How to improve domain authority
-
I'm having a terrible time with one of my sites - it's a new (less than 1 year) business, and I have accounts
in a number of social media sites including Houzz, but Moz acts like there's only one link to the site. DA is 1.
Ugh. She has pretty good traffic for a small local business, but I'm tearing my hair out over this.
Any suggestions? -
Got it! There are a few possible explanations for what's going on, but the most likely is simply that the links you've gathered—primarily through social network accounts—aren't being seen by the Mozscape index, and so aren't showing up in OSE.
Mozscape's crawler focuses on breadth rather than depth. What that means is that it'll only follow links on any given site so deeply. That allows us to index more sites, but it means that some very deep pages aren't going to be crawled.
In the case of social networks and business directories, just about any outbound links to individual sites are going to be too deep for Mozscape to index. There are just too many listings, and there's a whole lot more internet out there!
This generally works out, since there's little if any ranking value in those links—they're not earned—and since the purpose of them tends to be for traffic or for local SEO, rather than for building link count.
To build DA, you'll need to focus on building links from high quality, high authority, relevant sites.
Does that make sense?
-
Thanks Patrick! Hey Matt, I've been working on this site for about 6 months, and really haven't worried too much about the Domain Authority as I was seeing the selected key phrases percolating up. But I'm not seeing things moving as quickly as I would have expected, and have been putting more time into it. I understand this takes time - the one thing I HAVEN'T been doing is putting a lot of effort into backlinks. I have, however, set her up with a variety of social media accounts as well as Houzz (as I indicated in my first message), and Moz shows zero links - which I don't really understand. I believe the users are getting a good experience from the website as the number of visitors increase each week - although the conversions are sporadic, I believe she's getting phone calls from the site.
I believe I'm doing all the right stuff, but something is missing so I must not be.
Thanks for your responses!
-
Hi Cindy!
Patrick has you pretty solidly covered on how to raise DA.
Just wondering, though, how long have you been checking this client's DA? More than a month or so?
-
Hi Cindy
There are countless opportunities to improve DA. It's not an overnight endeavor or quick win however. It takes quite a bit of time and effort. Moz actually provides a lot of great resources to help get you started.
Here are some of my favorites:
On-Site Factors - Basic, fundamental items to help get your SEO on solid ground and off to a great start. Local SEO Ranking Factors - Helps get your local SEO off to a great start and also has items you'd probably never think to check.
Moz Academy - Just an overall great educational experience - from local and basic SEO, to content and social media - it's all here.
Moz Local - This is a great managed listings tool to help you better take care of your listings and also update them quickly if need be.
Beginner's Guide to Linkbuilding - Gives you a solid foundation to link building along with types of link building and best practices for each.
How to do a Content Audit - This is a great resource to help you go through the content on your site and help you assess your current issues and pain points.
Internal Linking - This is a great piece to have in your back pocket to help you better utilize your internal linking. Pass your link and search equity in a smart way!
External Linking - Like internal linking, this is a great piece to have as well. Think of who you link to as an endorsement: if crawlers see you're linking to shady sites, they will associate you with those sites. But, if you are linking to high quality, authoritative, and relevant to your content sites, then search engines will value your site more. If you care, they will care.
Information Architecture for SEO - This will help you lay your site out in an easy to understand fashion for both your users and search engines.
The Massive Ranking Factor Too Many SEOs are Ignoring - SUCH a great Whiteboard Friday piece - this helps you understand direct and indirect ranking factors in an easy to digest fashion. While there are no "hard tactics" to take from this, it will help you better connect your SEO and marketing efforts, and why you do things the way you do.I know there is a LOT here, but really, there is a lot that goes into your Domain Authority. It will take a lot of the information above (and more honestly) and moving them together in a way that best fits your client's site and industry. Please the user first and worry about search engines second - they will catch up and your domain authority will reflect that. Hope this helps! Good luck!
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does a domain that has migrated or expired that points to my site affect my backlink profile.
I'm new to backlink auditing and I'm certain that the website in question is a link directory anyway. It's spam score isn't high, so in theory it looks okay but in actual fact the webhosting has expired. How badly do these types of broken inbound links affect my site?
Link Building | | Omar_aw0 -
Page Authority vs Domain Authority for Inbound Links
When executed correctly, earning links from high authority sites that are relevant to my website's industry are still valuable correct? So I want to know what is more valuable to my site and influencing the ranking of my site? Is it better to gain links that have a high page authority or domain authority? What is more valuable to my site and influencing its ranking?
Link Building | | PartyStore0 -
Low Page Authority for key landing pages
Hi guys - I am struggling to understand why I have a Page Authority of 1 (!) for most of my key product landing pages. All of them are linked to directly from the Homepage, which has PA 46 and DA 40. Many of them are also linked to from high ranking external sites. Less valuable pages on the site, with far fewer links, seem to have much higher PA. For some reason these just don't seem to be registering the link juice which is flowing to them. In fact, OSE doesn't seem to register any links for them - perhaps this is the biggest clue? I am at a bit of a loss. Some of these pages still rank highly for relevant keywords on Google. But something clearly isn't quite right. Has anyone experienced similar?
Link Building | | HireSpace0 -
DISAVOW domains by error
Dear all, On jun 20 I have uploaded a disavow file including some domains by error (good links), my question is could I remove from the Disavow file these domains and update it again, so Google will take the removed domains again as good links? Thank you
Link Building | | SharewarePros0 -
Backlinks and Domain Authority
Hi there, I have a question on backlinks. I have seen conflicting stories about it, and hoping someone with a vast amount of experience will be able to help me (If you could please be so kind). Now I understand the difference between 'no-follow' links and 'follow' links. I have accumulated quite a few 'no-follow' links through things like Facebook, Youtube, Twitter etc. I understand that they won't feed my site authority or trust; or anything of that sort (I do work on content too, and have gotten a few follow links, don't worry). Now I have seen conflicting answers to the actual importance of them. Some things I have read are saying that SEs completely ignore them (NFL), and they don't even consider them a 'link', but rather a user tool to further the experience of the reader on your site. Which is fair enough, but then people are turning around and also saying that Google relies heavily on them, and they only make up 5% of the internet or something. I have even read something saying they are the only ones worth getting (I know that is bs, but they must have a reason behind this thought?). If someone could enlighten me as to a 'ideal' ratio, and also any little known authoritative sites I could look at submitting content to. I am in the plumbing business, and doing my own sites, so I'm no expert. Also, what are the importance of comment links? I don't go for them, but don't know if I should? Sorry for the mouthful, but I would really appreciate help on this matter. Kindest regards, Kyle The Plumber Bro's The Electrician Bro's
Link Building | | Kyle_James0 -
Internal Links and Page Authority - Best Practices
Hello, Is it bad (in terms of ranking in the SERPS) if i have a link from a page with PA of 18 going to a page with PA of 21? In other words, does it matter if the page containing the link has a lower page authority than the page receiving the link? Page A links to Page B Page A page authority is 18 Page B page authority 21 could this negatively affect my rankings? Thanks
Link Building | | Prime850 -
Keyword strong domains`and Good Link Building Techniques
Is it still a vital tactic if you can get a keyword strong domain in your seo strategy. I have been using an outsourced link building company and we have been soing social bookmarks and directory listings and forum posts. What i sthe best way to check if a link is good ? Look forward to any help, I am a new member
Link Building | | simon.paul0 -
What is the best way to find high domain authority
Hi Guys, Can you anyone tell me please the best way to find high domain authority websites? I heard this is the best way to build links? Thanks Gareth
Link Building | | GAZ090