Link Building: Should You Pay Attention to DA and DR Metrics?
Link building takes a lot of practice to get just right. When dealing with specific metrics, there are two that are often troublesome. DA and DR can be the stars of your show, but getting them to show up takes a strong supporting cast.
Domain Authority
One of the more successful Link Building Strategies requires understanding domain authority. In search engine result pages, DA is the score that is used to determine your ranking. The score goes from 1 to 100, with 100 being the score every website strives to get. Several factors go into making up a DA score, with changes being made constantly. This prevents websites from gaming the system when things become too predictable. Creating digital strategies based on the results of DA requires going through countless results. Machine learning can help alleviate some of this pressure, but there is still a highly functional human component that can never be replaced.
Domain Rating
The stronger your backlink profile, then the higher your domain rating will be. DR goes from 0 to 100, and the top of the scale puts you in elite territory. Calculating DR is not as complicated as DA, but can give you some false penalties for not paying attention. Your backlink profile is compared to websites, so you’ll need more than high quality backlinks to score a high DR. When jumping into this for the first time, oversimplifying the necessities is best. There are plenty of popular websites that live and died by their DR by refusing to change. The lesson here is that what works for one campaign may be the same metric that sinks you on the next.
The Difference
DR ranks you based on backlinks compared to other websites. DA uses several changing analytics to rank you up or down in search engine results. Domain authority emphasizes the strength of automated analytic algorithms. And on the other side, Domain rating measures the quality and quantity of backlinks which officially affects their placement.
That last tidbit about DR is important since it has a bigger impact on your SEO health. Think of DA as a prediction of where your website will rank, while DR is the steps to getting it there. Remember, domain authority is powerful, but changes too much to be permanently manipulated. Putting all of your focus solely on domain authority will tank your website instead of helping it. Use the strengths of DA and DR to your advantage when you want to see the strongest results.
So, when does it matter? There is no such thing as a dead website if you’re willing to put in the work. DA and DR guarantee that a website is always in the fight, even when it has previously failed to compete. You just have to be willing to use the combined efforts of both metrics where they matter the most.
Build A Strong Portfolio
How you handle links can make or break your website. Find the right balance, and fine tune it to make the entire thing better. The more you learn from your mistakes, the better your future projects will become.
