When it comes to Domain Authority, you may have several questions in mind! What exactly this metric is? Do I really need to improve it? Will a high domain authority help sites rank higher on Google?
How to know the true reputability of a domain? If you want to clear these doubts or check the authority of your site, Semrush has a perfect solution for you. This popular all-in-one SEO tool is packed with plenty of features to help companies run digital marketing strategies and improve their online visibility. To help users get access to accurate data and market insight, Semrush keeps updating the features and functionality of the tool.
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Recently, Semrush introduced a new Authority Score to provide users with manipulation-resistant data for evaluating a site’s reputability. In this post, we’ll find out all about Semrush Authority Score and how their new calculation update can prevent link manipulation.
Semrush Authority Score
Semrush is a powerful tool that has several features for conducting keyword research, competitor analysis, Google Ad optimization, and so on. One of the key features of this amazing tool is Authority Score. Domain Authority (DA) is a scale that measures the status of a website in relation to similar competitors. It is a useful metric that helps you assess the performance of your site. DA doesn’t improve your ranking in the search engine result pages (SERPs). Google doesn’t consider DA when ranking sites, but it remains an important metric.
All major SEO tools have a feature to measure domain authority. Semrush has developed its own Authority Score calculator that allows users to determine the health of their site in relation to their competitors. Semrush Authority Score uses data from backlinks, search traffic, referring domains, and other factors to calculate the score which reveals the trustworthiness and authority of a domain or webpage.
New Authority Score
Recently, Semrush has updated its Authority Score to provide users with a metric that would be the most resistant to spam and manipulation. The new, improved Authority Score (AS) metric aims to accurately measure a site’s reputability. The primary purpose of this update is to resolve the problem of manipulation.
Various link schemes and shady manipulation tactics could easily manipulate DA scores and make sites appear to have more authority than they really have. To avoid this problem and provide users with accurate data, Semrush introduced a new calculation method that gives manipulation-free results.
When measuring the domain authority, the higher the Authority Score of a domain is, the more trusted it is. Semrush calculator ranks sites on a 1 to 100 scale which means a score close to 100 is better. Semrush has improved the formula used for calculating DA. This updated calculator works best for identifying sites involved in link manipulation. To make Authority Score resistant to spam and manipulation, Semrush added new parameters to the existing formula. The New Authority Score calculator comes with improved features such as:
- Measure the site’s organic traffic to evaluate its real value
- Identify spam signals to prevent manipulation
- Generate a Network Graph report to spot Private Blog Networks (PBNs) and the presence of natural/unnatural link profiles
- Added a visualizer feature in the tool to check how the score is calculated
What Makes New Authority Score Manipulation-Resistant?
The previous version of the Semrush Authority Score used two complex algorithms to calculate the overall quality of a site. That formula used organic search data, traffic data, and backlink data to generate the score. The company rebuilt the formula to produce more consistent and reliable results that can be easier to understand. The new version focuses on organic traffic and links spam factors to achieve the maximum possible defense against manipulation. The key elements of the New Authority Score are:
- Link Power
- Organic Traffic
- Spam Factors
The tool calculates DA by measuring these three factors. The link power determines the quality and quantity of backlinks. A site with more high-quality backlinks has more authority. But backlinks aren’t the only factors that determine DA. Users may find web pages that don’t have any backlink but still attracts high traffic. So, the new version of Authority Score also focuses heavily on organic traffic for calculation. The third element is spam factors which involve identifying domains with link manipulation.
Why New Authority Score Can Be Game-Changing?
Semrush claims to have performed a comparative study with other similar score calculators in the market. They compared their AS calculator with Moz and Ahrefs calculators that use similar metrics. The result of their study shows that Semrush Authority Score provides more accurate results by emphasizing natural link profiles and quality organic traffic. When evaluating domain authority, it has minimal effect of manipulation as compared to other tools.
It’s well known that Google keeps updating its ranking factors. Lately, search engine has highlighted the importance of content quality to evaluate reputability. By updating its authority calculator, Semrush ensures it keeps up with Google’s latest guidelines for links and spam.
