If you have a blog, or any site for that matter, and want to have high SERPs, then you must have a high domain authority (DA). While SEO is great and keywords are a part of your DA, if your overall score for the domain authority is low, you will not be seen by the search engines. So, how do you go about increasing your presence? Here are 5 ways to increase domain authority of your website effectively in order to maximize your SERPs.
1) Build up your Internal Linking
When it comes to the Google algorithms, sharing is essential to increase domain authority. A great many people wish to have sites point to their home page, product page, etc. but rarely put in links to other sites. Google views this as an aversion from the search practices they have. However, when a site uses internal links to the blogs and articles they write, Google sees this as building trust for the site. Of course, you do not want to go overboard with the internal linking, as readers may associate the article with spam. But having one to four good-quality, authority links within your site’s blogs and articles is a great way to boost the DA.
2) Build up your backlinks
Backlinking is one of the simplest ways to increase your domain authority. When you build backlinks, you are telling other sites that you exist. The problem comes when you do not know where to go, what sites are beneficial for the backlink, and/or do not have the time to build quality links.
It is important to note that when you are backlinking that you wish to use reputable sites and high-quality content. Backlinks are from external sites, meaning those which are not owned by you. Therefore, it is ill advised that you use a generator to produce such links. Generators may place backlinks in sites/blogs which would hurt the reputation of your site.
For example, if you have a family values blog, it could form a backlink on an adult website. Someone searching your domain could stumble across this backlink which would, in turn, hurt your reputation. When backlinking, either build them through guest post, social media shareable content or hire a reputable service.
When it comes to backlinking, many people wonder, is it safe to use any available link building services like LinksManagment. In my opinion, it is always good to control it in your own hands by doing it manually or in-house. But if you have less manpower and time, you can try a reputable service. But make sure to review and keep an eye on your website stats and backlink profile. You can always disavow a spammy backlink on your Google webmaster tools.
Recommended reading: 5 Ways to Build Quality Backlinks to Boost Rankings.
3) Be active
There is a misconception that a person can build the backlinks of their site and publish a few quality articles and that the SEO and the SERPs will maintain themselves. This is simply not the case. The domain authority calculates in the social presence, the consistency of content being posted, comments given on a post, the age of backlinks and inbound links, and a great many other factors. If your site is dormant, then the SERPs will see it as being obsolete, and you will be pushed back further in the Search Engine Result Pages.
Keep a consistent and uniformity to your blog and article posts. When building your domain authority, ensure that your linking is done properly with any authoritative linking service. Using a linking service is also a great way in which to keep your site looking active, especially if you do not have the time to allocate to the technical aspects of the SEO and DA management.
4) Have a domain that is searchable
One of the biggest mistakes that a website can have is to have a domain that is not searchable. By this, I mean that the person has taken the default URL when using a template or a free website builder, or the person has named the site foolishly. For example, when you have a WordPress theme, generally the domain will have the “www.wordpress.com/your-site-name-here” association. It is almost impossible for you to gain any domain authority in this instance as the domain is WordPress associated first and your domain name association second. Spend the few extra dollars and drop the massive Association to increase your domain authority.
When choosing your domain, keep it simple and searchable. The longer your domain, the less apt people will be to type it in directly.
You may also like: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Best Domain Name for Your Brand.
5) Keep your SEO up
Your SEO for your site is ever evolving, and the SERPs are ever going through stages of seeking and ranking. Ensure that your keywords, your images, your social media, videos, comments, etc. are up to date. Generally, changes in your SEO take a few days to a few weeks to boost your SERPs depending on what is changed and the other sites which are building their SEO. You cannot do SEO one time and expect to have great results and increase your domain authority.
BONUS
If you wish to see where your site ranks currently with its domain authority, go to MOZ – Open Site Explorer and type in your URL. The site will give you your rank out of 100 for the Domain Authority.