There are numerous
signals that the search engines consider when ranking a website and as we know
the search engines are constantly tweaking these algorithms and giving more or
less weight to certain factors in order to improve search results and combat web
spam.
While we don’t know
exactly how much of a factor it is compared to other signals, we do know that
one of the things that the search engines consider is the authority (or power)
of the domain of the website. Domain authority conveys trust to the search
engines, which is important because the search engines want to rank websites
that site users will find beneficial.
Here are some ways to
improve your domain authority for the search engines:
TRUST
Domain authority is really built through user
trust. If your site is designed well, has great usability, had good page load
time, and excellent conversion metrics, this will go a long way to helping
build domain authority. You also should make sure the site has great content,
and is also mobile friendly. The reputation of your site will grow over time,
but it also starts with generating the user’s trust. On the flip side, if your
site is poorly designed and is filled with low quality content, your site won’t
build trust and will therefore not age well.
CONTENT USEFULNESS
About seven years ago,
having a blog was considered a good thing. Now, it’s absolutely essential for a
variety of factors. Your blog really helps you resonate with your audience
because it gives them a chance to interact with your company by providing them
with plenty of useful content. Not only that, but the size of a website on a
domain contributes towards its authority. As the number of content pages on a
website grows, as does the chance that a page on that website will generate
inbound links. A great way to add quality content to your website on a regular
basis is to incorporate a blog onto the domain. These blog posts will ensure
that the search engine spiders continue to return the website to index it.
SITE AGE
There’s really nothing
that can be done here besides keeping up with domain registration. If a domain
has been registered for a long time and the website has gradually been building
traffic it is viewed much more favorably than a brand new domain that hasn’t
yet earned that search engine trust. However, a site’s age doesn’t make up for
a low quality site. If it’s poorly designed and filled with badly written
content but has been around for a long time, chances are good that it won’t
rank well in the search engines.
CUSTOMER TRUST
Part of building trust
is showing that you’re legit as a company. There are plenty of ways that you
can build this trust through your company website. For instance, your site
should display any customer testimonials and industry associations. If you won
any awards, you should definitely promote that on your site. You also need to
be transparent by listing all your contact information such as your address,
email, and phone number. Customers will trust you more if you give them more
than just your email address or a contact form.
TRANSPARENCY
In fact, if your website isn’t showing that you’re fully transparent,
you won’t succeed. Transparency builds trust between you and your customer, and
if you leave information out, your customer won’t trust you. On the other hand,
if you show your customer that you have nothing to hide, it will help build
that relationship.BUILD INBOUND LINKS
One factor that the
search engines consider when determining the authority of a domain is the
number of inbound links that are pointing to it which conveys the “popularity”
of the website. However, the search engine algorithms are designed to place
high value on a link that was obtained naturally. All manual link building
tactics are now considered obsolete because they do more harm than good.
If a website has lots
of inbound links from other high authority websites, it is considered to be a
high authority site by association. One website only links to another if there
is useful information to be found at the destination site. There are many white
hat tactics you can use to encourage others to share your site, but what really
helps generate quality inbound links is creating and distributing quality
content on a regular basis.
These strategies can
most certainly help you build domain authority. However, it’s more important to
focus on building a site that is filled with helpful content for your readers.
The “authority” will happen naturally over time.
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