When doing SEO for your site, the topic of Domain Authority always confuses people. Here is a guide to domain authority and how it will help your SEO.
Whenever I go to any various blogging groups on Facebook or forums, the question of domain authority is always mentioned. It seemed to me that so many people are confused about it and how this can benefit your site. So let me explain it to you:
What is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority has become one of the most important ways to compare and ranks a website on search engines – such as Google. It essentially a scoring system designed by Moz. For those that don’t know, Moz is an SEO marketing company that works closely with Google. What Moz does is, predicts how well a website is expected to rank on search engines using a simple scoring system.
Every website is designated a score from 1-100, with 1 obviously being the lowest, and 50+ being the highest. I will say, it does get more difficult to increase your score as you move along the scoring system.
How is it calculated?
Domain Authority scoring system is calculated by a pretty complicated method because it is trying to work out how search engines will rank your website.
When this system does it calculation, it will look at everything on your site. And it will look at your SEO. So are you filling in the alt tag on images? Gave it a meta description on blog posts? Doing keywords research. If not, then your Domain authority won’t be so high. The lower it is, the more likely the site will be lost at sea never seen again.
How can I check my Domain Authority?
There are various websites tools which will allow you to check your Domain Authority. But what I find the easiest way to check is by directly checking on SEO Review Tools. You simply put in your site URL, do the captcha and it will instantly show you. You can check whenever you want.
Do I need to do anything?
The simple answer is no. There no code to be put in. This is all done on your site. But I wouldn’t just leave it all to chance. There’s still work to be done. As I said earlier, it will look at everything on your site. When working on your site, make sure you are using the Yoast plugins. Also look at your site traffic and how much organic searches it received as it also factors that in.
How often is Domain Authority updated?
Hmmm, the short answer is every month. However, it can go a month without updating. This page will tell you when it has updated and when the next big update is.
Why is this so important?
If you want to work with a brand, then more often than not you will get asked about your domain authority. Most brands won’t work with you if you got a low score mark – there no value for them working with someone who Domain authority is 15. So more often than not they will look for a domain authority of 25+ before they will work with you.
It isn’t all bad news, especially if you a new blogger. There are still plenty of brands that are happy to work with new bloggers. Also sometimes there are brands that are happy to work with bloggers with a Domain Authority slightly lower than the number they request. It might be the case that you have a strong social media presence and work with your base on that.
That was a guide to domain authority and how it will help your SEO. As always I will leave the comments open for any discussion.
