As soon as you start to learn about search engine optimization, you’ll hear about site authority. Usually, right after you learn about keywords, and for good reasons. It is one of the significant factors of how well you will rank for anything on your entire site. Let’s look at what you can do to boost your website’s authority.
Internal And External Links
The most basic sign of authority is the one that was first implemented with the inception of Google. The idea was that as people find high-quality and helpful content and link to it, they will rise to the top of Google search.
Things have changed since then, and a lot of safety measures have been put in place to avoid people scamming their way to the top by buying links. Your site authority is still primarily determined by the quality of natural, high-quality incoming links.
How do you get those? By sharing great content and getting the ball rolling by telling your target audience about it. How do you do that? Social media is a great option, which also brings us to my next point.
Social Signals
Once you start to get the ball rolling on social media sites, others will begin to share your content. Guess what, that gives you incoming links and it sends what is called “social signals” to others. As your post about your latest blog or article gets shared around and liked, your content and with it, your site gains authority. This will build over time, as will the last thing we’ll talk about.
Website Age
Age will also help you as time goes on. The best time to have registered a domain was ten years ago. The next best time is today. Get started, get high-quality content up, start sharing it with the right audience, and your authority will start to grow as time goes by. Don’t obsess or worry over the age factor. It is what it is. Building search engine traffic takes time and not just because of the age factor. Instead, continue to work on your site, knowing that ranking will become easier as time goes by. This is in part because of your website’s age and authority, but also because you have more content on your site that will rank for a variety of keywords. As you grow your audience, they will help you spread the word, creating more social signals and incoming links for you.
This is not an extensive list of what improves site authority. There are lots of different factors involved in it in addition to this. Search engines are deliberately vague about what moves the needle at any given time. That said, these are the ones that are most in your control and what I have found to be most helpful.
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