Hey gang, I’m here on Tuesday with a new edition for my blogging tips category. I got a-lot of questions about this as I recently tweeted that my Domain Authority had hit 29. It wasn’t easy to do and I put a-lot of effort into improving my SEO and all the relevant Domain Authority things.
This post does include affiliate links but I own and have used every product mentioned.
Where I Started
I mentioned in my Blogger To WordPress Move that I had an Audit with Nele. Unfortunately, she is not offering this service right now – and I think it would fundamentally be wrong to not mention that I had this done. I paid Nele for an audit and she went through my blog and told me what I could improve, what posts of mine ranked on google, and gave me some really nice compliments and tips.
At this point my SEO knowledge was not the best and I had only been working on backlinks – why this is one of the main metrics of how DA is calculated.
Gaining New Backlinks
In short, I advertised with a ton of bloggers looking for those with similar or higher DA’s. If you’re looking to up your DA ideally you need to be gaining links to those with a higher DA. Now my Domain Authority is 29 I need to be gaining links from those with 30 or higher really.
Guest posts can be a great way to do this too – just make sure you’re not posting the guest post on your own blog as well (it’s not good for spam).
Sorting My Spam Score
I’ve mentioned this before but unfortunately my blogs spam score went up massively at the beginning of the year due to some dodgy sites linking to me, and those awful re-post pages for twitter account linking to hundreds of my posts.
Your spam score is not a massive metric towards DA unless it is super high. Mine had previously hit 50 so this was an issue and I had to disavow these links with Google – which is ongoing. I learnt about how to disavow links, and everything about Off Page SEO from Nele’s Off Page SEO For Bloggers Guide (AF – it’s worth every penny if you need to learn more about SEO and what you can do away from your blog post to improve SEO)
Learning About And Using Better Keywords
Ranking on Google has never been something I’ve been good at my ability to pick a good keyword has never been there. It wasn’t until I purchased Nele’s Keyword Research (AF)and did my homework on why keywords are important that I realised I needed to improve straight away.
If your DA is still growing you don’t want to be using high competition keywords, you want to use some are highly searched and have a low competition for a better chance of ranking.
I also use this method of searching for keywords for my Pinterest descriptions to help them rank better. Check out Nele’s Keyword Research (AF). In the last two months I’ve managed to improve four ranking posts to get them onto the front page of Google. Learning about keywords is so crucial for your blog.
Making My Blog More SEO Friendly
Making the move from Blogger to WordPress honestly gave me so many more options for making my content more SEO friendly. The small things like being able to use Yoast ( yes, I know it has it’s limitations and can over optimize posts) and being able to add alt text to your images is great.
I was also equipped with Nele’s SEO Guide (AF) – I personally needed the help because the technical side of blogging, SEO and domain authority baffled me.
I then set to work on sorting the 800 plus broken links I had from my move, as having broken backlinks can be detrimental to your Domain Authority. Fixing broken links is the bane of my existence and it took me over two days just to get through most of them.
What To Remember When Improving Your Domain Authority
It’s normal for building your Domain Authority to take time to grow, if it doesn’t get higher quickly that’s okay. Work on the quality of your backlinks.
Fluctuation in Domain Authority is completely normal, it can go up and down and that’s okay. Whilst it can be very disheartening just keep going and keep working on ways that you can improve it.
Ranking on Google can be a task – when I had my audit with Nele I had just 20/400 posts that ranked. I now have 40+, 4 of which are now on the first page. I’m still working on it, and keywords have changed my life.
Let me know in the comments where you are with your domain authority and if you’re working on your SEO!
I also hope that’ll you’ll are excited for Friday because I’ll be launching the first product from my e-store which will be a guide on affiliate sales and I can’t explain all the emotions I have for it.
If you want to get into email marketing have you checked out Blog To Brand’s Email Marketing Bundle?(AF)
Awesome! Congrats and thanks for sharing. My DA dropped a few months back and I was not active so I’m in the process of changing that.
Massive congrats on your DA score, that is absolutely amazing, and in such a short space of time too. I had an audit booked with Nele but it’s on hold for the moment. No pressure on her but I’m so excited to see what she comes back with when she can fit it in. And go you, that’s amazing to have all those posts ranking on Google. You are on fire! X
Lisa | http://www.lisasnotebook.com
Congratulations! This is such a great achievement. <3
I really like all the tips you've given. I really had no idea about the spam score! It's a good thing that it's not so detrimental unless it's super high percentage.
I've been thinking about guest posting but the sites I've came across ask for some pretty high prices in order for my blog post to be published there with a link pointing to my blog. :/ I guess I should look a bit more.
I also try to make all of my articles SEO friendly and I think it's working good. Can't wait to reach your DA level! 🙂 Keep going, girl! <3 The best is yet to come.
That’s amazing, congratulations and well done!
