What is Domain authority or Page authority and how does it work?

Today we’re going to talk about domain authority or page authority; what it is and how it works, and things you can do to improve your score. Now, domain authority is a one to a 100 scaled scoring system developed by an SEO company called Moz. They predict how well a website would rank in google search results. Page Authority/PA is the same as Domain Authority/DA, just that it focuses on a single page on the website. Moz has their formula and how they do it, but essentially, they try to mimic Google’s algorithms to get this score. Since they’re very accurate with their algorithms, domain authority has been pretty widely accepted in the SEO industry.  DA and PA in the digital marketing industry are now pretty important terms.

If you look at a typical search result, you’ll see, a lot of rankings on page 1 have a lot of correlation with domain authority (DA) or page authority (PA). Page authority is the same as domain authority except that it refers to a specific page in your website.  

How does this scoring system work? 

To give you an example, Google and Facebook have a DA of 99, and McDonald’s has a DA of 80. The average small business website ranks around a DA of 10-30. In addition, it gets increasingly harder to increase your score as your score gets higher. So, to go from 0 from your website to 10, all you need to do is leave your website on the internet for a year. You can easily get close to 10 by doing nothing.  

Now, to get from 10 to 20 requires a little more work like engaging in some activity, posting something, etc. To increase ranging from 20 to 30, it gets a little harder. Now you need to start doing some real work, produce some original content, and optimize your website. Once you get to 30, after that you just need to continuously put effort to increase your site’s reach. These efforts include SEO optimization, posting content regularly, and start getting some links back to your website.  

What is a good domain authority score? 

A good domain authority score is relative to your industry. So, if you’re in the publishing industry, most websites rank around 60 and 90. But if you’re in a local business and all your competitors range around lower 20, then you need to be in the same score range. And, you want to outrank them or stand out from the competition. Then, you can focus on getting your domain authority score higher.  

 

How do you use domain authority? 

1. When you’re trying to figure out how come your competitors have outranked you, you can look at your DA and your competitors’ DA to figure out what they’re doing differently.  
2. If you want to optimize your website better and try to figure out what service will be beneficial, you can also compare domain authorities and page authorities. The DA and PA of competitors ranking above you can point you in the direction of which step to take next. You can conduct a competitive analysis and try to do what they’re doing to increase your rankings.  
3. Also, if you’re trying to do link building, domain authority is a great way to quickly get an assessment of how link-worthy or how powerful a website is. 

How can you improve your domain authority score? 

Well, there’s no direct way to improve domain authority scores. As mentioned earlier, they tried to mimic Google’s algorithm. So, there’s no direct way to influence domain authority score. There are hundreds of factors affecting the results and trying to alter any one of them doesn’t work. But there are proven ways that you can do regularly to help improve your domain authority score over time. 

1. Create quality content based on your niche 

Content marketing has been around for a while now. But it becomes a whole new thing when combined with the internet. Today, you can’t rely on just advertisements because the audience is already educated about everything. Especially if you’re a new player in the market, it is going to be additionally hectic for you to gain any sort of attention. 

2. Get links and brand mentions online 

Another way to increase DA or PA scores is to get links and brand mentions online. Link building plays a big part in increasing domain authority or page authority score. You don’t need to get a lot of links but you need to get relevant links. Those links can be related to your industry, related to your location. You could also get media mentions from high domain authority websites.  

3. Stay focused on your niche 

Just because your domain authority score increases to a good number doesn’t mean you can stop producing content in your niche and still maintain the same score. Domain authority or page authority is usually related to your niche content. You can’t play in two industries at the same time. That is why you need to stay focused on your niche and produce consistent quality content regularly.  

4. Update your site frequently 

One of the things that even google loves is active websites. If you keep posting content once a month regularly, google is going to check in on you once a month. But if you increase the frequency to say, 1 time a week, Google will update its algorithm. It will then check in on you once a week. So, the more content you create, the more chances you’ll have to increase your website ranking.

If you’re confused about accessing your domain authority, you can go to Moz.com. There will be a link that will pull out your website’s domain authority or page authority. If you want to talk to Digital marketing experts about how this works and how you can employ the same techniques for your business, give us a call. Our team is ready with all kinds of solutions to make your business a success online. Contact our team of experts anytime and we would be happy to sort all your needs out. We provide the finest SEO services in Delhi and Pune.