Before we talk about Domain Authority, let’s first take a step back and understand what domain names are and why they play an important role in website success. A domain name is a URL or web address where visitors can find your website. It’s how people looking for your site will find you online.
For example, the domain name for Moz is “moz.com.” The “Moz” part is the unique identifier (or subdomain) and “.com” is the top-level domain (TLD). When people want to find the Moz blog, they type in “moz.com/blog” into their web browser. That’s because the “/blog” path is the unique identifier for the Moz blog—anyone who types in that exact URL will be taken to the Moz blog homepage.
Domain names are important because they’re one of the main ways people find websites online. Your domain name is how you’ll be known on the internet, so it’s important to choose one that accurately reflects your brand or business.
Now that we know what domain names are, let’s talk about Domain Authority (DA). DA is a score (on a 100-point scale) developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines. The higher your DA score, the more likely you are to rank highly on SERPs—and vice versa.
Your DA score is based on a variety of factors, including link equity and brand awareness. Link equity is determined by things like inbound links (links from other websites pointing to yours), linking root domains (the number of websites linking to yours), and more.
Brand awareness measures how often your website is mentioned on social media, in news articles, and elsewhere on the internet—basically, how familiar people are with your brand or business.
How to Improve Your Domain Authority
Now that we know what Domain Authority is and why it’s important, let’s talk about some ways you can improve your score. Here are a few tips:
1. Publish high-quality content regularly: This one should go without saying, but it’s worth repeating nonetheless: publishing high-quality content on your website regularly is essential for boosting your DA score. Not only does quality content help show search engines that your site is worth paying attention to, but it also helps attract backlinks from other websites—and as we mentioned earlier, backlinks are a key factor in determining DA scores. If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to creating quality content, check out this guide from PingHowe.
2. Promote your content: Once you’ve created and published high-quality content on your website, promoting it should be your next priority. Share your articles on social media, reach out to influencers in your industry who might be interested in sharing them with their followers, and standardize an email signature with links to your latest blog post or article so that everyone at your company is promoting your content with every email they send—just to name a few ideas. The goal here is to get as many eyes on your content as possible so that you can start attracting natural backlinks.
3. Optimize for mobile: In today’s digital landscape, visitors expect websites to be mobile-friendly—which means that if yours isn’t optimized for mobile devices, you could be missing out on valuable traffic (and link opportunities). Google recommends using responsive design when building or redesigning websites so that they render well across multiple devices; if you’re not sure whether or not your site meets these criteria, you can use Google’s free Mobile-Friendly Test tool to find out.
4. Monitor your progress: Keep an eye on your DA score using a tool like Mozbar (a free Chrome extension) or Open Site Explorer so that you can track your progress over time and ensure that all of your hard work is paying off. Regular monitoring will also give you insight into which strategies are working well so that you can double down on those efforts moving forward.
By following the four tips above—publishing quality content regularly; promoting your content; optimizing for mobile, and monitoring your progress—you can give yourself a real chance at improving your Domain Authority score over time. And as we’ve seen, a higher DA score can have a big impact on everything from attracting new visitors to earning media coverage for your business—so it’s well worth putting in the effort required to see results!
