If you have done even the tinest amount of research on how to rank your website in the top positions on Google, then you will have come across “domain authority” and how important it is for SEO (search engine optimistaion). But just what is domain authority, and how can you easily increase it yourself for your website or blog?
What is Domain Authority?:
Domain Authority or DA is a search engine ranking score, from one to 100, the higher your score the greater your sites’ ability to rank in searches.
Domain Authority is calculated by evaluating multiple factors, such as linking root domains and the number of total links, into one single DA score which can then be used to compare websites, which if you are a blogger will be really important in how you fair against other blogs.
Starting or creating your own blog is actually the easiest part! There are many things I wish I had known before starting a blog. All the logistics afterwards like SEO, promoting and marketing now that’s the hard bit! In 2017 my Domain Authority was 45 and I was feeling pretty smug, however gradually over 6 months it dropped to 30 and didn’t seem to be stopping. I just couldn’t work out why this was happening. Thankfully it seems to have been a Yoast plugin bug which was rectified whilst I don’t understand the technicalities of it at all I do know a few handy tips to help increase Domain Authority and ultimately improve your website’s organic traffic.
Top Tips For Improving Your Domain Authority Score
Search Engine Optimisation Basic SEO
Blog content 500 words min
Meta descriptions should be 155 characters long with your keywords at the start
Title tags should be 70 characters and more importantly unique
Keywords in URL and title (good structure no dates or random numbers)
Inbound and outbound links
The way images are loaded is important. All images should have “alt tags” and appropriate image names, choose a descriptive file name for example an image of a sunrise in Corfu would be labelled “corfu-sunrise.jpg”, not “img_1234.jpg”. Ensure you upload images with keyword rich titles and alt tags. Also compress your images before adding them to your website, use Tinyjpeg to reduce file size and help keep your website load speed high.
Headers using keywords
Check your site information. Did you know if you type site: followed by your website domain ie. site:joannedewberry.co.uk you get a breakdown of your pages, titles tags, and meta descriptions? You can check spelling mistakes and the number of characters used in your meta descriptions or titles. Any that have … means there is content you have added not being read by Google, make a note and edit these.
Content Is King
- Evergreen Content: This is content that doesn’t date and is always popular for me every school holiday I re-share my posts on running a business around children.
- Topical Content: Content that reflects what is happening at the moment – World Cup, Heatwave, specific days you have identified in your content calendar (International Day of Happiness 20th March, National Freelancers Day 28th June)
- Update Old Posts: Things change (like social media!) make sure you update content when this does, also remove competition factors in posts over a year old and ensure the post is still relevant to anyone happening upon it. If like me you started off using stock images and now have some of your own you might want to update these and streamline your branding.
Further Reading: 9 Content Ideas To Get You Blogging
Domain Age
If you are one of these people who can’t stick to a name and is constantly rebranding this can affect your Domain Authority. Websites that have had the same domain name for a long time are rewarded.
How Links Can Improve Your Domain Authority
Broken Links
As Domain Authority takes into consideration your total number of links and linking root domains it’s vital to keep them updated. You should, however, check for broken links regularly as this affects SEO also Google penalises dead links. Make it part of your monthly routine as this way you reduce the overwhelm of 100’s of broken links. Broken links can occur for many reasons, you might have linked to a business or product that no longer exists, or sometimes comments contain broken links. If you are using WordPress then use a plugin, if not Free Broken Link Checker website is easy to use or pay someone to do all the hard work for you!
Gaining Backlinks
The more backlinks to your website the better your Domain Authority however easier said than done! Back in the old days many websites and blogs had a link page or blogroll but this practice has diminished some, but it’s worth checking out sites for free listings.
- Guest blog posts, write a post with a specific website in mind and send it to them, and craft yourself a good author bio with a link to your site.
- Look out for content round-ups, many bloggers will write round-ups and be looking for content check out Content and Round Up Requests for UK Bloggers or Britmums. Also, check out #journorequest on Twitter for opportunities.
- Comment on other blogs especially those that allow you to add your website or link back to your latest content. (List of Commentluv Blogs)
- Sharing content on social media helps develop backlinks too.
