Question: What is Authority?
Authority is being talked about online a lot these days in relation to Google search rankings and how they choose the best sites to rank well. What is authority?
Deeho Says:
Google assigns authority to each website in its index, and furthermore, to each page of each site. Authority is a revised, more complex version of their page rank (PR) scoring system.
Google wants to be able to trust the websites in its index and authority enables them to value the quality of your site. There are several key metrics that Google uses to measure your authority.
In simple terms, if highly regarded sites reference your site as being a source of good quality, useful and valuable information, then your authority will increase.
Thankfully, you are only competing against your niche competitors for authority, so you don’t need to be as authoritative as Amazon, eBay or John Lewis if you are an insurance broker. You just need to build more authority than your fellow insurance brokers.
In our insurance broker example, if you are linked to from well respected sites within the insurance industry then you will gain authority. Additionally, if you are interviewed on TV or radio and the television station links to your site, you will gain authority because that link demonstrates to Google that you are an authority within your industry with valuable incite and knowledge.
For many sites, who aren’t in a position to be a spokesperson for a national broadcaster, you need to work on creating high quality authority links from the most authoritative and powerful sites that you can.
Authority has a direct correlation with high quality content. If you write amazing, unique and valuable content, then others will link to it as a reference. There is no avoiding the importance of producing great content.