What Is DA Blog Score – How To Improve Your DA
When I first started in blogging I had no idea about a DA score and I was totally lost when I found out about it, at least a year into my blogging journey! If you have no idea what a DA is, keep reading because hopefully, I’m going to explain everything you need to know and answer the questions you may have. I see a lot of people talking about how difficult it can be to raise their DA and how they don’t find any work because their DA is low, hopefully, I’ll be able to help you raise that score of yours!
Blogging can seem like a battle at times, there are loads of people out there doing the same as you, original content is going down the drain and it’s very daunting but that doesn’t mean you can’t succeed and your DA is one thing needed so you can reach your goal. I will try and talk about everything in simple terms, after all, if it’s not simple there’s little chance I’ll even understand it!
What Is A Bloggers Blog DA Score?
DA is short for Domain Authority, I’ve said that to people before and all I’ve got back is “What is domain authority (DA)?”. DA was created by the website MOZ and it’s their way of ranking everyone’s website. MOZ goes from 1-100 in its ranking, but don’t worry only the likes of Facebook and YouTube currently have 100 so you don’t need to be there! The general ballpark number for us bloggers is between 0-50 so don’t worry too much about going over 50 as few have done so!
However to have a proper DA score your blog has to be your own, that means anything with .wordpress or .blogspot on the end of your domain won’t count and won’t be counted by MOZ, this is why it’s always important to have your own domain (.co.uk, .com etc) if you’re thinking about doing blogging long term or as a full-time career, your own domain is key.
The higher your DA shows how trustworthy your website is to potential readers and users in the future, it helps finding work and most importantly your blog will rank better on search engines; helping with traffic and we all love traffic!
Domain Authority Checker – MOZ Bar
The easiest way to check your DA instantly is to download the MOZ bar on Google Chrome, it’s an easy extension to have and as long as you have a MOZ account and you’re always logged in you’ll know the DA for any website. Try it out, it’s amazing and you can keep an eye on your domain authority whenever you want!
Why Is A High DA Score Important Though?
This was my main question when I found out about it, it seemed like a lot of hassle and I didn’t know if I could be bothered, I wish I’d started working on it sooner! If you’re thinking about doing blogging full time, you need to know everything there is to know about DA scoring, however, if it’s just a hobby in your spare time and you have no intentions of going past that; don’t worry about your DA and just have fun!
If you’re a blogger who wishes to work with brands and get work for your blog, you’re going to want to know about DA as it can be very important. One example would be searching Twitter, if you put in #bloggerswanted you’ll find a lot of brands and PR companies asking for bloggers who have a certain DA, normally DA+20 with a higher budget. This means they’re looking for bloggers who will rank higher in search results, getting their products or clients to the forefront of readers computer screens!
It doesn’t sound fair, bloggers take forever to build their DA and it can be a crowded market but when you get that work, it makes it all worth while!
Ways To Improve A Blog DA Score
You’re probably thinking by now, how can I improve my DA score and how long is it going to take? Well, I think I can help with that, I’ve been building mine up slowly over a few years and know a thing or two. It does take time to build up your DA score, however, it feels great when it pays off. The thing to remember is that MOZ updates the domain authority score all the time so it could change at any moment, keep an eye out.
You’ll always start at 0 when you start out, it doesn’t happen overnight. However time isn’t something that plays a big part, you could be blogging for 10 years and still have a low DA score, it all depends on how much effort you put in and how you go about building your blog. If you’ve got loads of broken links on your website, no backlinks and a clunky blog which isn’t user-friendly, you will have a low DA score.
As I said, it depends how much you do and how much effort you put into the blog, there could be a blog that’s been around for a year and their DA could be twice that of yours, they could have nailed everything and got everything they need to boost their website above the rest.
Linking Back To Yourself – Internal Linking
Internal linking is something I like the most, it’s the most easiest to do and takes little time as possible. One easy way to build your DA is to link to your own content, it’s effortless and easy. Not only does it help with your DA but it also helps keep people on your website, looking about at different posts.
One tip would be to make sure all internal links on your website open in a new tab, otherwise you won’t get the desired traffic that can be accomplished through internal linking!
Link Checking – Fixing Broken Links
This is something I knew nothing about and one of the most important tasks that needs completing if you’re going to improve your domain authority, I always asked how to improve domain authority as I have loads of links on my website. Well, I had no idea about the links not actually working!
Let’s say, for example, I do a competition for small business and a year later that business has closed down. I have links on my website linking to them although their website no longer exists. This means anyone clicking on the links is going to get a 404 error and not find their website. These broken links can damage your domain authority badly so they need fixing.
There are loads of free link checkers out there, it’s simple and takes hardly any time at all although the more content you have on your blog means it might take a little longer but it’ll be worth it! I just checked my website and I found a number of broken links, which I have now fixed.
Links From Other Websites – Backlinks From Other Websites
Backlinks are one of the best ways to increase your DA, however, it’s also one of the hardest ways and the most time consuming. Getting links back from other websites shows search engines that your content is current and worth sharing, although getting these links aren’t easy, it’s not impossible!
Comment on other blog: If you go around commenting on other peoples blogs you have the option to leave your blog URL in these comments, it’s not my favourite way however as it does take forever but I know people who leave 20-50 comments on different blogs each week to increase their DA! I just don’t have that much time.
Guest Posting: If you love writing content this might be just the one for you! You can write guest posts for other bloggers to put on their website, place a couple of your links in the post and you have some links on their website back to yours! However, that does mean you have to know a lot of bloggers and not everyone is willing to accept blogging guest posts.
Swapping Links: This is the most common if you know bloggers who are also trying to boost their DA you can swap links, for example, you can link back to one of their posts in a post and they can do the same back for you, a link for a link. Join blogging Facebook groups and there will be many other bloggers looking to do the same!
SEO – Optimise Blog Posts Fully
In order to get links back to your website, your blog has to be out there. This means the content you write has to be ranking in search engines and getting in front of other bloggers who will want to link back to your website. The easiest way to boost your content is to fully SEO optimise everything you write, which can easily be done through using Keysearch.
Keysearch is a website I use to help me find the right keywords to put into blog posts to make sure they rank better. Keysearch keyword finder can help with blog posts, YouTube videos and so much more. It does cost a little but trust me, it’s worth it completely.
Blogging DA Round Up
I’m pretty sure I’ve taught you everything I know when it comes to, “What does domain authority mean” and “how to improve domain authority”. The key points are as followed.
- Make sure you’re always checking for broken links.
- Get talking to other bloggers and swap them links.
- Download the MOZ bar extension on google chrome for instant DA updates.
- Use Keysearch and make your posts even better!
Don’t worry if your DA doesn’t increase overnight as it’s all a waiting game! SEO can take up to 6 months to get noticed by Google and other search engines and blogging is a long road but it’s amazing when it does pay off.
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