Domain Authority 🥇 How To Check & Increase Your DA [Kenyan Guide]
Today, the rules for effective SEO has evolved into a more competitive marketing channel. SEO professionals in kenya have to stay abreast of the latest developments and have to refine their approach multiple times a year to get to the number one position.
As per Google’s Book, the top three positions bear great significance, and this is true in the mobile world as well. No. 1 position in google gets 33% of search traffic, various study says. Even the industry’s experts are of the view that when you attain position one, your CTR increases by at least 200%.
But, getting the top spot is easier said than done. As a marketer, you will have to face numerous challenges along the way. Ranking particular keywords and getting authority backlink will not be sufficient. And various other google ranking factors tend to influence the rankings. But this will be in your benefit in many ways if you manage to get high authority backlinks
Speaking of factors, Domain Authority (abbreviated as DA) has a major role to play. If you have a low DA, you will have to face significant losses of both traffic and ranking. Owing to this, it is imperative to have good domain authority.
So, let us get to know what is it and what actionable steps you can adopt to improve your DA.
People Also Ask:
- What is a good domain authority?
- What does domain authority mean?
- How do I find my domain authority?
- What is the difference between Page Authority and Domain Authority?
- What is a good domain rating?
- What is link authority?
Also Read – 🥇 SEO Glossary: ABC Of SEO Terms & Definitions 2019 [Infographic]
What Is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority can be defined as a search engine ranking score, developed by Moz, that predicts how well your website will rank on the SERPs. A Domain Authority scores usually range between 1 to 100. The higher the score, the better it will rank. Mainly, the backlinks from authoritative websites do impact the DA score.
DA consists of 40 ranking signals such as the number of links pointing to the site and the number of linking root domains – essentially the number of other sites linking to your site!  (See MozTrust, MozRank , etc.) Websites with a large am
DA measures the authority of the complete domain.  Similarly, PA (page authority) is the measure of an individual page.
Why DA is important in SEO?
With Matt Cutts recently announcing that Google will start punishing quick-fire guest posts in the upcoming algorithm updates, it has become tougher for content developers to rank better with sub-par content. There are no ways to game the system now and it is now level ground for all the online publishers.
DA is another metric used to understand the performance of your website and it is considered important, as just like Google, it is hard to influence that metric and it takes a lot of factors under consideration before calculating your DA score.
With even the dropping of updates to PageRank by Google, Domain Authority would soon become one of the key metric to gauge the quality of your website, often needed by advertisers.
How to Check Website’s Domain Authority in Kenya?
Domain authority metrics are assimilated into numerous online marketing and SEO platforms throughout the web. Talking particularly about the SEO ecosystem, Domain Authority can be checked with the help of MozBar, Keyword Explorer (in the SERP Analysis section) or Link Explorer.
Domain Authority Checker Tools
Here is the walk through of some of the best tools using which you can check the SEO authority of a domain. Below are three of the best tools you can use –
MozBar
When it comes to checking domain authority, one of the best tools that top the list is Mozbar. Irrespective of the website, this particular tool will highlight the domain authority of the website. Besides, it will also include the page authority of that particular URL.
Ahrefs
As per Ahrefs, there are more than 12 trillion links and 200 million root domains, and this makes it a holistic repository for SEOs looking to know more about their SEO performance. They have significantly improved their size, freshness, and size of their link data.
Some SEOs go for Moz and some for Ahrefs, and as far as the scores are concerned, they also tend to vary significantly now and again.
As per Moz, they incorporate numerous signals (40 in total) while calculating domain authority of a website including –
Quality and relevancy of the incoming links
SEO performance of the website (in general)
A number of links pointing to your website
Quality of the content on the website
Social signals
Various metrics are measured in order to check domain authority:
Moz Domain Authority (DA) – The calculated authority for the complete website / domain, on a 1 – 100 scale.
Moz Page Authority (PA) – The calculated authority for a specific page, on a 1 – 100 scale.
Backlinks / external links pointing to a specific URL or domain.
Website age and URL Age (estimation)
Social Media score – The total share count from: Facebook and Pinterest
Google PageRank – The calculated authority on a 1 – 10 scale.
Google PageRank is no longer supported, because Google announced they won’t update this metric any more.
