SEO authority, an essential element in your organic strategy

SEO authority, as a marketer you have undoubtedly heard of it. In fact, in the SEO world, it's a common term. But what exactly does authority mean? And why is it so important? These are questions to which you will get answers in this blog.

Google determines website authority on three levels: the domain, page and link levels. We briefly dig into these three.

Domain authority takes into account several signals that indicate whether a domain is of high quality and if you can trust the website in question. Along with numerous other SEO factors, this plays a role in your website's ranking in search results. Domain authority can be tracked and measured through a number of tools, such as Moz. It provides you with a better understanding of how your site's authority outweighs the competition's. The main indicator of domain authority is the sum of the authority of all pages on the site, as well as:

• Age: domain age is not considered a direct ranking factor by Google, but it has an indirect influence. Sites that have been around for a long time have had more time to gather backlinks and have more than proven their reliability over that period of time. New sites and pages, on the other hand, have yet to earn their stripes. In addition, a site has to grow not only in age, but also in content. This can be done by adding good, relevant content and keeping it up-to-date.
• Popularity: which is measured by the number of backlinks and their quality. Backlinks are links that another website places to yours. The more backlinks, the better. But also: the more qualitative the site that lays the backlink, the more credibility your site gets. It is important to get backlinks from different domains, not from one and the same domain.
• Relevance: to rank for a particular search query, the domain must obviously be relevant to it. Relevance is determined by the content on the site and external links.

When you build a website from scratch, you have very few backlinks, reviews, quality content and social mentions of your brand name. You therefore have a low domain authority. So how exactly do you know when you reach high domain authority? If your domain ranks for highly competitive keywords and has quality backlinks, you are well on your way. If you want to put this into a single metric, tools like Moz and Majestic are right up your alley.

A step below domain authority is page authority. It also provides an indication of ranking ability, but this time on page level. Both important category pages and local pages benefit from good page authority. Because once again: the higher the authority, the more reliable the page (and the content on it) is considered to be. And as a result, the more successful your ranking. To determine authority, the search engine looks at the following elements:

• Updates: zorg voor regelmatige (content)updates van je pagina’s. Google merkt jouw aanpassingen op en neemt dit mee in het bepalen van je autoriteit.  

• Age: a page that has been around for years ranks higher than a brand new page. On condition that it is a high-quality page, with up-to-date, relevant content that is SEO-optimized.

• The quantity and value of backlinks: the more backlinks a page has, the higher it ranks. Just like domain authority, however, the quality of those backlinks is important. Links from spammy sites do not pass on value. Avoid them!

• Updates: ensure regular (content) updates to your pages. Google notices your updates and takes this into account when determining your authority.

Backlinks are an essential part of your SEO and determining your authority. If an important, strong and reliable website links to your site, it transfers a portion of its value to you. But note that some links contain more value than others. For example, a link from a government or university site has a lot more authority than one from a lousy, spammy site.

The authority of a link is determined by:

• Relevance of the backlink: does the information on the site linking to you align nicely with what's on your website?
• Authority of the linking domain and page: does the backlink come from a trustworthy website or page?
• Quantity: the link value of a page is distributed among all the links that appear on that page. Thus, the source page from which you receive a backlink ideally links only to a limited number of other pages. This keeps the value of your backlink higher. 
• The location of the link: structural links (such as in the header or footer of a page) have little link value and thus send a relatively weak signal in terms of authority. Search engines place much more value on links in quality pieces of content. 
• Nofollow links: you have a link to a site you don't want to pass value to? Indicate it to search engines using a nofollow attribute.

Website authority is a necessary part of your SEO strategy if you want to rank high with your site. But how exactly do you make sure your domain is strong enough? First of all, there are a number of factors beyond your control, such as social proofing.

You can't do much about the reviews you get online. But you can fully control the way you deal with them. The way in which you deal with customers online and offline is called community management. For example, it is recommended that you respond kindly to both positive and negative reviews. When you get a bad review, try to offer a solution if possible. However, deleting negative reviews is never a good idea, as it affects your reliability. Many review platforms simply do not allow you to remove reviews - otherwise it would be very easy to earn 5/5 stars.

There is little you can do about social proofing (apart from community management). Fortunately, there are three things you can do yourself to lay a good foundation for your website authority.

Don't just post content online because you have an empty space somewhere on your site. Valuable content is so much more than that. Start from the perspective of your visitors. What content are they looking for? With what information can you please them? What questions do they have? Make your content useful. The more that content responds to the needs of your users (by providing specific answers to questions or by using the right keywords), the more easily your content will be shared. That in turn ensures that you collect more backlinks, and that you gain more authority for your page and site in the long run.

Content is king, you often hear. Which is absolutely true. But the impact of correctly implemented technical parameters in the context of SEO should certainly not be underestimated. Invest enough resources and energy in this. For example, ensure a good loading speed, create a site that is mobile friendly, solve server and 404 errors, create a user-friendly site structure and track down duplicate content. Only then will your efforts pay off. 

A final tip? Remember above all that SEO is a process. You don't rank number one immediately, but you work towards it over a longer period of time. So adjust your expectations accordingly and monitor everything carefully. Your hard work will undoubtedly be rewarded in the end.