Domain Authority is one of the key debates in the SEO world. So, is it an important ranking factor?

A lot of people with new websites tend to ignore the importance of Domain Authority. On the other hand, some people believe domain authority is built only with time. Regardless of your side, it’s important to understand why domain authority is considered a necessary SEO factor. Let’s tell you why.

What Is Domain Authority?

Domain Authority (DA) is a ranking system used in search engine optimization (SEO) to measure the authority of a website. Domain Rating, on the other hand, measures how much traffic the domain gets. This metric was created by Moz and originated back in 1999.

It is calculated by looking at how many links are pointing to the domain on a scale from 0-100. It usually includes things such as:

• A website’s spam score;
• Page authority of singular pages;
• Pages in Google;
• Number of viable links;
• Interlinking quality;
• The technical aptness of the website.

So, in other words, Domain Authority is a metric that is used to measure the quality of a website. It’s based on Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Yandex data.

What Does Google Say?

A lot of people say that Domain Authority is not an absolute metric, and it may not be the best way to measure the quality of your website. And that Domain Rating can be used as an alternative metric, which takes into account both Domain Authority and Page Authority.

However, Google doesn’t agree with either of them. Back in 2018, John Mueller of Google debunked the theory that Google considers domain authority as a viable ranking factor. Yet, it’s important to note that he states it’s not an ideal ranking factor.

But, DA still remains a viable SEO factor, as it can help determine the quality of a website. Besides that, DA is meant to be a quality assessment tool. So, it can be analyzed to measure the quality of a website.

Why Is Domain Authority Considered An Essential SEO Ranking Factor?

Now that we know the basics and Google’s opinion, it’s important to understand why DA is an essential SEO ranking factor. So, before you get to measuring DA, here are four things to understand:

1.    Sites with High DA Tend To Be More Reputable

Look at websites like Forbes, Wikipedia, or YouTube. You will find their DA scores very high—with Wikipedia being the lowest at 78. Now, what this tells us is that highly reputable websites tend to have higher DA scores.

So, let’s say your website scores an 80 on Moz when you check DA, which means it’s equal to or higher than Wikipedia in terms of domain ratings. Now, that means your website is:

• Equally reputable;
• Has trustable information;
• Doesn’t practice black hat SEO techniques.

These factors will also draw in potential backlink affiliations. That’s why users tend to use tools to measure the DA so they can analyze whether the website is reputable or not.

2.    Increases Organic Traffic

Domain authority was created by Moz to mimic the real ranking algorithms of Google itself. While it is not 100% accurate it is still a great indicator of a website’s ranking and trustworthiness.

If your site has a high domain authority and you have populated it with content that is shareable and helpful, then it will result in an increase in organic traffic.

The main reason for this is that people try to link only to high-DA websites. That’s because they want their own reputation to increase and linking to good sites provides you with some link juice. Of course, it is not as much as getting a link from a high-DA site, but it is still considerable.

This is where tools for checking DA come in. Any person that want to link to your site will check your DA with the help of a DA checker.That is a tool that can accurately measure the domain authority of a site. Similarly, you can also use a DA checker to determine if a website is worth linking to or not.  In this way, your site can get more organic traffic by maintaining a high DA.

1.    Domain Authority Builds User Trust

Domain authority is one of the key factors in many niches and industries. A website with a higher domain authority score also means it has quality backlinks, proper interlinking, and a lower spam score.

Let’s consider this, you’re looking at a website for technical information, but when you check PA DA, it is low because of the high spam score.

This means broken links, bad website technicalities, and possibly even duplicate content.Therefore, it’s recommended for users to check DA of a site before linking with it. So, how exactly does it build trust?

• It improves the chances of worthy content;
• Indicates the low or non-existent ratio of bad links;
• Indicates optimized website structure and UX;
• Signifies the lack of spam or duplicity
• Also indicates the technical aptness of your website.

These are all the unacceptable things you can think of that might cause the downfall of a website’s domain authority. On the contrary, a website with a higher DA score means it has proper linking, better technicalities and zero plagiarized content.

Conclusion

These are some of the major reasons domain authority is considered an essential SEO ranking factor. Some people even believe that since Google doesn’t own Domain Authority; that’s why they don’t openly endorse it. However, everything about Domain Authority indicates its importance in SEO and how it’s a necessary SEO ranking factor.