Editor
When checking out the various types of ranking for business sites, you’ll inevitably stumble across the terms “Domain Authority” and “Page Authority”. With the word “authority” in the titles, this certainly sounds like a ranking you should take seriously! In fact, these terms refer to some of the most mysterious rankings to crack; however, gaining higher rankings does help your business gain attention on search engine result pages (SERPs).
Let’s take a look at what domain authority and page authority entail, and how you can influence your overall scores.
What Is Domain Authority (DA)?
Domain authority is a ranking created by Moz.com. At its core, “DA” is a score between 1 and 100 that will predict how highly a site will rank for all major search engines.
Moz has created a complex logarithm that calculates domain authority. While the actual factors that have gone into this calculation have not been fully revealed, some known contributors are things like root domains and quantity of inbound links. This has been determined by sheer observation, as highly-linked websites (for example, Facebook) are ranked with extremely high domain authority, while new sites receive a DA of 1.
Domain authority is, in fact, one of the over 200 ranking factors Google bots analyze when examining sites. A higher DA score, in Google’s analytics, indicates that your site performs higher, is to be more trusted, and has higher-quality content than others in your niche. Therefore, it stands to reason that you’ll want to check out your current domain authority.
What Is Page Authority (PA)?
Page Authority is a very similar concept to domain authority, only on a page-by-page scale.
Like DA, “PA” was developed by Moz.com to help predict how well certain pages of your overall site will rank on a SERP. These scores also range from 1 to 100, and also center largely around inbound links.
Every time a site links to your page, a bit of link authority is transmitted along with the link. You can consider this a vote of confidence from that site to yours. Naturally, more votes means more confidence in your page. Higher confidence, therefore, will give you a higher PA rating.
Much as in the case of domain authority, the actual algorithm for determining page authority is unknown. However, of the 40-plus factors that help determine PA, keyword frequency and quality of content is not considered. That being said, consider how likely it will be to gain a high quantity of inbound links from highly respected sources without SEO and quality content!
How Can I Check My DA and PA Scores?
First, you’ll want to check your own domain authority and page authority. This is pretty easy, and best of all- free. Simply go to moz.com, scroll down to the “Free Domain Analysis Tool”, enter your web address, and click “Analyze”.
You’ll immediately receive your domain authority score, along with a list of your top ranking pages and their page authority.
Once you get your DA and PA figures, what do you do with this information?
The first step is to consider what this means. Remember, DA and PA don’t demonstrate keyword value or the overall usefulness of your site. They simply indicate how likely your site is to have high quality based on the number of inbound links, amongst a host of other factors that no one exactly knows.
So, while you certainly want to boost this number, bear in mind that your efforts won’t immediately cause your business to skyrocket to the top of success.
To make matters even more difficult, remember, the highest score that can be received is 100; therefore, as other sites improve their performance, your site might drop a bit in the rankings. It is neither a perfect art nor science.
How to improve Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA)?
That being said, you can still work to influence your DA and PA, and ensure that overall, your site receives high scores. This can be accomplished with a few steps that you’ll already want to implement in order to perform well on any SERP:
Link profile
Make sure your link profile is up-to-date and accurate. You’ll be able to see on Moz.com’s free analysis what sites link to yours. Make sure you know where your site shows up!
Content
Always have quality content. You’ll gain more high-DA inbound links when your site consistently produces high-quality, readable, entertaining, educational content.
Links
Earn more links. This goes hand-in-hand with the last item. The best way to earn links is with content that other sites want to link to.
Have you ever heard of the “skyscraper method”? This is a very common SEO practice in which you search out content that ranks highly for keywords in your niche, then write even better, more educational, more entertaining content. Then you contact the sites that link to the highly ranking content, show them your bigger and better content, and gain their link.
Create Your own Ranking
Not as in an official type of ranking, but determine which of your pages you want to get the highest PA, and make that page a priority. You can make this your homepage.
If you have a really great blog, perhaps that’s the page you choose as the most important. Whichever page you choose, make sure that it is clear, concise, visually pleasing with images that load quickly, and immaculate content!
Final Considerations about DA and PA
The bad news about domain authority and page authority is that, unlike other SEO methods, there’s no “tried and true” formula that can help you sweep the ratings.
Instead, it’s a constant artistic endeavor to ensure your site is competing well with others in your niche. Create a strong page to gain PA, and use this page to attract more inbound links to your overall site. This will, in turn, improve your DA.
Additionally, bear in mind that your DA will change frequently as other sites pull in more attention from week to week. Don’t lose hope: just keep your eyes on your content, and constantly work towards building a site that attracts all the best attention.
