How to Improve Your Domain Authority

What domain authority actually is

Domain authority is a score, from 0 to 100, that estimates how likely a website is to rank based on the strength of its backlink profile. Moz calls theirs Domain Authority, Ahrefs calls theirs Domain Rating, and we publish our own Authority Score. They are all third-party estimates, not a number Google gives you, but they all measure roughly the same thing: how many quality sites vouch for you by linking to you. A higher score generally means it is easier for your pages to rank, especially for competitive terms.

Because it is driven by links from OTHER sites, you cannot change it by editing your own pages alone. You raise it by earning trust across the web.

The levers that actually move it

• Referring domains. The number of unique, quality domains linking to you. This is the number one factor. Ten links from ten different trusted sites beat a hundred links from one.
• Link quality and relevance. A link from a respected site in your industry is worth far more than a link from a random low-quality directory.
• A clean profile. Spammy or unnatural links can drag you down. Removing or disavowing them matters.
• Internal linking. How you pass authority around your own site decides which pages benefit.
• Brand strength. The more people search for and mention your brand, the more authority signals compound.

How to earn quality backlinks (the main work)

This is where most of the score is won or lost. The honest methods, roughly easiest to hardest:

• Reactive PR (HARO-style). Answer journalist requests with real expertise and earn a link from a news site. Free, and one good placement can outrank months of small links.
• Linkable assets. Publish something worth linking to, an original survey, a data study, a free tool, or a genuinely useful guide. People link to resources, not sales pages.
• Digital PR. Pitch your asset or data to relevant publications. A single pickup on a strong site often earns its own secondary links.
• Guest posts on relevant sites. Contribute real, useful content to respected industry sites, with a natural link back.
• Unlinked mentions. Find places that mention your brand without linking, and ask for the link. Easy wins.
• Broken link building. Find a dead link on a relevant page, and suggest your resource as the replacement.
• Local citations. For local businesses, consistent listings (Google Business Profile, Yelp, industry directories) build baseline authority.

Build assets people actually link to

The compounding way to raise authority is to own a resource other people cite. Surveys and original data are the best, because journalists and bloggers need something to reference and there is nothing else to cite. A free tool works the same way. So does the single most complete guide on a topic. The goal is to be the source, so links come to you instead of you chasing every one by hand.

Clean up toxic and broken links

Two housekeeping jobs quietly help. First, reclaim broken backlinks: if a site links to a page of yours that now 404s, that link equity is leaking, redirect the old URL to a live page and you get it back. Second, review for toxic links: if you have a history of spammy, paid, or link-farm links (often from a previous agency), Google may discount or penalize them. In clear cases, disavow them. Do not disavow aggressively without reason, most links are fine.

Use internal linking to spread authority

Authority earned by one strong page can be passed to others through internal links. Link from your highest-authority pages (often the homepage and your best blog posts) to the pages you want to rank, using clear, descriptive anchor text. A tidy internal structure means the links you earn lift more of your site, not just the page that got the link.

Build brand signals over time

Authority and brand grow together. The more people search for your name, mention you, and engage with your content, the more the whole site is trusted. Being consistently present, on your own site, on social, on podcasts, in the press, feeds the same engine. Even mentions without a link help, because they build the entity that search engines and AI answers recognize as real.

Keep the technical foundation solid

Links only count if search engines can crawl and trust your site. Keep it fast, mobile-friendly, and free of crawl errors, make sure important pages are indexable, and keep the site under control (no runaway thin pages). None of this raises authority by itself, but a broken foundation wastes the links you work to earn.

What NOT to do

The fastest way to hurt your authority is to try to fake it. Avoid:

• Buying links or paying for placements that pass authority. Against Google guidelines and increasingly easy to detect.
• Private blog networks (PBNs) and link farms. High risk of a penalty that is expensive to recover from.
• Mass low-quality directories and automated link spam. Below about $500/month, most SEO offers are exactly this.
• Irrelevant links. A thousand links from unrelated sites do less than a handful of relevant ones, and look unnatural.

If a shortcut sounds too good, it is because a bot is doing it, and Google eventually catches up.

How long it takes

Authority is a slow-moving number. You can earn a strong link this week, but the score reflects a profile built over months and years. Expect meaningful movement over quarters, not weeks. The businesses that win are the ones that keep earning a few quality links every month and let it compound.

Your first 90 days: a step-by-step plan

Authority is earned in a rhythm, not a sprint. Here is a realistic plan that keeps a few quality links coming in every month:

• Weeks 1 to 2 (baseline + housekeeping): Check your Authority Score and referring domains so you have a starting number. Fix any broken backlinks (redirect 404ing URLs that other sites link to) and claim your core citations (Google Business Profile, Bing, Apple, industry directories).
• Weeks 3 to 6 (build one linkable asset): Publish one thing worth linking to, an original survey, a small data study, a free tool, or the most complete guide on a topic in your niche. This becomes the thing you pitch for months.
• Weeks 5 to 8 (reactive PR): Set up profiles on journalist-request platforms and answer two or three relevant queries a week. One good news placement can outweigh months of small links.
• Weeks 6 to 10 (targeted outreach): Find the sites that already link to your competitors but not to you, they are the warmest targets, and pitch your asset or a guest contribution. Also chase unlinked brand mentions and ask for the link.
• Ongoing (compound): Aim for a handful of quality referring domains every month. Keep the asset fresh, keep answering PR requests, and keep your internal links pointing at the pages you want to lift.

Do this consistently and the score moves over the following quarters. Skip it for a month and nothing breaks, but nothing compounds either.

How to measure your domain authority

You cannot improve what you do not measure. Pick one authority tool and track the same number over time, the trend matters more than the absolute figure, since every tool scores a little differently. Watch three things: your Authority Score (the headline), your referring domains (the real driver, this is what your link building moves), and your broken backlinks (equity you are leaking). Re-check monthly. If referring domains are climbing, the score will follow, even if it lags by a few weeks. You can check all three for free here.