Check Domain Authority Before Buying It: A Comprehensive Checklist

Are you planning to purchase a domain for your website? Before making a decision, make sure to check the domain authority of the domain.

In this blog post, we'll guide you on how to check domain authority and why it's a crucial factor for your website's success.

What is domain authority?

Domain authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). It's measured on a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being the highest score possible. The higher the domain authority, the more likely that the website will rank higher on SERPs.

How to check domain authority

There are several tools available online that can help you determine the domain authority of a website. The easiest way is to use a domain authority checker tool. All you need to do is enter the domain name, and the tool will provide you with a score.

Such instruments allow users to:

• Gain a comprehensive understanding of a domain's online presence and visibility with ease.
• Analyze the growth trends of a domain over time and identify the markets in which it has the strongest presence. 
• Uncover the top keywords that bring in the most traffic from both organic and paid channels, saving you time and streamlining your analysis.
• Compare your competitors in a single report, saving you even more time. 
• Analyze key metrics, such as organic and paid search traffic and the number of backlinks, either on a global scale or for a specific country. 
• Compare the organic and paid performance of a domain across different countries, and see its organic share in specific markets.

What you should know about domain authority

There are a few important things to keep in mind when it comes to Domain Authority (DA). First, it's worth noting that the DA doesn't take Google penalties into account. While a website under a Google penalty will lose its rankings naturally, Moz won't necessarily know about it, so the domain authority may still appear high despite the penalty.

In comparison, Google's ranking algorithm considers over 200 factors, while DA only takes into account 40 factors. Additionally, improving your DA score is no easy feat: you can't make changes on your website today and expect an immediate increase in domain authority.

Note that DA operates on a logarithmic scale. 

“It's relatively easy to improve your score from 20 to 30, but much more challenging to level up from 70 to 80. As you climb higher on the scale, it becomes increasingly difficult to improve your ratings,” – noted Dmitriy Tsytrosh, SEO expert at Rush Analytics.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that DA can fluctuate frequently, which makes it less useful as a metric for evaluating your long-term SEO performance. Instead, it's best used as a tool for domain comparison purposes.

How to obtain valuable inbound links for your website

1. Organic Links

The most effective method of obtaining high-quality links to your website is by creating content that is noteworthy and valuable.

As your content gains more attention, other websites may find it useful and decide to link back to it.

Although this is the ideal approach recommended by Google, it can be difficult to achieve.

There are several ways to create content that is worth linking to, such as research-based content or linkable assets like infographics or graphs. This process takes time, but the links that are earned organically are more valuable than any other link that is built.

2. Outreach to Bloggers

Outreach to bloggers is one of the most successful link-building practices.

If you want to establish authority quickly, blogger outreach is the way to go.

• Contact bloggers and website owners who manage websites that cater to the same niche as yours.
• Offer them a guest post opportunity or ask them to feature your product or service.
• You will receive a quick response, and the links will be placed naturally.

3. Broken Link Building

Conduct a broken link audit of websites with high domain authority. Check if you can provide them with better content to link back to. This strategy creates a win-win situation as the website can fix the issue with the broken link, while you receive a quality backlink from a contextual website without having to write a blog post yourself.

4. Unlinked Brand Mentions

It's possible that your brand name has been mentioned on other websites, but without any links back to your own site. You can use domain checkers to audit the brand mentions you've received and identify the high Domain Authority websites. Reach out to them and request a link to your brand anchor text.

5. Link Recovery

It's possible that you've lost some of the links you've earned. Contact the webmasters of high DA websites and ask them to fix the links for you.

6. Press Release Strategy

Consider implementing a PR strategy for your website. Many publishing websites have high Domain Authority, making it worthwhile to obtain a magazine-quality link from them. Organic PR activity can happen when the press finds value in what you're offering, and this can be done with a well-crafted strategy. Paid PR activities can also result in high-quality links, but be aware that some sites may charge a fee.

Wrapping up

Checking the domain authority of a website before purchasing it is essential for your website's success. By using domain authority checkers, you can make an informed decision and ensure that the domain you purchase will benefit your website's search engine ranking.

Keep in mind that that domain authority is just one factor to consider when purchasing a domain. Other factors such as backlinks, content quality, and website traffic should also be considered. However, a high domain authority score can indicate that the website has a strong online presence and can be a valuable asset for your website.