I’m just started learning and implementing keyword research to my posts but I definitely need to up my Backlink game! Fingers crossed I can get my DA to go up again soon ❤️
In most cases avoid guest posts where you need to pay for it – advertise with other bloggers or guest post for a fellow blogger – there are ways to link build without spending £££s x
Oh Kayleigh these are just such helpful tips, thank you very much for sharing! I always find SEO can be a bit of a blackhole in terms of when you research it can almost lead you into more confusion than when you started but these simple and clear tips are so helpful. Thank you!
Kate x
I’m currently working on my DA (15 at the moment) so these are some really useful tips! I’d like to get back into writing more guest posts, though I didn’t realise that you shouldn’t link back to them on your own site! Should I remove my Guest Post page then, or does making them all no follow suffice?
Hey Hannah the reason you should post it more than once is because Google can see the first 100 (I believe) words are the same thus it can be seen as spam because it’s the same as the text posted on someone’s else’s blog! As long as guest post only exists on one site it’s completely finex
*shouldn’t
Great post, thank you for sharing your tips. I am nowhere near this high with my DA yet, but these are some great tips even so, especially regarding spam 🙂
These tips are so helpful Kayleigh! I’m always eager to up my DA score and this post has given me ways on how to do that! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Congratulations! I really need to focus on SEO and get my DA moving up again. Great tips.
Loved this post, it’s made me want to improve my back links (which I was so unsure about how to do) but this is pointing me in the right direction 🙂
Thanks for sharing, I’m working on getting mine up maybe working on broken links might be a start 🙂
This is great advice! I’ll have to pay closer attention to my spam score. I hope to see my DA go up in the next few months since I’m consistently pinning, posting, and will be advertising!
Congrats girl! Amazing.
Thank you for sharing this fab info! I’m still starting my journey into DA and trying to improve my SEO knowledge. It helps being constantly reminded by your fab posts and really kicks me into wanting to know more to get the best out of my blog!
Stay wonderful & remember how amazing you are!
Louna x | burstsofautumn
This is great. Understanding the technical behind thr terminology is helpful to creating and maintaining a blog.
Great tips. Everything really works in unison when it comes to SEO and DA score. I understand how frustrating it is for newer bloggers who want to up their DA to work with brands etc but when you put in the work, it really does show! Mine is 33 at the moment and I’m hoping after I’ve worked through a load of stuff from Nele’s SEO audit it’ll jump up. I’d love to get to 40 eventually!
Such a helpful and informative post. My current da is 12. Started blogging back in December. I try with keywords and do research where I can and currently learning more about seo and how I can improve it.
These are great tips!! Mine used to be around 36 but it dropped down to 27 when I stopped blogging for a while. I’m definitely going to be using some of your tips to try and get it back up to at least 30 🙂 xx
Congratulations! Clearing out backlinks is a nightmare, especially when you have dodgy sites linking to your website. I had no idea about this and it was really detrimental for my previous blog 🙈
I am so glad this is working out well for you. It really is a lot of work and you are doing awesome.
Hi Helen you can check on moz or here https://websiteseochecker.com/domain-authority-checker/
Congratulations 🎊. That’s such a huge milestone to achieve . Thanks for the tips.
I’m too scared to even attempt my DA right now! I think my posts need to improve before I try! xD
Great tips! I’m in the process of sorting the SEO out on a lot of my old blog posts. I haven’t updated a lot of them in a while so I’m applying all of the knowledge that I’ve gained through blogging to those posts 🙂 x
https://www.femaleoriginal.com
This is the top of my to do list this summer. I’ve been at 10 for such a long time now and despite making headway on some of the changes I’m at a loss.
I’ll be following this advice, wish me luck! Thanks for sharing x
This is so so helpful! I’ve just bookmarked this ☺️
My DA is currently at 21 and I’m working at n improving it so I’m going to start doing what you’ve mentioned. Thanks so much!
Love Lozza x
I’m a total noob when it comes to marketing so I’m bookmarking this for future use! Thank you. 😀
At some point in the future I definitely need to focus on SEO – but for now I just need to grow my following! x
Emily | emiliamarlowe.co.uk
Hi Kayleigh. Congratulations. And thank you for the tips.
SEO is such a minefield – especially for beginners like me. My DA is 13 at the moment. It’s tough getting backlinks isn’t it? 🙂
I definitely need to sort out some guest posts asap for back links! I wasn’t aware that a spam score can affect you DA massively so I’ll definitely be keeping that in mind from now on, for sure. 29 is an amazing DA girl, well done angel xx
Congratulatons on such a huge increase. This is such a helpful guide. I was so lucky that I was taught the basics of SEO as a part of my degree so my writing style was natually leaning more that way. I have some of my earlier posts that I hadn’t even set a keyword for that still rank well. I went through and deleted all of my broken links last month and it forever (over 1000) but I felt so accomplished afterwards! I need to work on getting some more backlinks now x
Sophie
I’m beginning to think this is something that’s not important enough in the US. I never ever hear people talking about how to improve it, where to even locate the information, etc. It was so interesting to read your post!
