Sam wanted to create a website on which he could post articles on digital marketing. After all the necessary procedures that would allow his website to appear on Google’s search results, he creates amazing content and posts regularly. A few weeks later he notices that he isn’t getting any organic traffic. Curious, he searches for his own content on Google and to his dismay, he finds out that he appears only on the second page of the search results.

Even with all the content that Sam has, he could not get his website to appear on the first page of the search results. The reason is: Google has a ranking algorithm and Sam’s site is ranked low.

Google has a complicated algorithm with over 200 factors that it uses to rank sites. This rank is responsible for the order in which websites appear on the search results page. 

On a similar note, if you’re looking to get your website ranked higher on SERPs, you should definitely talk to our SEO team.

What is Domain Authority?

Domain Authority is a metric developed by an SEO software company called Moz. It is used to predict how websites would rank against each other on a search engine result page. It is not a metric used by Google. But it works really well. 

Domain Authority rankings go from 1 to 100, 100 being the highest rank. It is a logarithmic scale, which means going from ranks 1 to 20 will be a lot easier than going from 80 to 90. A rank between 40-50 is considered average.

Domain Authority is best used to compare search result rankings of websites that are similar to each other. 100 is the highest rank. The domain authority ranking of other websites is relative to the highest ranked sites. This means that if your rank has suddenly decreased, you shouldn’t worry too much. This is also why you should never compare your site to another site that is ranked way higher. Your goal here isn’t to increase your domain authority ranking all the way to 100 (good luck on that!) but to have a better score than your competitors whose ranks are similar to yours.

Domain Authority and Page Authority

Domain Authority predicts the search result rankings of different domains and subdomains. Page Authority, on the other hand, predicts the search result rankings of different web pages. Both are equally important for organic growth

Click here to find out your website’s domain authority with a free Chrome extension plugin. This will show domain and page authority rankings for each website you find on a search engine’s results page.

Tips on Improving Your Domain Authority

As mentioned above, there are over 200 different factors that Google uses to analyse your website to find out where you should be ranked on their search results page. This might seem like a lot of work for you, but there’s no need to fret, there are a few simple things you can do to help your site gain domain authority. 

1. If you are just about to create your site, keep in mind that a unique name will help boost the discoverability of your site. Here are some tips you need to keep in mind before you design and launch your site.
2. Make content easy to read. Choose good fonts, interesting titles, tags, and add keywords. You should also add variations of keywords if possible, you never know what people might type into a search box! Having bullet points and lists also makes your content easier to read, and it helps with your ranking too.
3. Sites with breadcrumb navigation have better rankings than sites that don’t. Breadcrumb navigation shows the user exactly where they are on a webpage. For example, if you’re ordering a phone accessory online, there should be something like [Home/Electronics/Phones and Tablets/Accessories] on the top of the page that shows you exactly where you are on the website.
4. Having a linked table of content (like the ones on Wikipedia) helps Google to understand your website and its content.
5. Create interesting content which is good enough to be shared by your site visitors. Your content should show that you’re an expert in your field. Good content will always attract more site visitors. It’s also a great way to get other websites to add links to your content.
6. Content length is another important factor. Google considers lengthy content to be in-depth and thus gets ranked better. But do not overdo it, most people do not have the patience needed to read lengthy articles.
7. Provide links to other content on your website wherever needed. This is a great way to keep your readers engaged. How many times have you set on a journey just by visiting a Wikipedia page and clicking on all the links that piqued your interest? Not surprisingly, Wikipedia’s domain authority is ranked 98. This method works like a charm if done right.
8. Constantly check your content and remove any bad links or broken links. Having such links will harm your search engine rankings.
9. Website loading speeds also play a role in domain authority. All search engines prefer sites that load fast!
10. Use social media to get more engagement from visitors. Google’s search algorithm also ranks your website on the basis of engagement metrics. Add social media buttons to encourage people to engage more. Create a community by promoting discussions at comment sections right below your content.
11. If a really popular site with a high domain ranking has linked to your website, your domain authority is boosted significantly. Here is a well-written article on how you can achieve this using something called The Skyscraper Technique. Also, backlinks from older sites have more value than backlinks from new sites.
12. Having content that is identical to the content on a different site will greatly decrease your rankings. Prepare and post original material.
13. Mobile-friendly content and sites optimised for mobile phones always get better rankings!
14. Even little things like the length of a URL can affect your rank on a search results page. Aim for a shorter URL.
15. Do not let your website collect dust. A regularly updated website will rank better than an idle one.

Currently, the only sites with the highest rank of 100 are Blogger.com, Google.com, and Apple.com. Click here to find how the other sites compare. 

Google’s algorithm that it uses to rank websites is called PageRank. It looks at the quality and quantity of websites that link to your domain and calculates the value of your page. But support for it was stopped in 2016 and it is not being updated regularly. Some websites consider PageRank to be outdated, although it’s still a  part of Google’s ranking algorithm.

Organic growth may seem hard to manage, and the competition is insane. Just by keeping the above points in mind, you can get a higher ranking on a search engine’s results page. If you’re still struggling to rank, maybe you need to have our SEO gurus to take a look. Talk to us.