Should I be Improving Domain Authority?
-
Hello
I work for a company that deals in Collectibles and runs a collectibles news service. In the UK our site ranks on the first page for the keyword "collectibles". We wish to strengthen this position and increase our rank on the US Google.
I'm going to be working on Keyword Optimisation for the site, to hopefully make many of our pages more relevant and improve the rank. However I feel we may be held back by our Domain Authority score. Our Google PageRank and MozRank are both low due to the fact we don't have a huge amount of external links to the site.
Is this something that will potentially hold us back? Should I be working on improving this as before the site optimisation?
We are well set up for a content based strategy due to "News" nature of the site. My ownly concern with link building is i've heard that it could potentially negatively effect us.
Or is the risk of link building only really associated with black hat methods?
One last thing. I've been using the Google keyword Tool to judge competition for specific search terms. Is this useful for organic search? Or is it only relevant for PPC?
Sorry to be a pain with all these question!
Thanks
-
No problem...
Installing a blog to your main site shouldn't be a problem really msot of the CMS out there tag on pretty easily.
This site is a great resource so come back often - Since my recent joining I think I have doubled my knowledge levels and still so much to learn,....
Best of luck with it -
Kieran
-
Thanks for the advice Kieran. I'll see what I can do about moving the blog onto the main site.
I just wish the site was more flexible!
-
_For link building, I was thinking along the lines of researching relevant sites, asking to be a guest blogger, or providing them with some unique content. _
This is a good tactci and looking at your site I am sure that you can provide this. It takes time and you have to put the miles in I think.
Currently i'm looking at improving the rank of our Investment Newsletter page. SEOMoz gives it a grade A in the on page optimisation tool. But we are only on page 3, where as two of our competitors are on page 1 with equal or lower grading.
So do you believe the main reason for this to be our lack of links?
The page grading tool is a Get the basics sorted out tool and I think personally it helps you focus on the message of the page. The next leve is to look at what is on the page. I often go back to pages (and do this nearly every day) and ask mysef was I drinking when I did a certain page.
I would seriously work at getting the blog back in the mains page as when you click away you are well... away..
-
Hello to both of you.
Thanks for your responses.
I'll make sure I now set Google Keywords Tool to Exact match, as I was previously using broad it is clear to see how far away the too statistics are.
In terms of generating our own news and information. We do try and do that as much as possible, we manage to get interviews, such as an interview with Tammy Allen, and Depeche Modes Alan Wilder. On certain occasions this is not possible, we can't visit all auctions etc. So we rely on other sources to get the best information possible.
We do have an investments page, with plenty of resources created by the company to help people make the best choices when it comes to their investments. But in some ways this may be slightly buried. We also started the blog as a new way of generating traffic, adding in more opinion, hopefully giving making things a bit more readbility.
For link building, I was thinking along the lines of researching relevant sites, asking to be a guest blogger, or providing them with some unique content. Or in some situations asking for a link if its appropriate. (We get plenty of link requests, so I know how not to do it!)
Currently i'm looking at improving the rank of our Investment Newsletter page. SEOMoz gives it a grade A in the on page optimisation tool. But we are only on page 3, where as two of our competitors are on page 1 with equal or lower grading.
So do you believe the main reason for this to be our lack of links?
If so how would you suggest encouraging links to an obscure page like "Investment Newsletter"?
Thanks Again
-
Hi Adrian
Well done on ranking for Collectibles in the UK it is a competitive space with lots of search – I didn’t see you at number one however so I would suggest you check with personalized search turned off.
**However I feel we may be held back by our Domain Authority score. **
Now you mention Domain Authority. Your domain authority is currently 32 so growth is of course Welcome. A lot of that comes with linking from high authority sites. Your site looks like is a powerful source of information on collectibles on first glance but on closer inspection it also looks like that a lot of it is curated news. I would think about developing your own news and information.
Your blog also is on the WordPress.com platform and is not self hosted. I would work to correct this and bring the blog back onto your local site as you are moving traffic off of your main site.
We are well set up for a content based strategy due to "News" nature of the site. My ownly concern with link building is i've heard that it could potentially negatively effect us.
I am not sure what you mean here. Lnk building is something you should be thinking of even through organically spreading good news and articles that people link to and share on the Net. If you produce an excellent article with an interesting slant on a collectible then it may get added juice and get links.
Or is the risk of link building only really associated with black hat methods?
Link building done well and professionally (as I with the ethics of a professional as opposed to paid) should be part of your marketing plan. Many companies now employ full time Internet marketing experts doing just this as part of their brief. Link building is not equal to black hat.
One last thing. I've been using the Google keyword Tool to judge competition for specific search terms. Is this useful for organic search? Or is it only relevant for PPC?