This is where I went wrong on my blog – I didn’t spend enough time on this stuff – I was so focused on the articles themselves and writing them how I felt they should be worded
Your posts on improving DA’s and blogs are so so useful, so thank you so much!!
LifeRightNowx 🤍
I would really love to vastly improve my knowledge on SEO, keyword research and affiliate marketing but I feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day! My DA has dropped by 4 points over the last couple of months and it’s so disheartening. Definitely something I need to actively put some time and effort into ASAP!
Alice Xx
http://www.blacktulipbeauty.co.uk
I really need to give this more thought – tbh my DA isn’t that bad so I’ve never gone back over it. I’m like the laziest blogger ever at the moment xx
Honestly you’re doing such a great job! Really glad to hear my resources and the audit have helped so much <3 But you put in all the work!
Thank you! This is so useful! My DA is so low I need to work on it!
Very helpful! I’ve been working on improving my score, but it’s been a slow process. Hopefully, these tips can help me pick up the pace!
Thanks for providing these helpful tips as I always looking for ways to improve the DA score as there seems to be quite a few variables. I had no idea that a spam score existed and so will have to see if I can determine what mine is!
Fantastic post with great tips. I’m already working on a couple of these, but a few that I will definitely need to get working on!
Fay | How Felicity Finds
These are some great tips! I’ve been trying to improve my DA recently by advertising and guest-posting more on other people’s blogs whilst also trying to make my posts more SEO friendly! I’ve managed to improve by about 3 points so I’m hoping it continues going in the right direction! I think I need to carry out a spam check and broken links next!
Tash // A Girl with a View
I’ve been working so hard on my DA, and it is paying off! These tips are fab!
Love, Amie ❤
The Curvaceous Vegan
I really got to learn a lot from this post. I knew some things about domain authority already but about most of the parts like checking for broken link etc I got to know today. Thank you for sharing this post ❤️
Brilliant post, I am definitely going to try use some of these tips in the near future.
What an amzing achievement. Just goes to show your hard work is paying off! I will have to implement some of these types and check out the SEO course. My DA is currently at 10 and has been for a long time…I still have old posts from when I migrated to WordPress from Blogger, so need to make them a priority I think!
Thanks for sharing!
Aimsy xoxo
Aimsy’s Antics
Thanks for this! My DA is only at 1 but I recently went self-hosted. I’m trying to do my best to improve it but I also want to find that balance of my blog still being personal to me and not being corporate by focusing on keywords etc. For example I love to have fun with my titles but then I know they aren’t very SEO friendly. I’ll continue working on it though so thanks for sharing the tips!
Viki – http://www.ohsoviki.com
Congrats on the rise in your DA. Mine has stagnated at the same number for a while, I will have a look at the things that you have suggested and hopefully I can get it moving upwards again.
I remember when I first went through all my deadlinks, it took me ages!!
Hola,
Great article. Thank you for the tips, they are really helpful.
Adriana
https://intheworldsjungle.com/
Great tips! I had no idea how important the DA score is. When I go self-hosted, I’ll keep this in mind. x
Focusing keyword and write content according to those keywords is the best way to get rank and attract the people to your blog. Google now smarter, it has started focusing on context instead of content it clarifies that what exactly user is looking for.
That’s awesome! I haven’t checked recently, but last time I checked, mines was on 15. Still trying to get all this SEO stuff down!
Congrats on achieving such a high DA, mine has been stuck on 12 for a while now! I need to work on SEO and hopefully I’ll be able to get my DA up to 15-20!
Your post is really nice and informative! Please check out my blog
Congratulations on getting your DA up! these tips are super valaubale, and if there is one thing this I feel I enternalized this year is that SEO work is where a big part of my energy should be spent. Thank you so much for sharing these.
Thank you for sharing these tips!! I definitely learnt a couple of things. I’m currently on a free WordPress version though which means I’m not allowed any plug-ins, even Yoast which is super frustrating!! But I just can’t justify paying for the business level right now, so I’m just guessing as best as I can with my keywords!! x
Such a helpful post! I’m struggling to understand DA scores and SEO as I very new blogger, all these tips are so useful to try and help me get my head around it all!!
Amazing and congratulations on increasing your DA. Its been a while I checked mine. I am trying my best with Yoast. I need to do some research with key words which I have been ignoring. I totally forgot about the broken links that my blog may have. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Via | https://glossnglitters.com
This is such a fab post and useful tips! I struggle with keywords and ranking on Google. I’ve used a few sites to help me find keywords but I just don’t really understand it. I need it broken down in simple terms.
