How to Increase Your Blog Domain Authority

How to Increase Your Blog Domain Authority – [Last Updated – 03/02/24]

When I first started blogging all I heard about was Domain Authority (DA) and if I’m honest, it scared me a little.

I felt like I was in over my head and I had no idea what it was, why I needed to increase it or how to for that matter.

After a while I realised it was an important metric for securing paid work. The higher the DA, the more desirable a site is.

So, I began researching till it was coming out my ears. I clued myself up on all things DA to start implementing on my blog.

Since I began applying all the advice I’m about to share in this post, my domain authority has risen to 40.

It’s safe to say that if you work hard and stick at it, you’ll see results,

So I’m sharing all this knowledge, passing it on so you too can get your domain authority up.

Without further ado, let’s dive in shall we?

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How to Increase Your Blog Domain Authority

Increasing your domain authority can feel like a mammoth and scary task, especially when you’re just starting out.

There’s a lot of talk within the blogging community about it but very rarely do we see it being fully explained.

I know that I was personally overwhelmed by all the “DA” chat when I first joined the world of blogging and couldn’t understand it at all.

Thankfully over my 8 years of blogging I’ve come to understand it more so I want to pass this knowledge on.

What exactly is Domain Authority?

Domain authority is a site metric that was developed by MOZ.

Your site will have a number between 0-100 and this tells you how high ranking your website is on search engines, the higher the number, the better.

There’s so many things that come into the equation here on determining how high your number is but I’ll get to that soon.

Each month MOZ will scan your website and give it a score out of 100.

But bear in mind that to get as close an accurate reading as possible you will have to have your own domain rather than a .blogspot or .wordpress for example, as these won’t give accurate readings on your score, if at all.

It’s also worth noting that within your first few months you may not get a score as your site is not well established.

Through time your site will gain more credibility and your DA will improve.

You can check your DA score here – https://moz.com/domain-analysis

Using MOZ

To use MOZ fully you have to create an account, but don’t worry, it’s free.

With a free account you can look up 3 reports a day, that’s three times a day you can search for DA ranking.

Although you can use it three times a day with a free account, there’s not much point if you are only checking your own site.

You see, DA is updated monthly so checking daily won’t actually yield different results.

The 3 reports daily could be useful for doing competitor research however.

With the MOZ DA analyser you can check any site and find out some pretty useful stats such as their ranking keywords, top competitors, their DA score and more.

Here’s what the page looks like once you have searched your domain

Using MOZ is a great tool to help you build your site up to be the best it can.

Although it’s not a metric that’s important out-with finding paid work I would say, it still offers value in my opinion.

Ways to increase your Domain Authority

Now that I’ve covered what Domain Authority is, it’s time to take a look at ways in which you can increase yours.

By implementing these tips I’m about to share on your own site, you will be able to build your score up.

But I want to let it be known now that increasing it is a process and takes time.

Unfortunately there is no quick fix, just hard work and determination.

Domain Name

When it comes to increasing your DA score, you must first have your own domain name.

This means that you can’t be using the likes of .blogspot or .wordpress in your domain name.

For example, if I was thelifeofaglasgowgirl.blogspot.com I wouldn’t have a domain authority score.

There are many places you can register a domain name, but I highly recommend Lyrical Host!

Registering your domain name

Registering a domain name doesn’t have to be complicated or cost you the earth, that’s why I can’t recommend Lyrical Host enough.

Their customer service is unlike any I’ve ever come across and they are absolutely amazing at helping you with any queries you may have.

I am with Lyrical host for my blog hosting and I’ve never had a complaint.

They were able to get me away from blogger and onto wordpress with any hassle, I just sat back and relaxed while it all happened.

If you are looking for a reputable company to host through or get a domain name with, I genuinely can’t recommend them enough.

And if you do decide to go with Lyrical Host for your hosting plan, use code: OFAGLASGOWGIRL10 – for 10% off any hosting plan.

For more information on getting your blog set up and running a successful blog, check out my post – How to Start a Blog: An In-depth Guide on Starting Your Blog

Create Quality Content

It should go without saying that creating quality content should be a huge focus for your blog.

Everyone who runs their blog will more than likely be very proud of their content, but it’s important in more ways than one.