On accuracy of the Keyword tool irldonalb is right and the tool is inaccurate and should be used along with Insights and some of the tools here on SEOMOZ if you are a member. But it is still a good indicator and shows the level of activity.
It is relevant to both search and PPC. Google never claims for it to be 100% accurate either but it is used by most people these days as on of their go to tools for their keyword research.
Finally it IS worth while reading though here a bit (if you havent done so already for more ideas and tips for your SEO campaign. I visit it regularly and it is one of the best references.
-
Gear your website up onsite correctly first then begin link building so the site can absorb the link equity freely and correctly.
Blackhat methods are your only main concern and Blackhat methods and what to avoid are all over the web, if you just search on Google.
The keyword tool is pretty inaccurate, it can be an indication though, when using it make sure that "Exact" is ticked on the left hand side and not "Broad". I would recommend looking at Google Insights and Trends as well.
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
-
SEO for a Product Domain
Hello there, I wanted to thank you all in advance, you have been very helpful with your insights so far. One of our clients is starting a new domain for a specific product he has. The client is providing his products in canada/usa. (For exemple, let's stay "nike.com"(company) just launched "jordan.com"(line of product) and wanted to rank "jordan.com" higher. I was thinking about starting with citations for the new domain/product. The thing is, since its a product, it feels wierd to do citations as usual and start a GMB account. In your opinion, what is the best way to start SEO with a product specific domain? Is citation or GMB still a good idea?
Link Building | | H.M.N.0 -
If create backlinks on perticular Keyword then its benifitial for keywords ranking improvement?
Created many backlinks on a different- different particular keywords so, i want to know that keywords ranking improve this type of activites or not?
Link Building | | surabhi60 -
DISAVOW domains by error
Dear all, On jun 20 I have uploaded a disavow file including some domains by error (good links), my question is could I remove from the Disavow file these domains and update it again, so Google will take the removed domains again as good links? Thank you
Link Building | | SharewarePros0 -
Domain authority or page authority in ranking
Hi, sorry if this is an obvious one... I am doing some keyword research tool and have a few keywords I wish to ran for. Looking at the DA of the sites on the first page they are averaging 60ish, my site is 33. However, for the keywords I am targeting they seem to have PA of 1, or at best, 5. From what I can make it out appears they are ranking for the keywords because of their strong DA rather than any seo work. If I were to target these keywords and send backlinks to the individual pages and so build up a PA on my pages would this be enough to challenge the competitors or would I still be at a major disadvantage because of my lower DA? Hope that make sense? I know what I mean but hard to explain it Thanks
Link Building | | ccgale0 -
Is it better to link back to the root domain, or the specific page you're optimizing for?
I'm working on a project our site - building links for iPhone Repair. For the term "iphone repair miami" - is it more ideal to link to the root domain (xxx.com) or to the subpage that is about iPhone Repair (xxx.com/iphone-repair)? I would imagine the latter - but obviously that page has less authority than the root. Thanks!
Link Building | | preemo0 -
Using a temp redirect or a link to another domain.
Helloooooooo (hey, we're in SEO...surely we need some sound effects as told in dramatic word elongation?) //First - background. I work on a site that does pretty well with search visibility naturally (by 'naturally', I mean it didn't need a lot of optimisation due to the relationships it has with its link network). I work on a site that sells a particular product - green widgets will do - as part of its verticals. Traffic to this section is great, and tends to convert rather well. These green widgets, however, are also part of another site that's part of the client I work for. The larger company was interested to understand what would happen to their conversions if these green widget visits were sent to them instead of staying on-site (namely, that's because they turn a bigger profit over there). So they set up a link on the page on my site to a landing page on theirs. Sure enough, conversions stayed the same on their site, and showed there may be value in keeping that flow active. //Second - question. I see a few options which mainly revolve around not changing anything, but the bigger part of company wants to see that change. My question is this: long term, should I keep the green widgets section of my site there, and use a link that goes to green widgets on the other site, or should I 302 it until they decide on what they want to do with the relationship between the sites? I know...a bit convoluted, but I'd love to get some ideas on what others have experienced in these situations, and what kinds of outcomes can help both sites remain strong. Thanks a ton, guys.
Link Building | | aroach0 -
Authority increase
Hi How I can increase the site authority and trust? Any tip? How to do it fast and white hat?Slowly is also good. Can be done in 3 months? What is the best backlinks? Press releases? Articles? Any tip available? Thanks in advance
Link Building | | nyanainc0 -
Why does my website have 2,000+ links, but only 16 linking root domains?
Why does my website have 2,000+ links, but only 16 linking root domains?
Link Building | | thestudio40