Other Domain Authority Checkers
You can check domain authority of a website using following tools.
Factors That Affect Website’s Domain Authority in 2019
Now, that you have made yourself familiar with Domain Authority, it pays to know the factors that affect the domain authority. Here are those factors –
Total backlink profile quality
Linking root domains
User experience
Domain age
Structure of the Website
Social signals and Social Shares
Trust
Loading time of the Website
Technical SEO including on page SEO
What Influences Domain Authority in Kenya
If you think that you can somehow influence Domain Authority directly, then it can be an arduous task. It is a of collection of link data and metrics that goes ahead and effect the authority score. Considering the fact that Google Kenya takes into consideration numerous factors, a metric that calculates it must incorporate numerous factors as well.
It is imperative that you improve your SEO in Kenya, as this is the best way to influence the DA.
Also Read – 13 Common Technical SEO Mistakes You Cant Afford To Make In 2019
Why Did My Website’s Domain Authority Change Over a Period of Time
Since Domain Authority includes intricate calculations and numerous metrics, it is hard to pinpoint any particular cause. In case you have witnessed a fluctuation in your score, it can be due to the following factors –
The link profile is yet to be captured in the search engine
Highest-authority websites witnessed considerable link growth, suddenly making changes to the scaling process
Links were earned from all those places that don’t add on to the Google rankings in Kenya
Your DA is at all time low and of the scoring spectrum, and it is therefore, more affected by the scaling changes.
How to Increase Domain Authority in 2019?
So, here are the top to-do-list that will increase your Domain Authority of website in Kenya-
1. Write Quality Content That Your Audience Love to Connect With
Content comes at the top position when it comes to boosting the domain authority of your website. Make it a point that you have quality content on your website to have a good DA. If you have unique, related, and approachable content, rest assured it will be valued everywhere.
You must have an effective strategy to have quality content. As SEO Kenya experts says that you should have quality content on your website to rank better, than What is quality content?
Two things that matter the most are relevancy and uniqueness. Remember, quality content attracts visitors, and you can’t compromise with the content. You can make your content more presentable by using quirky images, videos, and GIFs.
Infographics have become a creative way of expressing the information, and it is an effective way to attract your target audience as well.
Here are other reasons behind the immense popularity of infographics –
- Make complicated information comprehensible
- Boost SEO
- Draw the attention
- Boost brand value
- Demonstrate expertise
- Easily embeddable
- Make your content viral
Good quality content should have a decent length, which means it should have more than 1200 words. Longer articles are considered informative. Definitive Guides, Tutorials, and Case Studies are examples of content that gets linked to by high authority websites.
So focus on publishing those kind of articles.
There are certain things you need to keep in your mind before you publish content on your website –
- Add a catchy headline
- Decent word counts, i.e. 2000+ words
- Apt formatting
- Add related images
- Interlink your blog post
- Should be error free
- Add a Call to Action (CTA)
- Keep the post interesting and engaging
2. Build A Social Media Content Strategy
While Google has cleared many times, in the past, that they don’t consider social media practices in their ranking algorithm; however, a clear link can be seen in the social signals and pages that enjoy higher Google rankings.
Note that the pages with many likes, shares, and tweets enjoy more popularity on Google. Social media experts have optimized and analyzed that there is huge list of social media trends that will matter most in 2019.
Now it’s up to you whether you follow these social media trends or not in your brand optimization.
If you want to increase your domain authority, you need to do the following things –
Ensure that social media buttons are aptly integrated on all pages so that it is easier for your audience to share your content
Focus and work on your company’s page and increase your followers.
Check if your content is of high-quality if shared on multiple social media networks
It is imperative to have an active social media presence to achieve maximum traction
3. Quality Link Building for SEO
Undoubtedly, links are an important source of traffic for a website. Owing to this, you need to concentrate more on link building campaigns so that you get to make a significant improvement in rankings. There are numerous ways or strategies you can compare to know how to get high-quality backlinks in 2019
Guest posting is one of the most practical and effective ways of gaining quality links from high-authority websites. While adding links to your blog posts, you must think about how these links can prove beneficial for the readers. If you feel that your readers will not click the link, then it is advisable not to add them.
