Your website’s domain authority (DA) score is assigned to your site by search engines. Sites with higher scores receive better placement on search engine results pages (SERPs). When a person goes to Google and enters a keyword into the search bar, the sites with information about those search terms with the highest DA scores are presented first. Placing on the first page of results can increase your site’s traffic since 71% of users who click on search engine links click on links presented on the first page of results.
You can effectively use link building strategies to increase your DA score to earn greater visibility and attract more traffic to your site.
How Links Help
Search engines use crawlers to gather data about websites. The crawlers follow links between websites. Without backlinks leading to your site, crawlers may not access your site and index its data. Once crawlers reach your site they collect information that is used to determine your site’s DA score. Search engines look for sites with high traffic and engagement levels, high numbers of good backlinks, and relevant outbound links.
Inbound Links
Inbound links are also known as backlinks. These are links that appear on other sites that lead to your website. In addition to enabling crawlers to reach your site, these links can also generate organic traffic. Ideally, inbound links should appear on relevant sites covering information related to your site’s focus. This will increase the likelihood that people following those links will be interested in the content you are presenting.
Outbound Links
Outbound links are links presented on your website that lead to other sites. You may think that it doesn’t make sense to make it easy for people to leave your site, but search engines consider outbound links when determining your site’s DA score. Sites linking to reputable websites with strong DA scores are considered more authoritative. Your DA score will rise if you include a reasonable number of links to credible websites.
Evaluating Your Links
You can assess your current links by using tools designed to present you with link building solutions. LinkGraph offers a free tool that conducts an audit of your current links. Enter your site’s uniform resource locator (URL) into the toolbar. You will be informed of your site’s current DA score. The tool will tell you how many backlinks your site has. It will also determine how many of those backlinks are good and how many are bad. This tool tells you which specific page each backlink leads to, and when the backlink was created. This will enable you to determine if new content is effectively promoting new backlinks. It will also tell you if you have a specific page on your site that is attracting bad backlinks.
Eliminating Bad Backlinks
Backlinks originating on irrelevant sites or sites that are classified as spam sites are considered bad backlinks. The main reason is that these sites are less likely to direct relevant traffic to your site. Their site focus does not relate to your site focus, which means that people who follow those links will be more likely to leave immediately without engaging with the content on your site.
Search engines consider non-engagement departures to be bounces. Higher bounce numbers will lower your DA score. LinkGraph’s link audit will help you identify bad backlinks so you can take steps to have those links removed.
Increasing Good Links
Increasing good inbound links is an effective way to boost your site’s DA score and raise your SERP placement. You can include a link to your site in your bio. This bio should appear on your social media accounts. You can also use this bio when submitting guest posts to relevant blogs. Contributing blog posts is an excellent way to generate interest in your site and raise your profile. You will also increase your site traffic by including quality backlinks to your website.
You can also motivate others to link to your site by presenting professional, insightful content on your site. Make videos or posts establishing your expertise in your field. You can use free search tools to input keywords and find out the common questions users input into search engines about those keywords. This can help you customize your content to answer common user questions, which will attract more visitors to your site. It will also ensure your content is relevant to the people coming to your site, which will increase your volume of quality links and promote higher engagement levels.
