How much does Domain Authority effect the keywords I can rank for?
-
I've been doing some keyword research and i've found a few gems. My site is currently sat at a 18 domain authority up from 12, so it's great to see the improvement. Although I was wondering, if my domain authority is sat a 18, can I compete with keywords that have a difficulty of 50-60?
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Sam
-
DA is a metric by Moz and not by Google. If you want to rank on Google, there are over 200 ranking signals (not disclosed by them even today) to rank for just one keyword on SERP and DA is not one of them. What you should be focusing on is the keyword's relevance and answering genuine user queries around your keyword.
The quality and comprehensiveness of your content along with other signals will determine the keyword ranking and in most cases, if you aim for long-tail keywords with good potential along with in-depth coverage of the topic, you will be able to surpass even higher DA sites without many backlinks on your target page.
Improving DA should be a focus but it should not be correlated to rankings on SERPs in any way.
-
I often hear the question - what is considered a good domain rating (authority)? Generally speaking, the higher the "authority" of your domain, the better. But it is important not to judge it in absolute terms. Because domain ranking is, by definition, a relative metric. You can't say that a good domain rating is 30, or 50, or 60, or 70. Everything is relative. It's important to remember that this score is an evaluation of a third-party service, not a search engine. When you use some DA validation tool, it is always developed by some company and data from different services may differ. I hope I didn't confuse you.
-
Hello sammecooper ,
The Domain Authority (DA) is important, but you should also consider other KPIs when analyzing the bigger picture. In the case of net linking, for example, you need to determine if the site is on the same domain if it receives natural traffic, and if it is ranking for relevant keywords. My recommendation is to never track only one metric
-
@sammecooper Bonjour,
Thanks for your question.
to rank well with keywords even if difficult you have to make back links on DA sites more than 50, you can position well on search engines (from my little experience). -
Of course Domain Authority (DA) is important but you also need to look at the bigger picture based on other KPIs. For example, if you do Netlinking, you need to look at whether the site is in the same field, whether it is getting natural visits and whether it is ranking on interesting keywords. Never watch only 1 metric, that's my point of view
-
Hi @sammecooper! As I'm sure you know, the higher the Keyword Difficulty Score, the harder the keyword will be to rank for. A higher DA does correlate with a higher likelihood to rank BUT when using DA, it's important that you are comparing your site to your true search competitors— sites w/in the same category and of the same caliber. We actually have a video that explains this in more detail if that helps. https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain-authority
Personally, I'm a fan of going for low-hanging fruit first: keywords that have lower difficulty and still have decent value. Then, once you've tackled these, you can aim for those harder ones. We have a great resource all about keyword research, The SEO Keyword Research Master Guide that may help you in your quest for keyword gems.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Proper use of location in keywords
¿If I want to track keywords in a specific location, do I need to write the keyword with the location or only the keyword? For example: If I want to track the results of the keyword "hair salon" in a specific city, should I write "Hair salon in (city chosen) or only hair salon.
Keyword Research | | reginadelafuente0 -
Brand Name Keyword Stuffing
I'm targeting Roho Cushions and the category page has many products starting with Roho underneath it. I know the keyword "Roho" shows up at least 70 times. I'm not targeting the keyword Roho, but could this negatively effect the rest of my keywords that start with Roho, such as "Roho Wheelchair Cushions"?
Keyword Research | | Mike.Bean0 -
Big drop in rankings, any explanation ?
Hi everybody, I've been working on the subdomain http://fr.mt.com since a few month and on the last crawl on the keyword "accessoire de mesure" i had a big drop from rank 3 to not in top 50 and I cant figure why. Here is the page : http://fr.mt.com/fr/fr/home/products/Laboratory_Analytics_Browse/Meter_family_page/Meter_Accessor.html - PA : 30 DA : 71 I did an on page report to get a grade and i got... A on this keyword. I know this page is not perfect (lack of content) but in my opinion it still relevant on this keyword. Do you have any idea of what happened ? Thanks in advance for your answers
Keyword Research | | EnjinFrance0 -
Is 15 keywords enough to properly optimize content for an entire domain?
I have recently moved in charge of a 95 page web portal that has around 8 categories of content. The SEO agency I am touch with has sent me a proposal that says they will do on-page optimization for this domain for 15 keywords. Should that be enough? What should be my expected outcome? My promise to the client is that core pages from his website will show up early on the SERPs. If they can do this, I am fine with it. Do you think I am getting the right deal? Should I be asking for more?
Keyword Research | | amit20760 -
Keywords google takes into account
hello MOzzers, I know some words are not as important whenGoogle indexes or crawls ex the word "the" etc. I am curios what weightage google places on the word " google" when people search. Silly question?? maybe hee hee, but I would like to know. Its been bugging me. Thank you so much, V
Keyword Research | | vijayvasu0 -
Keyword Difficulty
is probably a "how long is a piece of string" question but wondered how to use the keyword difficulty tool, particularly in relation to the % and the wording moderate, what are these actually saying? Perhaps some of you could give details of how you use this tool and apply the % and term to real world situations, Thanks in advance, Lee
Keyword Research | | LeeMiller0 -
Most Accurate Keyword Count
Okay, there are so many keyword tools out there, and I would like to know the one that is most accurate for search volume.
Keyword Research | | azguy0 -
Location-based Keyword Targeting
We are located in Denver, Colorado. I want the majority of the site to be focused on Denver keyword terms but I also think we should branch out to other cities around Denver, as well as around the keyword "Colorado." What's an appropriate way to do this? I've seen site that have a page for every city in the area but it looks terrible and doesn't really fit into the site. How do I cross link to these new city pages (I don't want them in the main navigation)?
Keyword Research | | kylesuss0