Domain authority, or as Google calls it, online business authority, is an important ranking factor in Google in 2010. What is domain authority?
- Most sites probably have some measure of online business authority and it is probably measured by the amount and quality of the sites that link to it
- Basically massive domain authority is given to a very popular sites that have gained a lot of links from credible sources
- Perhaps a site which has a lot of links from other online business authorities too.
Amazon has a lot of online business authority…. (Official Google Webmaster Blog)
SEO more usually talk about domain trust and domain authority based on the number, type and quality of incoming links to a site.
Examples of trusted, authority domains include Wikipedia, the W3C and Apple. How do you become a OBA? Through building a killer online or offline brand or service with, usually, a lot of useful content on your site.
How do you take advantage of being an online business authority? Either you turn the site into a SEO Black Hole (only for the very biggest brands) or you pump out information – like all the time. On any subject. Because Google will rank it!
Can you (on a smaller scale in certain niches) mimic a online business authority by recognising what OBA do for Google, and why Google ranks these high in search result?. These provide THE service, THE content, THE experience. This takes a lot of work and a lot of time to create, or even mimic.
In fact, as a SEO, I honestly think the content route is the only sustainable way for a most businesses to try to achieve OBA at least in their niche or locale. I concede a little focused linkbuilding goes a long way to help, and you have certainly got to get out there and tell others about your site…
Have other relevant sites link to yours. Google Webmaster Guidelines