I’ve found yoast very helpful for the basics. Congratulations on increasing yours, you are doing amazing! Xx
LottieLately.com
Great post! Very resourceful and I love the tips you provided. I also loved how you reached out to someone to help you improve your DA score
Hey! Thankyou for checking them out – I highly recommend the SEO book it’s just so helpful, and includes some bits on the keyword research which are very helpful x
This is just the post I needed! I’ve been working on my DA but I’m just getting started. I need all the tips I can get lol
I’ve commented on this but I wanted to update and say I followed this advice and I’ve gone up by 1 so fingers crossed it continues to improve x
This is great advice. I have been focusing on trying to grow my DA as a newer blog, and there is a lot of work involved. That being said, it’s important to get quality information so that we know our work is actually going to achieve some results and not just keep us busy. I’m definitely going to check out the resources that you shared. Thank you!
My DA has been so rubbish lately and hasn’t changed in ages! It took a big hit when Moz changed the way they score DA but I’m trying to get it back to where it was and I’ll definitely use these tips! X
So many great tips – Definitely will be working my way through these to try and hopefully improve my own blog site.
– thanks so much for sharing! x Helen
To be honest, I have absolutely NO idea what our domain authority is! 🙄 But I did recently use the built in Wix SEO Wizard to clean up some of the page labeling issues, which, I think, is one of the reasons that we’re getting more overall traffic—like double normal—but other than that and trying to use backilinks, I don’t know anything about our domain authority. Your post is making me think that, perhaps, I should investigate this a little further. Thanks.
I spend the last day fixing all the broken links on my website, didn’t realise how long it would take. I need to learn more about SEO and sort out my spam score. so much to learn but it’s so important to help improve you blog and it’s ranking x
This seems informative. BTW, How old is your site? My site is just 2 months old and it’s DA score is stuck at 2 since more than a month 😔 Trying to be more better to upgrade my DA score 😁 Thanks for the info.
You can check out my blog at myeuphoricblog.com
This was a really interesting read. You’ve done so well to get your DA up so much! My blog has a DA of 17 and I’m desperate to improve it. I only started blogging in April, but it feels like it’s taking forever for it to increase.
Great post, thanks for sharing your tips.
http://gethappylifestyle.com/
Appreciate you sharing your DA growth experience, Kayleigh! You’re an inspiration to us all. Keep up the great work.
Rhys Keller
My DA moved from 13 to 10 and now stuck at 10. It can be very frustrating especially when you want to ramp up monetization. Thanks for the tips.
We had dropped within weeks from our dear old 15 to 12, and with just a little SEO work have gone back to 14 in a matter of days. We wish Nele would still offer that, in the meantime, we shall be reading her books! As usual, great tips from one of our die-hard favourites!
Great information. I’ve just started blogging myself and having to learn a whole new world of tech and vocabulary. How do I find out my da and spam scores?
Although guide posts are helpful, sometimes we just need to know when to start and what process to follow so to have such posts where you share what you did helps! Thanks for sharing everything, I will definitely take some things away from this.
Thanks for sharing this informative post! I’m thinking of getting my own domain soon, so this is really useful.
Thank you so much for the tips! I found SEO so hard in the beginning but I think that I’m starting to understand it now – still need to work on my keyword research though. My DA has taken off recently which I’m so happy about because I’ve been working hard on it x
Very helpful article, thanks. One little thing I think isn’t quite right– you mentioned that being able to add alt text to images is an advantage of WordPress, but I’ve been adding alt text to my images for years in Blogger. I do, though, often wonder if traffic would go up if I switched. I find the thought exhausting, as my blog has been on Blogger since 2011.
Well done! As a newbie I learned a lot from this. Thanks.
Really great info! I’ve been blogging a long time but still have so much to learn. I’m working on my keywords too and my DA has improved quite a bit. I’ll keep working on it — thanks for sharing!
I know this an oldie but it’s still a goodie. I wanted to refresh my memory on how you managed to do this and now I’ve got lots of ideas for my own blog!
Rosie
All very sensible advice. KW research for me was the start of it all, and checking out what the competition looks like in terms of features within the content. The words are great but charts, infographics and anything stat based seems to be loved by Google as well.
Keep plugging away and the authority will grow!
Well done you, I love to see your blog’s DA go from strength to strength! Your tips are amazingly helpful. This is something I work on fulltime for my blog but it’s a bit of a slog at times!
Rosie
I’ve read this many times before but it’s always great to dive back in and remind myself that upping your DA is possible with hard work!
Thanks. This is extremely helpful.
This is so helpful – thank you! I’m definitely going to try and implement some on my site!
https://planebeauty.co.uk
This was a really good post and gave some helpful tips!
Wow some things I didn’t realized about DA.
Thanks!
Korean Skincare