Semalt: A Comparison Of Domain Authority Checkers That Indicate The Best Domains For Link Building
Choosing the right site to link is important if you plan on having quality links. In this article, we will be showing you how we evaluate domain rating, authority score, and other factors that indicate an authoritative domain.
Why Should You Use Domain Authority Checkers?
Domain authority checkers are vital to our SEO toolkit at Semalt. That is because we rely on these metrics before making up our minds on which domain to link our client's websites too. These metrics give us a way to determine how good a site may be for link building.
It is also important to note that the authority of a domain isn't evaluated as a singular entity. To come up with the most accurate test result, it is many other metrics are considered as well.
Metrics We Use To Measure A Domain's Authority
Ahrefs Domain Rating
A domain rating shows the strength of a website's backlink profile by comparing it to other websites on a 100- point scale. Domain rating is a relative term that factors the number of sites that link to a domain as well as the number of other domains that the site links out to.
The higher your domain rating, the more link equity it shares to the other domains that the site links out to. So a site that only links out to 50 other domains will be a bigger influence on its target domain DR as opposed to a site that links out to 500,000 other domains.
Quality links are what we aim to achieve, but acquiring quality links is difficult. However, most websites that give quality links usually link to a few other websites. According to DR, each website they link to will enjoy more influence compared to a site that links to several hundred other domains.
SEMrush Authority Score
This is one of the most recent entries into the domain authority metrics analysis tool. Authority scores are the result of calculations that are run by a neural network algorithm that uses machine learning technology to measure each domain's authority based on popularity, quality, and backlink signals. This simply means that the SEMrush authority score measures the overall quality and SEO performance of domains.
It considers factors such as the quality and number of outbound links from the domain, the number of referral domains pointing to a domain, no follow vs. follow links pointing to a domain, and more.
Moz Domain Authority
This is commonly misinterpreted as to how authoritative Google views a website. According to MOZ, DA is a search engine ranking score they develop to predict how likely a page is to rank on SERPs. DA ranges from one to 100, where 100 is the highest score and the greatest ability to rank.
Majestic Trust Flow
Majestic trust flow deviates from what we would consider the normal way of analyzing DA. Majestic gives a score based on quality. After collating many trusted seed sites based on a manual review of the web, they developed a foundation of the Majestic TrustFlow.
Competitive Analysis
You rely on this type of analysis not only for copying links but also to understand if those you fear are your competitors. If you are new in the bookselling business, and you're already analyzing Amazon's backlink profile, you'll discover that you are nowhere near the rank of Amazon. Therefore, you should deal with the competition directly ahead of you. Salt helps you target other websites in a closer niche and class that will help you benchmark properly, and this will help you focus on more realistic link targets. We understand that you may have the best hopes for your business, but wake up, there's no way you launched your website last month, and you're expecting Google to hyperlink your site to their landing page.
Qualitative Analysis
While you observe the links your competition uses, it is wise to pay attention to the quality of their links. This will help you create a better scale of preferences for which links are of the best quality. You can then place the most important links first and the least important links last.
Some of the common tools we use for this type of analysis are:
- Open site explorer: you can use this to get accurate data.
- Majestic SEO: this can give raw and unfiltered data, which is deeper than SEO.
- Official Google Toolbar: it provides a single metric and is frequently updated.
Quantitative Analysis
The number of inbound links on your website matters. When examining the number of inbound links, you can ignore the total link count and choose to focus on the unique linking domains and c-blocks. Considering that you've already done your risk assessment, you already where your website is liable and any weak spots it might have in your backlink profile. This will show any traces of link manipulation or suspicious patterns.
Why Is The Linking Domain Important?
The Backlink
In order to understand the importance of link building, we must first understand the basics of the domain and the links they provide. We study several aspects of a domain such as:
- How search engines see links
- How are links created
- How search engines understand these links
What advantages do backlinks have with search engines?
Search engines use these links in one of two ways:
- Discover new web pages.
- To help determine how well a page should rank in its results.
The information in these websites are collected and indexed once search engines discovers these webpages via the links in already indexed web pages. That is what makes it possible for your website to get seen even if it hasn't shown up on SERP. After indexing, if your website meets the standards of a search engine, it will get ranked. While making up their minds on the quality and position of your website, they do not only consider your content. They also factor in a number of backlinks to your website. Having many other sites link to a content shows that the content is very useful and has authority which is an important factor search engines consider. Google in the 1990s was the first search engine to use backlinks as a ranking factor, and it played a vital role in making them the lading search engine you see today.
EAT
In all your travels in discovering the best ways to improve your website ranking, did you encounter the acronym EAT? It stands for Expert, Authoritative, and Trustworthy. The site which does not display these characteristics tend to be seen as of inferior quality to search engines. But those who do display this characteristic are given better treatments like the VIPs.
EAT Is Important In Link Building In Two Ways
EAT on your site and EAT on the sites that backlink you.
- EAT on your site. This is important because it assures your search engine and other websites that you're trustworthy. This is an advantage to you because you get to build not only your ranking but also your backlinks. If you remember the coffee example we gave above, you will see that being credible means other websites will link your contents. Google will then notice the increasing number of inbound links and recognize your website as an authority in your industry. This will help you rank better. It's a win on all sides for you.
- EAT on the host site. As a new website, you may not have been in the game long enough for you to have established a good and trustworthy reputation. But if a trusted EAT website links your website, Google automatically knows that you are trustworthy. Remember, birds of the same feather flock together. To become an authority you will need content that earns links from websites with authority.
Link building can be a bit difficult because, as a new website, no one knows you that well. This iswhy it's so important you have Semalt backing you. With our brilliant track record, and our ability to deliver only the best, other websites will recognize you as being trustworthy.
Get in touch with us today…