When you create high quality content for your blog it helps to boost you in search rankings.

This shows that what you have to offer brings value to your readers and in turn helps to boost your DA score.

Here are some things to consider when creating your content

• Make sure your keywords/phrases are scattered through your post in a way that makes sense
• Match your post title with the body of contents
• Consider using less bulky paragraphs and break them down to more digestible bite sized pieces of text
• Utilise headings
• Use photos that match your content
• Invite engagement by posing questions
• Create shareable graphics and imbed them in your content

By implementing these tips throughout your content it will become not only more desirable to readers, but also to search engines.

Also consider that it might be better to publish a couple of high quality posts in a week rather than trying to blog everyday.

This isn’t to say that your content everyday wouldn’t be fab too, but in terms of planning and time spent optimising it, a few good posts are going to serve you better in the long run if DA is important to you.

Linkable content

As with creating quality content, creating LINKABLE CONTENT is very very helpful.

This basically means content that people will find useful and hopefully link to organically.

They will take your post as a link and reference it in their content, giving you a backlink in the process.

Creating linkable content isn’t hard, think of topics that answer people’s questions or give valuable information that people need to know

I use the likes of answerthepublic.com to help me create content I know people are looking for.

It’s a great way to find out exactly what people are looking for on specific topics.

When creating linkable content make sure it does relate to your blog overall.

For example, if you run a food blog it’s going to look out of place if you create a post all about how to find the right tyres for your car.

Gain Backlinks

It’s not only great exposure for you to guest post on other blogs and get your links on them, it’s also really handy when it comes to increasing your domain authority.

The higher ranking the site, the better.

Here are some ways that help get you guest post slots

• Post in facebook groups that you are looking to guest post
• Put out a tweet
• Check the hashtag #Bloggerswanted on X formerly known as Twitter
• Create a list of blog post headings you want to write about and share them in blogging groups
• Reach out to blogging friends and propose the idea of swapping guest posts

When writing up guest posts make sure that you make them interesting, relevant to your blog and the blog you are posting on.

Also keep the content value high, this will see your link be more valued in the eyes of MOZ.

Link swapping

As well as guest posting to get backlinks to your blog, you could try link swapping.

This is where you swap links with another blogger and you each put relevant links in corresponding content.

You may have a post about how to DIY wedding favours that is desirable to someone who is writing about low cost weddings and you may have a post that would benefit from one of their links.

It’s a great way to have a mutually beneficial swap for you both.

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Internal Links

Just like backlinks, internal links on your blog are quite important.

This means linking your own content throughout your site and in other posts.

For example, I have linked my post on how to create a successful blog within this post because it makes sense to what I was saying.

I have also linked to a few other posts throughout because again, it makes sense to what I’m talking about.

That’s the best way to do it, don’t just start linking your content randomly.

It’s better to make it fit with what you are saying so it’s serving a purpose within the content.

This keeps your content quality high and anchoring them to text that makes sense will help your overall DA score.

Advertise on Other Blogs/Sites to Increase Domain Authority

Advertising your blog through other bloggers advertising packages can be a good way to help Increase your DA.

This is because it gets your links onto other high ranking sites.

When choosing who you will advertise with, it’s important to take into consideration their DA as well as what they offer.

Much like with building links and getting backlinks, the higher their site is ranked, the better for you.

You want to be choosing people who do have a higher rank than you if building up your domain authority is a priority.

I also offer advertising for bloggers and many keep coming back because it’s helped them not only increase DA but also traffic.

If you fancy seeing what I have to offer, Check out my Advertising Page, My Domain authority is 40 and I offer social media sharing to increase the eyes on your content.

SEO

I know that when you read “SEO” it can sometimes seem daunting and a huge task to get your head around.

But I promise it doesn’t have to be some terrible task, not if you stay on top of it.

So I’m going to break down what I do to keep my site in check.

If you aren’t really that familiar with SEO yet then looking into it and teaching yourself will come in super handy!

Now I’m no expert, these are just some things I do for my blog.

If you want to learn more about SEO I highly recommend checking out SEO For Bloggers: A Beginner’s Guide by Lyrical Host.

