“Domain Authority” is a term you might have seen crop up more than once on your search for the perfect SEO solution. But that begs the question: does Domain Authority matter? It’s a complicated question, and the answer might surprise you. To put it simply, Domain Authority is a useful tool for tracking the performance of your site, but it’s not the be-all and end-all of SEO like many people seem to believe. Christian Hilario, Client Results Manager at Coalition Technologies, sums it up pretty well:
“Though not necessarily a metric used directly by Google, Domain Authority is one of the metrics SEOs use to gauge how well a domain will rank and how valuable it is. Having high DA means a domain has better chances of ranking higher than its lower-DA competitors.”
So yes, a site with a high Domain Authority score is more likely to rank high on SERPs, but there’s a lot more to the story. It can tell you a lot about where your website is ending up on search engines, but not much when it comes to how well your page is thriving. Join us as we take a look into exactly what this term means…and exactly what it doesn’t.
What Is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority is a ranking score created by the SEO software company Moz to help you determine how likely your page is to crop up on the first page of search results (also known as its page authority, in SEO lingo). If you’re wondering how much this matters, studies have shown that around three quarters of searchers never scroll past the first page, so the first few lines on a given Google page are prime real estate when it comes to your website’s visibility. The scoring system Moz uses ranges from 1 to 100, and it helps you to better understand how well your site is optimized for Google.
For example, a site with a score of 100 is much more likely to appear on the first page of search engine results pages, and a site with a score of 1 probably won’t show up at all. It seems pretty open-and-shut: sites with higher Domain Authority do better than sites with none at all, at least if the numbers are to be believed. So, how important is DA scoring? Actually… not as important as you might assume.
Relevant Sites Rank Higher
When it comes to hitting that elusive first page of Google, relevance matters more than your DA score. Your DA signifies that your site should rank high in Google, in theory. In practice, the relevance of your site tends to play a much larger role. What Domain Authority is good at has more to do with letting you know the potential of your page for clicks, not showing whether or not it’s thriving with tangible results.
Google’s job is to make sure that when someone searches for information, they’re happy with the results they find. One of the most important ways they accomplish this is through tools known as Spiders, which are like robotic scouts that a search engine sends out to research and compile pages that fit together under similar search umbrellas. So even if your page ranks high when it comes to page authority in SEO, that’s no guarantee that it actually fits in with those other pages…and, by extension, that it will matter to someone who’s searching for the term it shows up under.
Domain Authority only shows you where your page ends up on Google or Bing, not whether people are clicking on it and engaging with its content. If someone is searching for apple juice and they get Apple computers, it doesn’t matter how masterfully optimized the Apple computer site may be.
The Bottom Line
So, does DA matter? DA scores are great because they give you a tangible number that you can reference. And, SEO is extremely important, so naturally a high score is a highly desirable goal. But it’s important that you think of Domain Authority as being closer to a benchmark, not a destination in and of itself.
While you do want to keep an eye on what your Domain Authority score is doing when it comes to moving up and down the charts, it’s also crucial that you focus on the intangible aspect of your site — its relevant content, quality, and usability. That’s what makes organic traffic click on your site and stay there.
Google’s algorithms notice high turnover rates, so if your traffic is constantly bouncing to the next site, your Domain Authority score has very little worth. Your goal should be to deliver pertinent content populated with relevant links and keywords so that your site ranks high because it delivers legitimate value to its visitors. You need to leverage your page authority in SEO into something your potential customers will be happy to click on if they see it in their search results.
We Deliver Measurable Results
How important is DA? It can be a big help, but ultimately it’s just another tool in the box. Here at Coalition Technologies, we take a comprehensive, personalized approach to SEO that just works. We do more than just boost your Domain Authority. We help you create a relevant site that keeps visitors coming back while generating fresh traffic.
If your site isn’t performing as well as it could, our expert team can fix that. As a top-rated ecommerce agency, we work hard to keep our clients thrilled with our services, and that’s why we have a 99% client satisfaction rate. Connect with us online, and we’ll be glad to explain in full detail how we can help your business to thrive.
