Developing Domain Authority & Google Search Relevancy

Domain Authority (DA) is a useful metric for search engine optimization (SEO). Developed by Moz, DA is an indicator of a domain’s probability of ranking on a scale of 1 to 100 relative to its competitors. Competitors with a higher Domain Authority ranking are more likely to appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs).

There are several SEO companies that have also developed their own set of metrics (that do not influence Google PageRanking) to quantitatively assess the ‘authority’ of a domain, its pages, and more. The question is: To what metrics do you, as a marketing agency or small business owner focused on SEO, pay attention?

What is Domain Authority?

First, let’s review the definition of Domain Authority according to Moz:

“Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs). Domain Authority scores range from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to greater likelihood of ranking…

Domain Authority is calculated by evaluating multiple factors, including linking root domains and total number of links, into a single DA score. This score can then be used when comparing websites or tracking the "ranking strength" of a website over time. Domain Authority is not a Google ranking factor and has no effect on the SERPs.”

According to Forbes, Domain Authority “scores are virtually always accurate and useful diagnostic tools for assessing a website’s reliability, strength and trustworthiness.” Similar to Moz, other SEO tools, such as SEMRush, Ahrefs (Domain Rank and URL Rank) and Majestic (Citation Flow and Trust Flow), have also developed their own metrics to offer competitive SERP insights.

The factors considered in the unique algorithms make logical sense. However, small business owners and marketers should be aware that these metrics are potential indicators of SEO strength within an industry or similar content genre - but they are not a guarantee in Google PageRank performance for certain keywords.

What Do SEO Experts Need to Take Into Consideration?

Search Engine Journal notes that “none of these tools provide a complete picture of all the links on the web. Unlike Google, these tools do not have the infrastructure required to crawl the entire web, so they instead focus on discovering a significant sample of the links to a given site or page.” These metrics are “only back-engineered estimates of how authoritative Google sees the domain or page, and not actual representations of PageRank.” Google Search Console, however, is a free service that will provide you with a comprehensive listing of the sites that backlink to your domain.

No one single metric should be used to judge a site for its SEO strength - or as a credible backlink for your site. Do manual keyword research of your keywords to double-check your assumptions of Domain Authority and any other key metrics utilized. Search Engine Journal evaluates the first ten SERPs (or 100 pages) using their clients’ keywords. You may be surprised about the SERP results for the keywords you’ve selected compared to a site’s Domain Authority ranking or other SEO tool metrics.

SEO is an ever-evolving project, and metrics such as Moz’s Domain Authority are great indicators. Make sure, however, that you evaluate these site metrics against actual Google PageRanking results versus competitors for your strategic keywords. Finally, utilize Google Search Console to get full picture of your site’s search performance and backlink sources.

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