Domain authority is one of the most important ranking factors for SEO in 2023. Having a high domain authority signals to Google that your site is trustworthy and authoritative. This means your pages are more likely to rank higher in search results.
There are several ways you can work to improve your domain authority this year. Follow these tips to strengthen your site’s authority and improve SEO:
1. Improve Technical SEO Factors
The technical foundation of your site plays a big role in domain authority. Make sure your site is optimized for search engines with these technical SEO best practices:
- Use a secure HTTPS connection. Switch your site to HTTPS if you haven’t already. An SSL certificate and HTTPS protocol help improve trust.
- Speed up page load times. Pages that load quickly perform better in search. Compress images, enable caching, and optimize code to improve speed. Aim for a page load time under 3 seconds.
- Fix broken links. Crawl your site to identify and fix any 404 errors and broken internal links. This improves site structure for SEO.
- Make your site mobile-friendly. With Google’s mobile-first indexing, it’s important your site is fully optimized for mobile devices. Test with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
- Create XML sitemaps. Sitemaps make it easier for search engines to crawl your site. Submit XML sitemaps for your homepage, blog, and other important pages.
- Optimize page titles and meta descriptions. Unique, keyword-rich titles and meta descriptions improve click-through-rates.
Taking the time to improve these technical factors shows search engines your site is well-maintained and updated.
2. Increase Domain Age
One of the biggest factors for domain authority is the age of your domain. Older domains tend to have more authority.
If your domain is less than a year old, be patient. Domain authority takes time to build. Continue adding high-quality content and getting high-quality backlinks, which will pay off as your domain gets older.
Buying an expired, aged domain can help you get a head start on domain authority. Make sure the expired domain you purchase had quality backlinks and minimal spam to benefit the most from its age.
3. Focus on High-Quality, Detailed Content
The quality and depth of your content has a direct impact on domain authority. Thin, low-value content does little for growing authority.
Aim for long-form, in-depth content that truly provides value for your audience. Longer content over 1,500 words naturally tends to perform better for SEO.
Conduct keyword research to identify topics and questions your audience is searching for, then create content that provides thorough information. Include related images, infographics, videos, and other media in your content when possible.
Optimizing your pages and posts around specific keyword phrases helps search engines understand your content focus. This strengthens the topical authority of your domain over time.
4. Get Backlinks from Authority Websites
The websites that link back to your domain are one of the biggest factors in calculating domain authority. Focus on getting quality backlinks from high authority sites in your niche.
Here are some effective tactics to build quality backlinks:
- Create link-worthy content. Promote your best content and make it easy for others to link to your site naturally.
- Guest post on authority sites. Approach websites with a DA 50+ in your industry about contributing a post.
- Promote your content. Share your content on social media and relevant online communities to increase visibility and referral traffic.
- Build relationships and network. Connect with influencers and partners to mutually exchange backlinks where it makes sense.
- Earn industry citations. Create listings on directories like Yelp to build authority-passing local citations.
The more authoritative sites that link back to you, the more Google sees your domain as an authority within your space. But focus on earning links naturally through quality content. Buying links or using spammy tactics can actually hurt your ranking.
5. Increase Your Social Shares and Engagement
Social media signals also factor into domain authority in 2023. Having content that garners high social engagement shows search engines that your content resonates with users.
Include social sharing buttons on your pages to make it easy for visitors to share. Promote your new content on social media to increase views and social actions.
Creating content optimized for social engagement can help. This includes using viral headline formulas, list posts, meme-style images, and other highly-shareable formats.
Most importantly, ensure your content delivers value to your audience. Content that truly resonates and fills a need tends to get the most likes, shares, and engagement overall.
6. Build Internal Links Between Pages on Your Site
Internal linking is an important and often overlooked opportunity for improving domain authority. Linking between the pages on your site strengthens the interconnectivity for SEO.
When creating and updating content, look for relevant places to link internally to supporting pages and posts on your site. For example:
- Linking to a list of tips from a tips post
- Linking to past product reviews from a new review
- Linking to related category or topic pages from a post
Use anchor text with your target keywords for internal links to reinforce those keywords for your site. Over time, a strong internal link structure makes your domain more authoritative and cohesive for search engines.
7. Publish New Content Consistently
The frequency of your content publication also plays a role in domain authority. Sites that publish new content more regularly tend to perform better in search.
Aim to publish new long-form content at least 1-2 times per week, whether written blog content, videos, or other media. Maintaining a consistent schedule of multiple posts each week helps build authority.
Repurposing and updating older content can help too. Refresh outdated posts by adding new information, additional tips, and more. Link internally between your refreshed content and related posts.
The more regularly you add new, fresh content to your domain, the faster you can build authority to boost your SEO results.
Let’s Recap
Improving your domain authority takes consistent effort, but it pays off in higher search rankings and more organic traffic. Focus on these seven tactics in 2023 to increase domain authority for your site:
- Technical SEO optimizations
- Increasing domain age
- Publishing high-quality, in-depth content
- Earning backlinks from authority sites
- Generating social engagement
- Using internal links
- Adding new content regularly
Committing to a process of ongoing SEO improvements will build the authority of your domain over time. Track your domain authority monthly to benchmark your progress.
With a powerful domain authority foundation, your pages will be better equipped to rank higher for your target keywords this year.
