Innovation & data-driven digital marketing.

A website’s digital health is a critical factor in its performance. If a search engine flags your website as “spammy” or low-quality, it just might be the difference between losing to the competition or a conversion. If you’re hoping to improve your website’s efficacy and impact, we recommend starting with increasing domain authority.

Domain Authority 101

Your domain authority (DA) is a score (between 1-100) that reflects your domain’s ranking strength. This score can easily be confused with page authority, which represents the ranking power of an individual page. A good DA score often falls between 40 – 70, while an excellent score lies in the 70 – 100 range. Your domain authority score can significantly impact your ability to appear in search results, and without visibility in search, visitor traffic is only a good idea—not a reality.

When calculating your domain authority (you can use this free checker here), the tool will likely look at the following elements of your site:

  • The value of external and internal site links;
  • Number of quality websites linking to a page;
  • Number of unique backlinks;
  • The website user experience;
  • The website site structure.

To rank high in each of these areas and increase your domain authority the right way, we recommend starting with the following three tactics:

1. Audit your existing website.

Every good digital initiative starts with an audit. It’s a chance to evaluate how you’re currently performing, where you are meeting your goals, and where there are areas for improvement. Your domain authority considers the functionality and experience of your site, which should make a comprehensive audit a high priority on your list. This audit should include, but is not limited to: 

  • Removing low-DA or broken links from your website;
  • Monitoring the site experience, optimizing content flows, CTAs, and links;
  • Evaluating your site map for confusing structures or navigation concerns;
  • Removing low-quality or duplicate content from your site;
  • Reviewing all meta descriptions to ensure they are accurate and consistent.

Use what you find in this audit to start building your roadmap for improvements and guide how you pivot your current DA strategy. Also, the best audit is performed by an SEO professional.

2. Create an ongoing backlink engine.

Backlinks are an essential piece of the DA puzzle. Simply put, when outside websites link back to your website, it creates a backlink. It might be counter-intuitive to focus on what other people are saying about you, but if your links appear on high-quality websites, your ranking can increase.

Think of it this way: when you’re hiring a new employee at your company, do you feel more confident when an outside reference talks about their performance? Does the caliber of the referral impact how seriously you take their insight? Backlinks operate like a reference, and the more credible they appear to search engines, the more credible their stamp of approval. Our team specializes in creating high-quality content that’s likely to be placed and executing an aggressive backlink placement outreach strategy.

3. Focus on high-quality content.

One of the most significant factors to impact your domain authority is the content that lives on your site. No matter the page intent—informational landing page, blog post, or product overview—the quality of the material matters. The best content most often revolves around:

  • Extensive keyword analysis;
  • Consumer needs;
  • Competitive research.

Now, don’t be fooled: high-quality doesn’t always mean long. While you should aim to create substantial content that effectively communicates your ideas, you don’t want to overwhelm visitors. To further improve your content’s performance, you can also:

  • Increase the number of internal links on the page to reduce bounce rate;
  • Increase the number of high-DA websites linked to from your page;
  • Mix a variety of content types to engage different visitors.

Increasing Domain Authority Takes Time—Get Started Now

Now, your DA won’t change overnight. Trust us, we wish it was that easy. Our team focuses on identifying the areas of the biggest impact for your site and creating the content to get you there. Whether you need website navigation updates or a backlink outreach strategy, we’re here to help you bring your DA score from “okay” to “excellent!”