What is Domain Authority?
Since Google announced that it”s probably not going to update PageRank again, there’s been a bit of a buzz around how to measure a website.
In the blogging community, the change can be seen in blogger opportunities and working with brands. Before, you might have been required to have a PR of 3 or above, for example, to work on a project with a brand. Now, you often see people asking for Domain Authority (DA) instead.
I’ve been seeing a lot of bloggers asking what DA is and what’s a good DA. So I thought I’d write a post about it to simply explain it.
What is Domain Authority?
DA is basically a score between 0-100 to rank how high a site will rank in search engines. It uses different signals to measure the strength of a website.
It uses signals similar to PR, like bank links and domain age.
It’s important to know that you need to have your own domain to measure it. If you have a blogger URL, like http://blogname.blogspot.com, for example, it will show the DA for blogger instead.
What’s a good Domain Authority?
A question that often arises is what DA is good.
It’s not an easy question to answer as it depends on what type of site you have and how popular your niche is.
It’s one of those questions you can’t ever find the real answer to. Most opportunities I’ve seen ask for a DA of 25+. I’ve never seen anything higher than 30 and less than 20. That’s for opportunities within the lifestyle/beauty/fitness niche.
You probably won’t get asked your DA often, that’s because it’s easy to check the DA of a page and there’s even a toolbar that will give you that information as you browse the internet, so PR’s don’t have to ask to get that information.
It’s worth knowing that the DA of my fitness blog was 11 until recently, but I still got approached by brands. DA is just one of the many things that PRs and brands will look at. Signs of interaction such as comments, social media activity and quality of your posts are also important and I tend to work on those things.
There are things you can do to increase you DA, but it will happen naturally as your blog grows in age, views and has more content.
It’s a good thing to know about, but not something to worry about too much!
You can check your DA here.
Corinne
1. noun: a female blogger that writes about her own experiences, observations and opinions. 2. verb: to act like a complete idiot or to do something stupid. e.g: She did a Corinne.
25 Comments
Candice
Oh my I had no idea what DA even means – thanks for letting me know
CANDICE | BEAUTY CANDY LOVES
Katy
Really helpful post Corinne!! 🙂 good poin on the mention about blogger. I’ve seen a few people thinking they have a DA of 93 which obviously isn’t correct, so it’s good to know why! xx
Little Miss Katy | UK Lifestyle Blog
Laura
If you have a domain like something.blogspot.co.uk then you will have a domain of 70 something (for example) as its the domain that is analysed rather than the subdomain. Sorry to weigh in!!
Allure Obsessed
Great post! It’s such an important thing to know! xo
ALLURE OBSESSED – BEAUTY BLOG // BLOGLOVIN’
Liakada Travel
I had no idea about this at all! Thanks so much for sharing, I have still so much to learn in the blogging world!
Ash | Liakada Travel
Alissa
Thanks for this Corinne. I have no idea what those are before I read your posts. Gonna check mine now 🙂
Jackie Harrison
I really do not emphasize in any of these amount of follower, amount of comment, view, DA etc and the blog do just find and I do get approach my so many companies I technically turn down so many I just notice that some are not what they are if you do research. Also everyone should enjoy without having these worries and their viewers will grow and their blog will be known. Great topic doll.
Chiara
I had no idea what this was, thanks for posting! Off to check my DA now x
enrica
really nice post! 🙂
http://www.fashi0n-m0de.blogspot.it
Lady parisienne
Thanks for this, I’m so bad when it comes to internet stuff!
Melanie
I just found out about this a couple of months ago! So good to know!
Karen
This is such a useful post as I’ve seen a few people ask about DA on Twitter – I’ll know to direct them to this post if I see any more 🙂
http://www.stylesunrise,co.uk
x
Suze The Luxury Columnist
Very interesting, Corinne – Moz appears to have recently updated most peoples’ PA too and I was quite pleasantly surprised!
Oksana
Such inresting and really helpful post for me! Thanks for sharing this Corinne))
anna busby
Do you have a post on how to increase Da I would love to see that ! Great post tho !
Georgiana
Such a useful post, I had no idea about this.I finally got the courage and bought my own domain, seems more mature now. I am afraid a lot of my old readers will be cnfused, but it felt like a step I needed to do and it`s better late than never.
Naville
great post! very helpful
the foundation is ok, it has tiny reflecting particles that are not that great for oily skin but if you can find it in the clearance section in boots, it’s just £2 so worth a try
xo
Inspirations Have I None
Gingi
Cool info! I had no idea! <3 – http://www.domesticgeekgirl.com
Lucy
As always the fountain of knowledge a interesting post and you have made this accessible to all thanks Lucy x
libys11
i’ve been thinking of changing my site to get my own domain, let’s see what happens! 😀
Animated Confessions
Laura
Its interesting the different tools brands and agencies use to assess bloggers, but in my experience domain authority is a standard one. Its also one that is really hard to improve and there is no quick fix.
Akaleistar
So interesting! I’m off to check out my blog’s DA…
whitney
I had no idea about this and checked it! Will keep it in mind in the future 😀
Ree
I needed this, as I just checked my DA right before I saw your post and couldn’t explain to my husband exactly what it means .. hah
Thanks for the post!
Ree xx
India
I was really sad when the update for DA happened the other day as mine stayed the same. Better than going down I guess!
India | Touchscreens & Beautyqueens