What Is Domain Authority (DA) in 2020 (How To Increase + MOZ DA Vs Ahrefs DR)

Let me start straightaway ith What is Domain Authority. Domain Authority or DA is a very popular matrix to find out the potential of a particular domain to rank higher on the Google search engine. Well, this is not a matrix from Google though, but MOZ has developed this matrix.

In the last few years, things have changed a lot in the world of search engines. Google has a matrix called Page Rank(PR), which is the criteria to find out how much a website is capable enough to rank a keyword. But Google discontinued releasing the updates on Page Rank.

After that, MOZ came into picture strongly and their Domain Authority (DA) become very popular as this is another authentic criterion that every SEO, Webmaster Experts started recommending. In this article, I will explain everything about Domain Authority (DA) and also help you to understand the importance of DA & how to Increase Domain Authority (DA) of a new blog fast.

How To Calculate Domain Authority (DA)

First of all keep this in mind that, whenever we talk Domain Authority(DA) it is always about MOZ DA. So, you can visit this MOZ DA Link and check your Domain Authority now. Let me show you the DA of this website.

By the time you are checking the domain authority of this website, this may be a different number. I am hoping you are seeing an increased number only. 🙂

So, how exactly domain authority is calculated? Let me explain this very easily.

• Domain Authority is calculated by MOZ (not at all by Google) considering various criteria like linking root domains and a number of total links etc. But it’s mostly related to your backlink profile only.
• This is measured based on a scale of 0-100. That means ideally a newly purchased domain will obviously have a Domain Authority = 0. The more you work on that blog and build quality backlinks, your DA will go high. Generally, it is quite easy to reach from 0-20 and then gradually it becomes a little difficult to reach up to 35-40. From 40 above you have to put some serious link building efforts from high authority blogs to increase your Domain Authority.

Does Domain Authority Impacts In Search Ranking?

Although there is no such concrete evidence or proof that will tell you with 100% accuracy about this. But frankly speaking, yes it matters a lot. But you have to understand that this is a supporting factor and it has both sides valid.

Means, all the popular and high ranking websites generally have high domain authority. But that doesn’t mean that a website with higher Domain Authority will always rank high.

Search ranking depends upon many factors. And among them, domain authority & trust is a crucial factor. But if that particular domain doesn’t have quality content, not enough social exposure then it will be difficult to rank high even with high domain authority.

So, that means Domain Authority alone is not a Ranking factor. Keep this in mind and make sure you work parallelly on all the factors to get #1 ranking in Google search.

What is a “good” Domain Authority?

Now that’s a very important thing to understand. As well all know that the highest score of domain authority is 100 and that is what we all need to target, then you are wrong.

Definitely, it will be awesome to get this score, but you have to understand the feasibility of this goal of having DA = 100. Just check all the DA of popular sites like Facebook, Wikipedia, Amazon, etc and you will find that their DA is almost 100.

That means, do you think you can create an eCommerce website that will grow like Amazon in someday? Or do you think you can start a website on social media and make it like Facebook one day? I am not saying it’s bad to become optimistic but we need to consider the practical feasibility of such targets.

What I want to say here is that you have to find out your true competitor first and then target to achieve that domain authority. So, if you are starting an eCommerce website, then find out a website that is quite successful in your niche which has started recently. And that you can follow them and target to achieve a similar DA.

This is just an example. Domain Authority always depends upon the websites in similar niches or categories. A website with higher DA may not be able to rank a keyword well as it’s the majority of the competitor’s websites are having equality higher Domain Authority.

So, try to analyze what is the average Domain Authority your competitors are having and accordingly you can focus on getting that domain authority to rank better in Google search engine.

Is Doman Authority (DA) Really Matters in 2020

Google may not consider DA as a ranking factor, but Domain authority has been calculated based on all search engine ranking factors that Google is considering (besides the backlink profile). This number is just telling how good the domain is and how much chance to get a better rank on that domain.

After a gap of few months, MOZ has re-launched its Domain Authority platform with a better calculation matrix. This itself is telling that the demand of Domain Authority.

Basically, DA is widely used in the advertising industry. Besides that, there is Alexa Score & Ahrefs DR (Domain Rating) which are actually telling how much authority a website is having. And accordingly, brands are approaching for guest posts, paid posts, sponsored post or any other collaboration opportunities.

Just think about the fact, when you are looking for a guest post then you are obviously looking for a website in your similar niche with good domain authority. On the other hand, if you are accepting guest articles for making money that definitely with a high-DA website you can earn more money. As people will pay more for such blogs.

