As a place for millions of sites to compete, search engines - in this case Google - have the authority to choose which sites are worthy of being labeled as trusted sites. Then this label is presented in a number named Domain Authority (DA).

In the SEO process, perhaps your focus is solely on content. However, there are other factors which have good values that will increase the content performance while competing with competitors. One of them is Domain Authority (DA).

Initiated by MOZ, Domain Authority is a metric which is used to determine the trust level of search engines to a website. DA scale is between 0-100. The higher the numbers are, the better it is. DA is an important factor that affects the traffic and site ranking.

Then, the next question is, is there any implication from DA numbers in SEO?

Obviously, yes.

Now, let’s do surgery together.

When writing content, SEO rules must be an absolute requirement, right? Starting from research the main keyword, variation, until the depth of the content, the uniqueness, and the richness of the content that is the main focus which must have been implemented.

However, there are times when your website has not yet been ranked. Also, there is no content that can outperform competitors in the top rankings. Here, you can start to compare your DA point and competitors’.

If your website has a high number, it means that search engines label your site as a “trusted site”. This site takes good advantages for ranking not only for your whole website but also for each content in it.

First, your content will be easier to get a ranking on SERP. It happens since the site has been considered “trusted” by Google. The certain search engine will prefer to give a ranking on the well known site with a good credibility than those which are not.

Second, content is richer. With a high number of DA, the content has an ability to capture more variations of keywords. Although it is not mentioned exactly in the article. In terms of SEO, it is obviously very good because the more keywords that articles are able to capture, the bigger content opportunities for users to find.

Then, what is the basis on which search engines assign Domain Authority numbers? At least this final number is determined by three things, those are domain age, popularity, and the number of contents.

Google will give a higher DA score for domain that is old as long as the website is maintained and always active (posting content, etc.). Google assumes that the old domain is scored as a “trusted site”. It affects the domain ranking on the SERP.

How popular a site can be seen by how many backlinks on the site are. There are many ways to start backlink placement, start from blog walking until placement on popular media with the appropriate budget.

This is the reason why it must post content continually. Since the amount of contents also affects the gained DA number. However, search engines also can judge which content is quality. Therefore, make sure that you always produce quality content.

Now, we are on the important stage in this discussion. Reflecting on the tantalizing advantages of having a high DA number, then how to increase the Domain Authority?

Again, the initial Foundation of a website is quality content. Before starting to write, do a deeper research. Master the topic of discussion. Confirm to make sure the writing accuracy.

Keep the quality content. Make sure to always produce quality content, unique, and different from other contents. Find the characteristics that can be a gap to build advantages over other websites.

Utilizing social media as a promotional activity. You can attach the website address on the profile. Besides, be diligent to share the latest articles.

In the indexing process after posting an article, Google will explore the content site. Therefore, contents on the web must be mutually through relevant internal links. In one article, 2-3 internal links are enough. The existence of relevant internal links has the potential to increase the page rank in SERP.

Branding is important to build the imagery/credibility. Branding can be done online or offline. Online branding such as promoting via social media. Whereas offline branding can be done by holding seminars and training.

This section contains conditions that you may have done. There are:

• Make a brief URL but still represent the content.
• Create a brief, to the point, and straightforward content.
• Cover all of LSI keywords.
• Utilize the Heading Tag. There are H1, H2, and so forth.
• Utilize the internal link. It is very good for SEO, but remember to attach the relevant internal link with the content discussed.
• Utilize the illustration, such as picture, video, infographic, etc. This is useful for not only the content is not monotonous, but also to clarify the description. So, use the informative illustration.
• Check the loading page speed. There are many factors that can obstruct the page speed. It can be high resolution pictures or others.

From many ways to increase domain authority, the most effective method is through backlink. Make many backlinks on your articles website. However, the backlink must be done naturally, not backlink spamming which purposes tricking the search engine.

1. In a month, how many backlinks should be the ideal? Can the amount be reduced in the following month?

Things need to be understood is that before planning to start building a backlink, you and your team do backlink projection first. The SEO team will make a mapping of the spread and backlink map that competitors have.

By the certain assumptions, then the SEO team can give a type of backlink recommendation, how the technique is, where the placement is, and how much the frequency in a month that must be made. All of them are in accordance with the needs of the website, reflecting on the backlink map research of the competitors. So, those are based on the needs. It could be this month is sufficient with 5 backlink, then next month the frequency may increase to 10.

2. How does a search engine count the amount of backlink? Must the link be clicked by users then it is counted as 1 backlink?

The amount of backlink is counted by how many links are attached on other websites. Users do not need to click the link first then it is counted as 1 backlink. The important thing is that your site has been listed on other websites.

Search engine counts the total by the domain. It means if there are 5 contents on site which give backlink on your site, it will be still counted as only 1 backlink. Therefore, it is better if making 5 contents but listed on other different websites.

3. Does the link that is attached on social media also count as a backlink?

No. Backlink means links that appear on the content, or on the body article. Whereas a link that is attached on social media does not include the backlink, although it is clicked by users, it will enter on your website traffic on media social traffic category. You can check it on Google Analytic.

Domain Authority is numbers that are given by search engines, it is useful to reflect how reliable a site is. High DA score gives the advantages for contents on the website to make it easier to rank in the SERP.

DA numbers are determined based on three things, there are domain age, domain popularity, and the amount of content. To increase the domain authority, the effective way is through placement backlink. Besides, other ways are creating quality content, promoting via social media, branding, optimizing on SEO pages, and strengthening the internal link.