Drawing in Web Traffic via Domain Authority

No matter how you slice it, search engine performance is a big deal in today's world. As consumers increasingly turn to the Internet to shop for Christmas gifts, sites atop search engine listings draw in far more traffic than domains without high-level exposure on Google, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go, Bing, and other search engines.

Domain authority is one of the many variables search engines weigh in their algorithm-heavy decision-making process in terms of ranking websites.

What Is Domain Authority?

Domain authority was created by Moz, a search engine optimization site and service provider, several years ago. Put simply - as simply as possible, at least - it reliably predicts the position of web pages' results on search engines for various keywords and phrases.

Similar to most schools' grading scales, domain authority ranges from 1 to 100, with 100 being the highest score web domains can receive. Sites rarely reach 100, however, though the higher a domain authority score is, the more likely a web page is to garner higher results than competing web pages.

Applying Domain Authority To A Real-World Scenario

Search engine optimization is difficult to understand, even for experts. Let's assume that a digital entrepreneur is considering moving forward with one business venture, although she has three domain names to choose from.

Domain A has four backlinks from the same web domain, and possesses a domain authority of 34. Domain B has three backlinks from one website, where its domain authority score is 34. Domain B also features only one backlink from a different website, and features a domain authority ranking of 24.

She is considering choosing either Domain A or Domain B. Because the diversification of backlinks is highly important to search engine rankings, it's likely a better idea to choose Domain B, even though the second source features a lower domain authority.

Search engines all consider tens, if not hundreds, of factors in determining which web pages return higher search results than their competitors. In actuality, it might be a better idea to choose Domain A. However, in most cases, Domain B is the safest choice, in terms of domain authority.