If you have a blog or website, you may have heard about the concept of "website authority" before. But what exactly is it, and why should you care?
What is Website Authority?
Website authority is a SEO concept that refers to how credible and trustworthy search engines like Google determine your site to be. It's an important factor in determining your website's search engine ranking and visibility.
Some of the main things that influence your site's authority include:
- The quality of your content - Well-researched, useful content signals expertise and trust.
- External websites linking to you - Referring links act as "votes" of confidence.
- Visitor engagement metrics - Do people spend time reading your content? More engagement indicates higher quality.
Why Improving Authority Matters
Higher authority scores tend to correlate strongly with better search engine rankings. As Google sees your site as increasingly trustworthy over time, you'll likely move up in results for your target keywords.
More specifically:
- Increases traffic from organic search
- Helps you rank for more competitive keywords
- Attracts more engaged visitors who trust top results
So it pays dividends to improve authority - which is a long-term game with patience required!
How to check your authority
There are some SEO tools that assign numerical authority scores to websites, like the Moz "Domain Authority" metric or Ahrefs “Domain Rating” or SEMrush “Authority Score”. But Google has their own complex algorithms emphasizing quality above all else.
With the above tools we can get an approximate “authority” ranking, it’s usually based on the number of backlinks and the authority of the domains you get backlinks. SEMrush also uses a combination of organic traffic to your site. Here is how to get the authority rankings in each tool:
SEMrush
You can use the SEMrush Domain Overview to see the authority score.
Ahrefs
You can use the Ahrefs Website “authority” checker for free without signing up.
MOZ
You can use the Free Domain Authority Checker up to 3 times per day for free.
3 Ways to Boost Your Site's Authority
Here are 3 effective tips to safely build up your website's authority:
- Create valuable, helpful blog content. Well-researched blog posts that rank highly in search results strengthen authority significantly. Ensure your writing answers questions and provides useful information.
- Promote your content. Getting more eyes on your content can expand its reach. Share your blog posts on relevant social channels, forums and groups to get more visitors.
- Avoid shady SEO shortcuts. Buying backlinks rarely improves long-term rankings. Focus on earning links naturally through stellar content. It will help more or your content get indexed.
Pretty simple, right?
Slowly improving your site's authority takes time and work. But the search visibility payoff makes it worthwhile.
Want to learn more about how content marketing and how writing high quality blog posts + social media posts can help? Continue reading our guides:
- What Is Content Marketing?
- How to Create an Effective Blog Content Strategy in 7 Steps
- Read our Content Marketing Guide for Beginners
To discuss how content marketing can transform your marketing performance, request a demo or start your free StoryChief trial. Our team would be happy to give you a walkthrough.
If you happen to know someone who could use StoryChief, refer your friends and we’ll give you a $50 bonus per lead + 15% revenue share!