4. Reduce Page Load Time & Get Rewarded With More Website Traffic
Page speed is one of the acknowledged signals when it comes to Google ranking algorithm. If your website has fast loading speed, it will have the edge over the slow loading websites.
You can follow numerous tips to reduce page load time and speed up your website. Improving your page speed will have dual benefits, it will not only make significant improvements in the rankings, but at the same time, it will also enhance the user experience, eventually translating into increased sales and signups.
Following are some of the hacks you can choose to increase the loading speed of your website –
Choose to optimize the file size of the images
Go for a streaming service for videos such as YouTube
Gain updated information about the server’s performance. If required, upgrade to a powerful server
Use a caching plugin
Make sure you get rid of unnecessary plugins
Upgrade to the latest WordPress version
5. Boost Your Website’s Domain Authority by Making It Mobile-friendly
If you have a website, it is mandatory to make it mobile-friendly. Check your website for mobile friendliness here. Users are now able to access the internet in plenty ways like tablets, laptops and mobile devices. Wants to know benefits of mobile optimized websites, lets discuss.
Are you wondering why? Read it Here –
Mobile friendliness is one of the key ranking factors for any website
Commonly, users first start their search on mobile and then continue on the desktop
If your website is not mobile-friendly, it will have a negative impact on your overall DA score
Google is working on a mobile-first index, and all those websites that are not mobile-friendly will not be considered
Desktop searches have significantly reduced, and mobile searches have witnessed a major rise (about 65%)
6. Optimize Internal Linking for building page authority.
Experts are of the view that most of the websites concentrate more on external linking, and they overlook the fact that internal linking also bears great significance.
It is with the help of internal linking that the user is directed to what he/she is looking for on a website, eventually increasing the overall user experience. Wants to know about Internal linking for SEO, Why and how to do?
With the help of internal linking, users stay engaged on your website. Besides, it proves handy for the search engines to index your website.
7. On-page SEO Techniques to Boost Website authority
You have to focus on optimizing your On-page SEO techniques. On-Page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual pages of a website to gain higher rank and also attract more traffic in the SERPs. Let us discuss key factors you need to consider to improve your on-page SEO –
Add internal links. The content should be aptly formatted so that it ranks in Google’s featured snippets
Apt usage of headings H1 and H2 in your content
Titles and descriptions should be optimized
Images, videos, and other media elements should also be optimized
Use keywords naturally in the content and avoid stuffing
Permalinks and URL structure should be aptly optimized
Also Read – Want To Hire Best SEO Company In Kenya? – [A Complete Guide]
8. Identify and Remove Toxic Backlinks
Having bad backlinks on your website can prove detrimental. It can harm your SEO metrics and affects your SERPs rankings as well. Make sure you take some time and look closely on your link profile and look for toxic backlinks.
Once you have the list of toxic backlinks, its good to remove those backlinks. Google have clearly mentioned that if you come across a toxic backlink of your website, you should reach out to the the website owner and ask them to remove toxic backlinks before using the disavow tool.
The Chances are that such links will do you more harm than good, so remove such links from your website that lead to compromised websites or broken links as they can also harm your website.
9. Analyze Your Competitor’s Backlink
It is a great feeling if you somehow get to know the backlink profiles of your competitors. Luckily, you have numerous tools at your disposal through which you can compare your website with your competitor’s as far as domain authority, links, keyword rankings are concerned.
You will also get to make yourself acquainted with how well are you performing in the ranking game so that you can make improvements over time.
When you are well aware of what your competitor is doing, you can take timely action to outdo your competitors.
Be Patient
The age of the domain will play a major role in boosting the rank of your website along with domain authority score. If your website is three to four years old, this means you have been there for a long time. This also means that you were publishing quality content, and your website is not amongst the spam websites.
If your website is one or two months old, you don’t need to be concerned about the keyword ranking or domain authority score. You have to ensure that you continue publishing quality content on your website and the DA will improve with passing the time.
When you boost your website domain authority, you also get to improve your website’s ranking on Google and various other search engines. Domain authority is an important element when it comes to search engine ranking.
Implement the above-discussed ways to improve your domain authority in Kenya significantly. It will take some time to reach the top page of Google, but it’s not impossible as long as you are putting your best efforts.
Also Read – Local SEO Kenya 2019 – Tips & Checklist For Small Business