SEO domain authority. What has changed and what does it mean for you?

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is famously complex and SEO Domain Authority (DA) is one of many moving parts that many optimisation experts like to keep a close eye on.

What is SEO Domain Authority?

This industry standard metric was created by Moz and predicts how well websites rank on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Domain Authority scores range between 1 and 100 and are calculated using a variety of factors. The BBC website, for example, has a Domain Authority score of 95, the website for the department store John Lewis has a Domain Authority of 84, and popular bakery chain Greggs has a Domain Authority of 62.

It's also worth noting here that the logarithmic scale means that it's far easier to increase your Domain Authority from 20 to 30 than it is to increase a Domain Authority of 60 to 70.

Although it is not a ranking factor, SEO domain authority can essentially be taken as a rough idea as to how favourably Google looks upon your website. Well-designed websites housing engaging, high-quality content with plenty of inbound and outbound links are more likely to secure a higher Domain Authority that sites that aren’t excelling in those areas.

SEO experts use Domain Authority in a variety of ways, including to guide link-building outreach, track campaign progress and evaluate the quality of a website’s natural links.

The New SEO Domain Authority

Officially launched on 5 March 2019, the new and improved SEO Domain Authority now uses a machine-learning model that has been designed to incorporate technical alterations and deliver a more dependable metric. It now has the ability to keep up with algorithmic updates in search engines and will also look at additional factors including link quality pattern and spam scores.

It also seems that more weight is now being placed on backlink quality, which will have significant benefits for websites that are not engaging in spammy link building practices.

Fundamentally, Moz wants to ensure that site and business owners can get the most out of their Domain Authority data and this new model looks to be a decidedly more accurate representation of a website’s ranking potential.

What Does This Mean for You?

It is important to view SEO Domain Authority as a relative metric. Ultimately it doesn’t really matter whether your Domain Authority score increases or falls, but it does matter if it increases or falls relative to the scores of your competition.

Whenever you are using Domain Authority as a factor, it’s also important to contextualise this information by looking at rankings and site traffic. Think about it, securing a massive increase in your Domain Authority score is ultimately meaningless if this doesn’t also equate to additional visits, leads and conversions. Similarly, if you see a significant reduction in your Domain Authority score but all other metrics look stable, it’s not necessarily something you need to be too concerned about.

Although many marketing and SEO experts were a little nervous when these alterations were first announced, this really does go to show that change isn’t always a bad thing.

If you would like to pick our brains about anything SEO related or learn how you can improve your SEO Domain Authority score and soar past your competition, give us a call on +44 (0)1172 140 140.