You may have seen the term Domain Authority thrown around, but do you know what it means? Domain Authority (or DA) is something that search engine optimisers (or SEOs) might look at in order to determine how likely a website is to rank in search results.
The metric was first developed by a company called Moz, who specialise in SEO tools. They describe it as a calculation of multiple sets of data. It’s important to note that Domain Authority isn’t a metric that defines where a website should appear in the search results. Think of it more like a health score.
You want your DA to be equal to or better than your competitors, because this means that your site is performing well on a number of criteria. Using competitors as a benchmark for DA is useful, because the amount of backlinks a website has the potential to get will vary depending on a number of factors.
What Is Good For Domain Authority?
The thing that’s most likely to increase your DA is good quality backlinks. This means that another website with high authority is linking to your page. The best sites for this are things like government websites, respected newspapers and Wikipedia. Industry relevant links are also good. For example, having a backlink from Checkatrade would be great for a builder.
How Does Domain Authority Affect SEO?
Google have explicitly said on multiple occasions that Domain Authority calculations aren’t used to determine where a website will rank. This means that checking your DA score isn’t particularly helpful if you’re looking to improve your position in the search results. Of course, if your website has security issues you will want to get them fixed. However, if you’ve gathered loads of backlinks to increase your DA, you might be disappointed with the result. As of December 2022, Google has released a link spam update which makes those links redundant.
A better way to think about backlinks is to consider which websites should be linking to you. For example, if you have an accreditation, you would expect them to link to your website from their directory. Useful links that make sense to be associated with your website will have more power than irrelevant, spammy backlinks.
What Does Google’s Algorithm Look For?
If Google isn’t looking for backlinks and good Domain Authority, what is it looking for? There have been several significant updates that rolled out towards the end of 2022, so an SEO strategy in 2023 is going to look a bit different.
First and foremost, Google are stressing the importance of useful content. The most recent algorithm change was called the ‘helpful content update’. This means that Google now focuses more on original content that is written for people, not robots.
Some SEO techniques are used just to appease crawlers and bots, so this change will mean that those strategies are going out of the window. In 2023, it’s important that the content that you put on your site is unique, useful and written by humans, for humans. Now is not the time to invest large sums of money in experimental AI software. You’ll be much better off researching your competitors and creating content that stands out from the crowd.
What Is The Google Algorithm?
In short, we don’t really know for sure. The Google search algorithm is highly complex and is constantly being updated. Its ultimate goal is to return the correct answer to any searcher’s query. This means that it’ll take into account what the user has searched for, their search history, their settings and where they are located. From here, Google will try to find the most relevant results.
We can appease this algorithm by ensuring that Google knows where your company is located and that all of your website content is optimised for popular search terms. The algorithm will take into account your website’s purpose, security, usability, quality of content and originality – to name a few things.
What Changes Will Google Make To Its Algorithm In 2023?
Trends can change very quickly. It’s hard to predict what will come next. What we do know is that user-friendly, functional web design that’s mobile responsive will always be on-trend.
We believe that new trends can be a lot of fun. However, it’s never worth sacrificing things like mobile responsiveness, readability or accessibility in the name of fashion. If you’re looking for modern web design that works for your business, give Search4Local a call today.
As well as this, keeping on top of the technical health of your website is always going to be important. Website security is paramount to both you and your user’s experience. If your site is slow, crashes, full of 404 errors or otherwise in poor health, don’t expect it to appear in the search results.
In summary, we think that 2023 is a great year to focus on making your website the best that it possibly can be. A fool proof strategy will be one that provides your target audience with the information that they need in a format that’s easy to interpret. This way, your website should be safe from any algorithm changes that come in future.
