What is domain authority?
Domain authority is a measure of how likely a specific website is to rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs). It uses a scoring system of 1-100, with higher numbers representing a higher chance to rank.
If you wish to find out more about this topic, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: How is domain authority measured?
Your domain authority is measured using a variety of factors, tools, and techniques, including the linking of root domains and the total number of available links into one domain authority score.
You can also expect your score to constantly fluctuate over time as the online landscape changes. For example, if YouTube suddenly acquired a million new links it is highly likely that your website’s domain authority score, along with everyone else’s, would drop relative to it.
The good news is that domain authority is not actually a metric that Google uses, so it has no direct effect on your site’s ability to rank. All it does is tell you whether or not you are on the right track to getting your site on Google’s SERPs.
Question #2: How do I check my website’s domain authority score?
The easiest way to check your website’s (or any other website’s) domain authority score is by using MozBar. It is a 100% free SEO toolbar developed by Moz, the same team behind domain authority.
In addition to the free toolbar, however, you can also use:
- Moz Link Explorer
- Moz Keyword Explorer
- The domain authority metrics that all Moz Pro campaigns come with
- The domain authority metrics that the Moz API comes with
- The domain authority metrics similar SEO and online marketing tools come with
Question #3: How can I improve my website’s domain authority?
While there is no single way to directly influence your website’s domain authority, the easiest method to improve it is by improving the SEO-friendliness of your website, paying special attention to the number of quality backlinks it has.
And even if doing so does not end up affecting your domain authority score, improving the SEO-friendliness of your website would still improve your chances of ranking on Google’s SERPs, which is the end goal anyway.
Keep in mind, though, that since domain authority scores take into account the number of backlinks a website has, more established and authoritative websites such as Facebook and YouTube will naturally occupy the topmost spots and be extremely difficult to bump off.
This is exactly why while you might find it easy to bump up your score from, say, 10 to 30, climbing up from 80 to 90 would be significantly more challenging.
Question #4: What is a good domain authority score to aim for?
Since domain authority is designed to be more of a comparative metric instead of an absolute one, there is no strict ‘good’ domain authority score to aim for (or ‘bad’ score to avoid). It would ultimately depend on the business you are in, the industry you are operating in, and the domain authority scores of your main competitors.
As a general rule, your main goal should be to get a higher score than your main competitors instead of trying to compete with the domains that occupy the top spots.
This means that if the average domain authority score of your competitors is 15, then you could consider getting a score of, say, 20 a win.
Question #5: What is the difference between domain authority and page authority?
The main difference between domain authority and page authority is what they measure.
As their names suggest, domain authority measures the likelihood of an entire domain to rank on SERPs while page authority is more concerned with individual pages.