Fortunes are won or lost based on a brand’s Google PageRank. For many businesses, there literally is a swing of millions in extra revenue when a brand scores well on Google.
The problem is that nobody actually knows the secret formula for Google’s PageRank. The broad contours are known, but Google doesn’t advertise how to win the ranking game for obvious reasons. This means businesses can’t control their own SEO destiny, or fully assess the best web sites for guest posting and the backlinks that presumably play a big role in that destiny.
That’s where Moz’s proprietary Domain AuthorityOpens a new window (DA) metric comes in, as well as similar metrics such as Ahrefs’ Domain RatingOpens a new window (DR). Google won’t divulge its secrets, but companies have sprouted up to fill the void.
Domain Authority and similar metrics don’t correlate precisely with Google’s score, but they give marketers an approximate picture. That’s why DA and a few other metrics have basically become industry standard for marketers that want to know where their sites stand with Google.
“It is NOT a ‘ranking factor,’ and Google doesn’t use DR/DA or anything like that to rank websites,†clarifies Joshua Hardwick, head of content for AhrefsOpens a new window and founder of The SEO ProjectOpens a new window .
Still, DA and similar metrics are useful. Marketers should understand them.
Understanding DA
A site’s DA is not based on web traffic. It is not based on the time visitors spend on the site. It is not based on keyword dominance, or even the number of backlinks a site has collected (although backlinks is the basis of Ahrefs’ DR). Domain Authority is about a site’s reputation, which takes all of the above factors into account as well as other variables.
This makes it a tricky number, even if DA and similar metrics all use the same scale of 1 to 100, with higher numbers being better. The DA of Toolbox.com is 66 as of this writing, for instance, and its DR score is 79. UbersuggestOpens a new window , another popular barometer, even rates Toolbox.com a robust 85.
As you can tell, there’s no precise metric that firmly locates Toolbox.com in the web site ecosystem. But when you compare Toolbox.com against TechCrunchOpens a new window , a similar site with a DA of 93, you quickly understand that TechCrunch probably has better authority and therefore a higher ranking on Google. Toolbox competitor Galido.netOpens a new window , on the other hand, scores considerably lower and is somewhere below both Toolbox and TechCrunch in terms of its ranking.
“Looking at the metric in isolation, it is not possible to say that a ranking of 30, 40 or 50 is good or bad because it is a relative metric,†notes Hardwick. “Generally speaking, your authority is good if it’s higher than or comparable to competing sites.â€
Improving DA
Since DA and similar metrics are based on reputation, boosting your site’s ranking is possible but not a quick project. You won’t see results right away, and improving your ranking will take months or even years before there’s a substantive return on investment.
“Domain Authority is a long-term strategy. It can’t be bought,†says Brenden Bittner, a digital marketing strategist at content marketing firm, Watson CreativeOpens a new window .
But that’s why you should do it. Much of your competition won’t stick with the practices necessary for this important but long-term marketing project; later you will thank yourself when your brand has better DA and search engine results success than the competition.
1. Win Backlinks and Influence People
One of the major ranking factors for DA and similar metrics is backlinks. If a lot of web sites are linking to your brand, that’s a good indication that your site is authoritative, trusted and valuable. Google and the DA gods shine on backlink activity, especially a constant stream of new links to your site.
“The only way to increase it is to get more backlinks to your site,†stresses Hardwick. “There’s really only one tip: Build more high-quality backlinks.â€
Quality links are particularly important. It isn’t just about volume, although that’s nice. Quality backlinks from other respected sites that focus on your topic area count more than backlinks from completely unrelated sites with low DA. This makes sense from a reputational perspective, because most of us trust our board-certified doctor’s medical referrals over those given by the homeless ex-machinist standing outside the clinic.
This means quality content, guest posting, influencer outreach and marketing partnerships with other brands related to your market. Because backlinks rest on meaningful content, running a consistent and relevant content marketing operation is especially important for DA.
“Content is king,†says Bittner. “Develop thought-leadership content that is genuine for your industry.â€
2. Own Your Keywords
A second factor that plays an outsized role in your site’s ranking is your keyword dominance. If your site owns several keywords, ranking high on them, this signals authority with those words.
“Domain authority correlates with keyword rankings,†says Hardwick. “The higher your DR, the more keywords you tend to rank for.â€
Again, this makes sense from a reputational perspective.
Long ago, I was arguably the world’s foremost expert on the lasting influence of home education. I talked about grown homeschoolers more than anyone else, wrote articles with the words “grown homeschoolers†more than anyone else, and was quoted in more stories with the words “grown homeschoolers†than anyone else. That’s why reporters at the New York Times and the BBC came calling when they wanted an authority on the topic. My ownership of those terms clearly implied I was the guy to talk with when combined with other telltale signs. I had keyword dominance.
So when working on your DA, find the relevant keywords you can dominate. Then go win them.
“Doing research on keywords you want to rank for is important,†says Bittner. “If there’s too much competition on a specific topic, try to take a unique approach to stand out.â€
Which bring us to the third major tactic for boosting your DA ranking over time.
3. Niche Down and Find Your Blue Ocean
There is riches in the niches precisely because you can own a niche but not necessarily a broad topic. Focusing on sub-topics is good for defining precise audience segments and crafting impactful content. It also happens to be one of the best ways to win the ranking battle; you probably won’t dominate the conversation about business software, for instance, but you can utterly own a niche such as ERP systems for pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Through the process of owning a niche, your brand can become a thought leader on the niche and get all the important backlinks, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Your brand also likely will dominate the keywords for that niche.
“If your industry is over-saturated with competition,†says Bittner, “make your content more niche by exploring a unique point of view.â€
Once you own one niche from a content and thought leadership perspective, you then can expand and conquer additional niches. Your brand doesn’t necessarily have to focus on a single niche. It just has to win the authority battle one niche at a time.
This is the long-term strategy for building strong DA, and it improves other areas of your marketing efforts at the same time.
So if you want better DA and ranking on Google, become the authority on a niche related to your brand and generate mountains of good content around the topic, both on your site and elsewhere. Then repeat.