What Is Domain Authority and Why Does It Matter?

Learn what domain authority is, why it’s important, and find five steps to help boost your food blog’s website right away!

What is Domain Authority, Anyway? 

If you’ve been in the blogging world for any length of time, chances are you’ve heard the term domain authority floating around. If you’ve been too scared to ask what it is or still just aren’t sure, this post is for you. 

Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs). 

The score can range anywhere from one to 100, with higher scores meaning greater domain authority. In other words, the closer your blog’s domain authority is to 100, the more likely you are to rank for the keywords you’re targeting. 

The score is calculated using 40 different factors. These include things like root domains and the total number of links. Inbound links are a particularly important factor when they’re coming from highly reputable sites with high domain authority. 

Why You Should Care About the Domain Authority of Your Blog 

Some bloggers and SEO experts will claim that domain authority is one of the most important factors when it comes to building a highly profitable blog. 

Why? 

The higher your domain authority, the more Google recognizes you as an authority in your niche. As a result, it’s more likely to rank your blog posts among the top searches in Google. 

High domain authority = higher ranking blog posts = more blog traffic = more money for you

5 Ways to Start Improving Your Domain Authority Today 

Clearly, building and maintaining a high domain authority is pretty important. Luckily, it’s fairly easy to do, too! 

1. Niche Down  

Once you identify your niche, it’s crucial to create a plethora of content about the basics of that particular topic. For instance, if you’re a gluten-free blogger, you’ll want to start with kitchen staples such as gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, gluten-free bread, etc. 

On the other hand, if you’re a vegan blogger, you would want to start with topics like vegan ground beef alternatives, vegan chocolate chip cookies, etc. 

Starting with this will provide a good foundation of fundamental content that will establish that you know what you’re talking about and will set you up for successful interlinking later down the road. 

2. Gain Follow Links 

Follow links are links to your site that boost the SEO of the pages they’re linked to, helping them rank higher in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). 

The more follow links, particularly from large, authoritative blogs, the higher your domain authority and the more likely you are to rank on Google. 

So, how do you get follow links? You write good content! This is where niching down becomes particularly important. By determining a niche, you’ll be able to better understand what a particular audience is looking for and can put out helpful, relevant content that other sites will want to link to. 

Provide Helpful Information

This probably goes without saying, but you want to make sure that every single post you put out is full of helpful, relevant content. 

Quality > Quantity 

Do not stuff your posts or site with irrelevant posts or articles that do not actually help your readers. Instead, take the time to test recipes, take high-quality photos, and do your due diligence with SEO research and outlines. Or, just hire a freelance food writer like me to help you out. 

4. Compare Your Content with Your Top Competitors

Part of doing effective SEO research is comparing what your top competitors are ranking for and including in their posts. To create a winning strategy, you want to take the topics that frequently pop up, include them in your posts, expand on them, and add even more to make the process unbelievably clear and simple for your readers. 

Doing so will help ensure that Google thinks you are touching on the key points readers want to know and can thus be trusted as a source. It also builds trust with your readers, ensuring they come back again and again. 

Stay on Top of Blog Maintenance 

Last but not least, you want to stay on top of maintaining your blog. This includes making sure all your links are helpful and relevant, updating old posts, and responding to comments and concerns on top of continuing to publish new content. 

These are good practices in general but also help ensure that your content is up-to-date, relevant, and trustworthy. Plus, it eliminates the need to constantly push out new content week after week. It’s a win-win! 

Final Notes

There’s no arguing that domain authority is important, but it’s not the end all be all. In fact, I’ve yet to see someone give clear, exact numbers for an exact domain authority to shoot for. (As a rule of thumb, aim to gain a score higher than your top competitors.) 

There’s no point driving yourself crazy over it. Instead, put your concentration into the factors that build domain authority and serve your audience, and the numbers will come. 

Still have questions? Let me know in the comments below!