Anyone looking to impress the Google Spider these days needs to understand the concept of an authoritative website. When ranking pages in their search engine, Google looks for authoritative website links and sources.
What’s authoritative can be a bit subjective, though. What does that even mean?
The truth is that it’s not as subjective as it sounds. Established criteria create authority in a website, such as high-quality and engaging content.
Here are some things you need to know about finding authoritative websites if you want to create one as part of your digital marketing strategy.
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What Is an Authoritative Website?
To call a page authoritative means the website meets specific criteria that indicate it can be trusted. Some websites have a reputation that automatically makes them an appropriate source.
For example, if you get tax information from the IRS, you can be sure it is a practical choice. You could feel safe getting medical data from the Mayo Clinic or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention too. That’s just common sense.
Not all authoritative websites are obvious, though. That’s where things get a bit muddy.
Authoritative sites are recognized as reliable, like TechRadar or Forbes. In most cases, personal blogs are not trusted sources that meet Google’s standards.
To be authoritative, a website must fall under one of three categories:
- Recognized: Harvard Business Review is a source recognized by the industry, for instance. This would also include government or educational sites. If they have .gov or .edu, they are recognized.
- Scholarly: A scholarly site is an academic publication, usually found in a database like Google Scholar or JSTOR. It might be a published medical or legal article. It could also be a clinical trial or study.
- Credible: Credible is categorized by well-established publications like The New York Times or Bloomberg.
For most brands building a website, recognizability and credibility are important classifications.
Why Do Authoritative Websites Matter?
The primary purpose of content is to drive traffic to websites. Effective SEO is a crucial way that happens. Google and other search engines look for authoritative sources and links when ranking pages in organic searches.
How Can You Make Your Website Authoritative?
One reason authoritative websites are such a big deal to search engines is that it’s not easy to achieve that status. Having authority in your industry or niche pushes your business about 50 steps ahead.
It means you will rank higher in organic searches related to your field. It also means other websites will look to you for trustworthy information. That’s why high-quality content is vital.
Provide well-written, focused content
Quality starts with content, which means you need an expert professional writer like the ones at WriterAccess. Any content you post, whether on a website, blog, or social media, should be polished and well-written.
Hiring a writer to create your content ensures you give your readers top-quality information on a regular basis. You should have recurring blog posts that offer original content. It is easy to let blogs slide because you don’t have the time. If you hire someone to write it, you will have consistent posts.
Choose meaningful topics
Be sure to stay on point with your topics. If you are creating a website for a medical practice, you shouldn’t give advice on how to paint walls unless it has a medical context.
It’s okay to generalize, but specialization comes with perks. For example, a pediatric medical practice might feature articles on blood pressure and general medical topics. It should also have a fair amount of pediatric medicine information.
Practice good SEO
Part of being an authority in your industry is ranking high in searches. For that, you need to practice good SEO.
Ensure your content aligns with search intent. In other words, if you are selling cookies, your content should be about buying cookies, what to look for in a good cookie, and similar topics. If you’re building a baking website, your content is about making or baking cookies.
Your keywords and titles should reflect the context.
Use multimedia and interactive content on your website
Well-designed websites mix words with videos and graphics like photos and infographics to engage readers. Internet users have notoriously short attention spans. Mixing up the media helps keep them on your page.
Creating interactive content is a great idea as humans enjoy having fun, and interactive content provides just that. Ion is an excellent platform that can assist you in achieving this goal.
Build a responsive website
Responsive means it will adapt to any device. A responsive website will work just as well on a smartphone as on a desktop monitor.
Designing a responsive website is also good SEO. Google looks for websites that are mobile-friendly when ranking searches.
Make your brand name known
One of the most effective ways to be authoritative is to be recognizable. For instance, you can do guest blogs, provide high-quality backlinks, and invite industry experts to write for you. Add your business name to industry directories too. These steps increase your internet presence.
Use authoritative sources
The best possible sources show visitors you did the necessary research to provide factual and accurate information. It helps make your website authoritative because your copy includes valuable, trustworthy references.
Track your website authority
There are platforms that can tell you how authoritative your website is and why. For example, Semrush will analyze the growth of your domain over a year. It is a subscription service, though.
There are also free options, such as Moz. You can enter any domain name and get a ranking for its page authority and other critical criteria.
But remember, it starts with good content and the right writer. The good news is WriterAccess has some of the best-vetted writers on the market just waiting to assist you. Find out more by trying WriterAccess for free.
