Day 16 of 30 SEO: 12 Steps to Increase Domain Authority

Steps to increase domain authority for better search results and more traffic.

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Let’s get started in finding out how to increase the domain authority of your website.

Google likes a website that is relevant, has great content and in keeping with what they believe to be authoritative. Let’s delve into this and discover what you can do to ensure that Google considers your site to be authoritative.  Here’s more information about Google Domain Authority from Moz.

Select a suitable domain name

Everything depends on you choosing a good domain name that will ideally include an important keyword for your niche. For example, if you want to create a site for home décor guidance, putting the word home or another word that means the home will help your site with ranking.

Create quality content

Content that you create for your site needs to be relevant, high quality and contain accurate information. Check grammar, typos, errors and that it’s unique. It also needs to be formatted well, as we looked at in a previous post on Boost Your SEO Score with Formatting. Images need to be optimised, and it needs to look professional.

Optimize Your Content

Using the right heading tags and HTML will not only help to ensure that your content looks right, but it will be easier for humans and the search bots to read it. Be sure to add meta descriptions that make people want to click, title tags that are accurate and formatting.

Create Content People Want to Link To

Consider the people you are writing for. If your content is useful, people will want to link to it. It should be long-form, interesting and meaty enough to give people the information that they need.

Develop Social Signals

Social signals come from social sites when people share or like your content. It helps Google to understand whether your content is being well received and is of high quality.

Link to Authority Sites

Creating outbound links to authority sites in your niche will signal to Google that your site is of the same topic. Over time your site will be recognised for an authority site.

Post Consistently & Regularly

It’s not necessary to post daily, but you do need to post consistently and regularly. Not only will your readers get accustomed to you posting new content regularly, but the search engines will crawl your site more.

Develop an Internal Linking Structure

As we looked at in this previous post about Interlinking the content of your site, building internal links in content, around and below it will make it easier for readers to access it. It also builds a clear path for the search bots to explore more of your content.

Remove Bad Links

Links can become broken and old. Keep your site current by checking for links that are out of date or broken. There are also WordPress plugins available to help with this.

Develop a Responsive Website

A responsive website is one that will work on any device, such as a smart phone. If you don’t use a responsive website design, the search engines will not promote you so well as it will be harder to read. Many people visit websites from mobile phones and tablets.

Become the Authority in Your Niche

Appear on podcasts, write a book, become known at public events in your niche. Once you are a well-known authority, you’ll find that more people will follow you and link to you.

Ensure Your Site Loads Fast

A slow site means more bounced visitors who will lower your ranking.

In summary, increasing your web authority is all about being relevant, staying consistent and producing accurate information that speaks to your audience. Taking these actions aren’t challenging; you could even head over to your site right now and update your pages with these actions to start making a difference to traffic.

More information about using SEO for more traffic

Day 8 of 30 SEO Challenge: Start with a Good Search-Friendly Headline

Beginners Guide to Basic On-Page SEO Factors