Image Alt Tags

When you upload your images, you should be making sure they all have Alt tags.

This is something that will describe what the image is about and helps search engines read it and find it.

For example, google will not be able to read the image other wise and if you do it, it’s more likely to come up in a search for that term.

Plus it’s good etiquette for those who are visually impaired and use a screen reader. This also allows people with sight impairments to enjoy your content.

So try using something relevant to the image and post, it’s not only good for SEO but accessibility.

Make it a habit to add ALT tags on all photos, as soon as you upload the picture, add the alt tags.

Search Description/ Meta Description

This is a sentence or short paragraph that tells people what the post is about.

When it shows up in search engines, people get a brief idea what the post is about.

Using your keywords in this is advised and making it as catchy as possible is also a good idea.

Broken link checks

It’s good practice to check on your broken links regularly so you can get rid of them as soon as they appear.

Every so often I will get comments on my blog that will have broken links in them and rather than keeping the links, I’ll manually remove them.

When your site is checked by MOZ they ideally don’t want to see many broken links, if any at all.

This devalues your site and will go against your blogs DA increasing.

I use THIS site to regularly check my blog and I tend to do this once a month or every two months.

If you wait, it can be really tedious in getting rid of them all, so stay up to date on it, you’ll thank yourself for it in the long run.

Make Your Blog User Friendly

Making sure your blog is user friendly is extremely important.

Not only is it going to help your domain authority, it’s going to increase your traffic and keep people on your site.

Make sure you’re checking your blog regularly, critique it and make sure it’s easy to navigate.

People won’t want to stay on a site or keep returning if they can’t find anything on it or read it properly.

I wrote a post a little while ago about why people may not be returning to your blog to help make your blog user friendly.

Stay clear of multiple pops ups

But one really big no no a lot of people tend to hate is lots of ads and pop-ups.

I hear so many people complain about these and it’s easy to understand why.

No one wants to be reading a really engaging post to then be bombarded with pop-ups.

And it doesn’t matter how good your content is, people won’t return if they get a bad impression.

So keep these to a minimum or eliminate them completely if possible.

You really want people to be staying on your blog as long as possible and returning so making it easy to navigate will help as well.

Make Your Blog Mobile Friendly

A Mobile friendly site isn’t only good for your readers and aesthetically pleasing, it’s also good for helping you improve your DA score.

I’m sure a large number of us will use our phones or tablets to access blogs these days.

So, making sure your blog look’s good on those screens will ultimately help you in the long run.

If your site isn’t optimised yet, do it.

To check your site and see if it’s mobile friendly, you can use this test here by google – https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly

Sharing Your Content

Sharing your content across social media isn’t only a great way to get it out there, it’s also great for building your DA.

A high ranking DA most likely means high traffic.

So, the more you share and get it out there, the better.

This allows others to share your content and widens your reach as well.

Encouraging your readers and followers to share your posts from your site will also help Google see your blog as trustworthy and will go towards increasing your Domain Authority.

Check out my post 10 Free Ways to Boost Your Blog Traffic Today! To help you get more eyes on your content.

Comment on Other Blogs

This one is something I definitely found that helped me with my DA.

Once I started to regularly comment on blogs, I found my DA increasing a little faster with each update.

I couldn’t tell you how this works, but always leave your URL at the end of your comment but not in an obnoxious way. When I sign off I will do it like this –

“Jordanne // Thelifeofaglasgowgirl.co.uk”

You should always leave more than 8 words in your comments as well.

Not only does this go against your score when you leave fewer words, it will muck up the person’s blog you are commenting on as you will be seen as spam.

One word comments won’t help you and neither will saying “Great Post” and leaving your link.

As well as your spam score getting higher, it makes you look like a tool, sorry not sorry!

I have written a post about this before which you can read here – Blog Comments

Final Thoughts on Increasing Your Domain Authority

And that’s everything I have learned so far about increasing Domain Authority.

It can be a lot of information to take on board but trust me, it’s worth it.

If you want to increase your DA, then applying these steps will help you soar.

Please remember though, a number does not define you and everything takes time.

Your DA won’t go from 7 to 30 overnight, that’s just not possible!

So, have fun with your blog, and keep good maintenance.

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