So, domain authority matters a lot in 2020 also in different ways. So, if you are a beginner, then you must focus on increasing your Domain Authority quickly by following multiple factors that I am going to mention below.

9 Ways To Improve Domain Authority Of Your Blog in 2020

There are multiple factors behind increasing your Domain Authority. It is not always about link building. So if you just build spam backlinks without focusing on the overall growth of the website then your entire effort may go in vain also. So, make sure to read these points to increase your domain authority in 2020.

1. Age of domain

The very first point is the age of a domain. If you buy a domain today and think that you will improve the domain authority in the next two months then you are wrong. Your blog should be in the active mode for some time and gradually grow it’s backlink counts from time to time. This way you will find your domain authority increase. So, make sure to keep your content publishing continue year after year and you will find the Domain authority going high.

2. The strong on-page SEO score

SEO will always be the key to rank well in any search engine. If you are able to write SEO friendly, well-optimized content keeping proper keyword research, formatting, grammatical-error-free content, and a detailed article, your site’s domain authority will grow in time. Search engines like such websites who are providing really good content with perfectly considering all On-Page SEO checklist and help to boost the overall reputation of the page & website.

3. Make Your Website Load faster

Well, page SPEED is the new SEO ranking factor in 2020. So can’t skip the fact that people don’t like to wait for a page which is taking time in loading. So, this creat a very bad reputation for your website. So if you have a good website with a high-quality backlink, you may lose the plot just because of a slow WordPress website. So make sure to switch to a fast WordPress hosting plan and bring your page speed under 2 seconds.

4. Build Quality Backlinks

If you are a beginner and don’t know how to start with link building then I have shared a detailed guide for you. Start with blog commenting and gradually try to get a backlink from high authority/ high-DA websites. Getting a DA from 0-20 may not be a difficult task for you, but if you want to get more high-DA then you have to do a lot of hard work to get good quality backlink from high DA sites. As this is the signal that your website content is good, your website has the quality and high-DA websites are referring to your website. This way your Domain Authority will increase.

5. Write high-quality useful content

Your content is highly responsive to get a good quality backlink. Yes, if you are writing very good content with in-depth research, then you will gradually find that people will love your website and automatically mention your articles form their blogs. So, make sure to write a very good quality article where you explain the solution to the problem very clearly, in simpler language and with grammatically correct way.

6. Do Internal linking in a proper way

Many people don’t know that internal linking is a good way to create backlinks form your own articles. Yes, every page of your website has it’s own value & matrix. And that is called the Page Authority. So, all popular pages of your website will have a higher Page Authority compared to the new ones. So make sure to interlink them properly with different keywords and make sure to pass that page authority to help the new page grow faster & rank faster. Internal linking is the best way to cross-link all your pages properly and improve the overall authority of your entire website or domain.

7. More Social Exposure

The backlink doesn’t mean you have to get a link from another website only. These days social media plays a very important role and your popularity in social media also helps you to increase your website’s domain authority. So make sure to make your website popular enough on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. This will help you to get your website popular, connect with more people & brand and give your content more exposure to get high-quality links.

8. Avoid Spammy Link Building Tactics

Whether you agree or not, even if the number of backlinks matters to increase domain authority but if your backlinks are coming from spam sources then it will actually decrease your domain authority. So, go for a backlink audit using any professional SEO tool like SEMrush and find all such spammy backlinks. If require, you need to disavow them using the Google Disavow Tool. This should be your regular practice and you will find an improvement in your Domain Authority gradually.

9. Network With Other Bloggers

Yes, networking is the key to get success in blogging. Even if you have a very good blog with lots of quality backlinks, you may go up to a certain # of domain authority only (I already mentioned that). As to go up you need to get the support of other authority people in your niche. So make sure to build good relationships, connect with all authority people and help each other to grow together.

FAQs: Everything About Domain Authority

Conclusion: Get Higher Google Ranking in 2020 With A Good DA

So, the bottom line is that domain authority actually matters a lot to get better ranking, if you actually know the process of increasing domain authority properly. It’s all about writing very high-quality content and then get relevant backlinks from high authority websites in your niche. And that’s a similar process of ranking higher on Google search.

Although there are multiple factors in ranking on top of Google, this matrix is quite helpful to understand the potential of a domain to rank high. I hope this detailed guide on Domain Authority will help you to understand and work better to create a better blog in 2020. Feel free to write a comment below and share this article.