6 Steps to Get AI to Recommend Your Brand

Website authority influences your site’s SEO strength. Higher website authority = a better chance of appearing first for a Google search.

Here’s a snapshot of what Backlinko’s Authority Score looks like in Semrush:

Backlinko’s authority score is 60, and has a healthy backlink profile.

What Is Website Authority?

Website authority measures how likely a site is to rank in search. Higher-scoring sites are more likely to end up in the top SERPs and pass authority on to sites they link to.

Sounds great, right?

It is. And it’s part of the reason SEO professionals have been captivated by website authority since the idea was first teased in a 1999 research paper on authoritative communities. Soon after, Google made news with its confidential PageRank algorithm.

Your site’s PageRank score could significantly influence Google search results in your favor. This score is based on a complex network of incoming and outgoing links from sites. Sites of higher authority seemed to have more impact. As a result, your pages could perform better based on PageRank.

Why Does Website Authority Matter so Much in SEO?

Website authority is critical to securing the top rankings in your niche. Google needs to know your website is trustworthy before surfacing your pages high in the SERPs.

You’ll have difficulty outranking your competitors if their authority scores are much higher than yours. It’s also why brand-new websites with no link history and little content struggle to get traffic.

Let’s compare the two sites for context.

When searching for “keto chicken breast recipes,” we find both The Big Man’s World and Eat Well 101 in the first page results.

The Big Man’s World is the first rich snippet for recipes. It appears further down in regular results twice, too.

The site has a Semrush Authority Score of 59.

Eat Well 101 also appears in the SERPs. While it doesn’t have a rich snippet, it’s in the first 10 results.

Eat Well101 has a Semrush authority score of 41. This is lower than the score of Wholesomeyum.com, which is 60. This may indicate that Wholesomeyum.com would show up higher in some results.

But are there exceptions? And does age matter at all?

We searched for “fun crayon activities for kids” and noticed these two sites in the SERPs:

1. Teaching Expertise
2. Crayola

As a brand that’s been around for 100+ years (with a well-established website), Crayola unsurprisingly has the highest Authority Score (68).

But Teaching Expertise ranked higher on the SERP with its Authority Score of 47.

What does this tell us?

While website authority does matter and can correlate with higher SERP placement, it’s not the only factor. Google also considers other things, like how useful the content is and how users interact with it.

Defining Website Authority Metrics For Semrush, Ahrefs & Moz

The top three website authority ranking tools are Semrush, Ahrefs, and Moz. Although each tool uses a unique algorithm, they strive to be the most accurate.

Here’s how they stack up:

• Semrush Authority Score (AS): Semrush’s Authority Score stands out for its dedication to mitigating unfair ranking practices. The tool may show a more authentic representation of the site’s link influence.
• Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR): [Ahrefs](/content/ahrefs-vs-semrush "Ahrefs vs Semrush: Which SEO Tool Should You Use?"/index.html) has added new SEO features to complement its DR algorithm and make it more competitive.
• Moz Domain Authority (DA): Moz is a great tool with a “first to market” reputation.

You can see how each tool handles the website authority for Backlinko.com in this table:

Semrush: Authority Score (AS)

Authority Score is Semrush’s proprietary ranking metric, updated in 2023.

How it’s calculated

Semrush uses artificial intelligence (AI) to determine authority based on these metrics (weighted from highest to lowest):

1. Link power
2. Organic traffic
3. No organic rankings on SERPs
4. An unnaturally high % of dofollow domains
5. An imbalance between links and organic traffic
6. Too many referring domains with the same IP address
7. Too many referring domains with the same IP network
8. The presence of another domain with an identical backlink profile

Ahrefs: Domain Rating (DR)

Ahrefs has a publicly available ranking system that tracks just those domains in its database, measured by the size and quality of their backlinks. Its proprietary Domain Rating (DR) is a separate numerical value representing backlink strength compared to others.

What’s a good DR?

The closer your DR is to 100, the more authority your website has.

Moz: Domain Authority (DA)

Moz had one of the original SEO tools and was the first to coin Domain Authority (DA).

Factors affecting DA

Like the other tools, links are essential. The more, the better.

Which website authority score is best?

Three tools offer three very different approaches to scoring websites. With so much depending on a site’s reputation, we prefer Semrush’s rating system.

How to Increase Your Website Authority

By earning more high-quality backlinks to your website, you’re doing much of the hard work to increase your score.

Link building generally takes time, but it’s always a worthy endeavor. Start by doing a backlink audit to see who’s already linking to you, and keep a keen eye on spammy inbound links. (You don’t want those.)

Website Authority Is Only a Guide: Do This Instead

Many SEO professionals would have you believe that’s the only thing to aim for. But this thinking is limited and often focused on the wrong things.

Consider this: Google doesn’t even use the word “authority” in its guide.