Does Domain Authority Matter in Modern SEO?

• Posted by Dan Kogan May 23, 2019 - Filed in Other - 1,054 views

  Domain Authority (or DA) predicts how well sites will rank and how they will stack up against the competition, but its use has been controversial. The metric is often misused with many SEOs aiming for links over a certain number while trying to increase their own DA. However, relying on one metric alone is inaccurate and unreliable in the world of search engine optimization. If the digital agency you are working with seems to have a sole focus on the metric, you likely are missing out on digital solutions that would better suit your brand strategy.

   

  DA Shortcomings
  Moz uses around 40 factors when determining a DA score. Even still, measuring how a website will rank and perform is more complicated. It also has been shown that an increase or decrease in DA does not necessarily correlate with a better or worse performing website, nor does it indicate how the website will rank on Google. Even the PageRank on Google doesn’t give the full picture when it comes to how well a website will do in the online market.

   

  

   

  Simply put, focusing on a single metric, regardless of which metric that may be, won’t give the full picture of website performance. Due to this, it’s not possible to have an accurate idea of future performance based on it. Further, the scores can be easily manipulated. The reason digital marketing agencies and businesses will see so many high-DA links for sale is because there isn’t true value behind them. Marketing content needs to have information and relevancy for customers above all else.

   

  Relevance Matters
  If DA and PageRank don’t matter as much as many SEOs believe, the question becomes, “what should my digital agency focus on?” Relevance and quality content have been proven to increase the effectiveness of digital strategy. When link building and deciding on the value of another site or page, it is more important that the link is relevant to the content it’s linking to and that the content on the page has value for the target audience.

   

  Domain authority and PageRank can be important tools when put in the context of the bigger picture. A higher DA with content that the audience isn’t interested in won’t stay relevant and won’t get the return on investment businesses need to thrive in eCommerce. Google’s AI system has become intelligence since the company first began in 1993. The old tricks of the trade have gone by the wayside. While DA can help monitor efforts and give an indication of how a website will improve, any single numeric value used solely in modern marketing will bear missed opportunities for website performance.

   

  However, used as a tool in the campaign, it can indicate where the shortcomings are for a website. If a higher DA website is continually ranking lower than a competitor, chances are the problem is with the content. A good digital agency will look at those numbers and determine whether the content needs to be rewritten or edited, then make better decisions for the content marketing strategy moving forward. DA isn’t a metric of the past, but it can only be relied on to shed light on the overall picture rather than seen as a numeric judgment of site performance.

   

  1Digital Agency does design, development, and marketing for eCommerce businesses. They know what it takes to get your site trusted, an authority, and ranked high. Reach out to them for more information or visit them online at 1DigitalAgency.com to see what they can do for you.