- Boo Roo and Tigger Too, “always know your audience“, linking to content that is relevant to the blog post but also your audience.
- Parent Blogging Secrets suggests “Sign up to Quora and answer questions in your niche with a post of yours explaining further.”
Inbound Links
Link back to your own content too. This is a really good habit to get into making references and drawing readers’ attention to other posts you have written, keeping them on your site for longer.
*LINK TIP *
Ensure all external links (even those to your own content) open in a new window this reduces the chance readers will open up a new site and forget to come back to finish reading/engaging with your content.
Load Time
Keep an eye on how long it takes to load your website, load time is a contributing factor in calculating Domain Authority. Avoid using images straight from your phone or camera, always run them through a programme like Tinyjpeg to reduce the file size without compromising the clarity of the images. This will help with load time and make your site run faster.
How To Check Your Domain Authority
I like to make my blog posts actionable and I hope you think this one is. All these little things make a big difference plus if you make changes use Google Console to tell Google and track your SERP.
Start by finding out your current DA using MOZ then start working your way through my suggestions above. After 3 months check your DA again and hopefully, you will start to see a gradual increase. Leave a comment below and let me know how you get on.
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Great article Joanne. Mine is currently 13 (I have just checked via your moz link) I’m going to check in again each month. Can’t wait to see the results 🙂
These are all really useful, a lot of which I often forget to check. Broken links is a big one for me.
Since Moz moved to this new tool bar, mine has dropped by 6 which is disappointing, I can’t fathom it all out. I do need to do another broken link check though, with 10 years of content, its hard to keep on top of it. Mich x
Author
It certainly is, I try and edit old content and make it relevant all the time but it’s easier said than done.
Thank you for a really useful article. I clearly have work to do but it could have been worse. I really appreciate the clear guidance that you give in language I understand so I have both short, medium and long term actions to take some of which were already on my to do list but now with greater priority.
Author
Thanks for leaving a comment glad you found it both useful and actionable.
This is such a helpful post. I wish I had read this a few months ago before I started trying to figure out SEO. You’ve done a great job summarizing the info it has taken me ages to piece together. This post will be really valuable for bloggers who are starting out. Thanks for sharing it!
Joan Senio
My Best Friend Adelinne
kindness-compassion-and-coaching.com
@joansenio1
Some interesting points to consider. I’m cureently trying to increase mine and will implement some of these x
Author
Good Luck
Do you know what a target DA might be to entice brand collaborations?
Author
It varies I have seen some PR’s asking for a DA 10 and others a DA 40.
I think however most want between 25-30.
Hope that helps.
Great post Joanne! This is so helpful. I can’t wait to put some of these to work. I’m a new blogger so I’m always looking for ways to improve my DA and I know it’s important to take these and start using them from the very beginning otherwise it’s hard to catch up. Thank you for sharing!
Increasing DA is something I’m working on myself. Some great tips here thank you.
Great Info! Thank you for sharing this. 🙂
This is a really useful post! I’m definitely going to check out the groups for writing guest posts as this is something I have no yet explored.
Bex 🙂
http://www.bexfaye.com
Another great post Jo! You’ve dissected a topic that is not particularly straightforward. We are always telling our customers about the importance of SEO and how (with a bit of work) they can actually do the work themselves. The information is out there for everyone to access, but I guess we’d be out of a job if everyone did it. 🙂
Some great tips Joanne thank you. I really need to start commenting on more people’s blog posts. I read many but should remember to comment too
Great post with very useful tips 🙂 thanks for sharing!
Isa
Great info, Joanne! It is surprising how many business owners have no idea that they should be working towards these goals. This is especially helpful with the examples you have given, especially the content section.
Thanks, that was super helpful. I’ll be trying these tips out and I’ll let you know how I get on
Fab post!! Thank you
I am trying very hard to increase my DA so these tips are super helpful. Thank you!
Really useful article, thank you. It’s something I am working on!
Thank you for this – details of those facebook groups is particularly helpful.
Author
Welcome lovely
Thanks for this helpful post. I didn’t know about the blogger roundup, twitter and list of commentluv. I will try it out to see whether it works for my niche too.