Authority shows how much search engines trust the site and how well they treat it. And although this indicator cannot be measured in any way, source strongly affects ranking in the search engine.
That is why many SEO specialists prioritize improving the authority of the site.
We have chosen the most effective methods for increasing authority for the article. Perhaps some of them are well known to you, but this proves that they have a tremendous effect. Let’s dive in!
A bit of theory
Domain authority is a measure of a domain’s ability to rank. This indicator consists of many signals indicating that a website has a certain quality and can be trusted. Among these signals, the most important is the sum of the authority of all pages. Domain authority is primarily based on two factors, namely:
- Age and trust
Older domains with quality content tend to rank higher, all other things being equal. Also, they rank higher due to protection with the DMARC setup.
COPs will not rank new domains as high as old ones, except when moving a site from the old to the new domain.
New domains must first earn a reputation. Partly directly due to age, but primarily due to content: good content and high-quality backlinks. For young domains, Google provides a sandbox filter.
- Popularity
The most critical factors determining popularity are backlinks (the more backlinks and the better they are, the better) and several unique referring domains (the more domains linking to you, the more people will find out about you, increasing your popularity).
So how to raise authority based on these factors?
#1. Post engaging content and keep track of keyword diversity
A great copywriter can write a great article; that’s a fundamental truth. But it is the SEO expert’s responsibility to collect all the relevant information so that they don’t have to waffle and rewrite pointless materials.
Pay special attention to terms of reference for texts, use LSI queries and don’t skimp on abstracts for future articles. Moreover, this applies to texts on all pages, and not just on promoted ones: when ranking, the semantics of the entire site is evaluated.
In SEO promotion, keywords are essential, but this setting must be used wisely. First, don’t spam keywords in texts. Second, use keywords not only in articles but in all website elements. It’s no secret that search engines scan the entire page for the presence of keywords.
#2. Monitor behavioral factors and improve website usability
People from different target audience segments will behave differently on the site. Some will be comfortable using it; some won’t.
You need to determine what exactly hinders users, which elements are misleading, which clickable components don’t receive clicks, and so on.
Why is all this needed? If the visitor didn’t like the interaction with the site, they’re unlikely to return. So, this is the loss of a visitor who could become a regular. The energy and budget spent on attracting traffic will turn to almost zero. Therefore, improve usability, fix broken links with a broken link checker and look at the site through the eyes of the user. What would you like to improve?
#3. Create content for other sites
Actively share your widgets, tools, images, or data that other sites might find helpful. So you will get a lot of incoming links to your resource. Infographics embeds, research data, and different types of information are classic and effective methods of building authority.
#4. Pay attention to link quality
In this case, we mean external links.
The concept of “links for the sake of links” has not worked for a long time, although you can now find such an approach. In fact, search engines already know how to determine the quality of links in many ways.
If we consider external links as a source of traffic, then when choosing a donor site, you should focus on the following characteristics:
1. Organic traffic of the donor and the volume of keywords in the visibility area of search engines. The site must have decent traffic from search.
2. Subject of the donor. This is a critical indicator. For example, if your site sells cosmetics and the donor sells auto parts, car repairers are unlikely to go to your site.
3. The quality of the resource in terms of “Trust”, “Spam”, UR, DR and others.
#5. Improve site loading speed
Load speed is one of the most critical usability factors, affecting behavioral factors, visitor returns and conversions.
We think the logic here is clear: all this is connected and affects each other to one degree or another. Also, for Google, loading speed is a ranking factor.
#6. Work with influencers and subject matter experts
Potential influencers or experts within the organization can also increase your authority by creating helpful content. These can be interviews, publications, podcasts, or even lectures. All this will help to attract the attention of customers. If the company has a public relations department, it is necessary to bring it up to date.
#7. Use social signals
The site’s functionality should be fully adapted to interact with social networks – from the ability to like articles and conduct discussions under them using social media accounts to intelligent design and structuring of data for reposts.
#8. Try to minimize the amount of advertising on the site
If you need to increase the site’s authority, place ads within the bounds of reason. Banners shouldn’t prevent visitors from browsing, using and returning to your site. Without visitors, there will be no traffic, and there will be no monetization. And having lost the trust of the search engines once, it won’t be easy to return it.
Wrap up
It would help if you kept in mind that you have no direct influence on your site’s authority. All you can do is approach the elements mentioned above so your DA rises continuously.
Also, note that increasing domain authority doesn’t happen here and now. Create a long-term plan and use our discussed ideas to raise your DA. Good luck!
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