One thing remains constant in the ever-changing search engine optimisation (SEO) landscape: authority, relevance, and trustworthiness (AR&T) are essential. These three pillars of SEO play a role in how your website ranks in search engine results pages (SERPs), and if you want to stay ahead of the competition, you need to focus on building up your AR&T.
We will discuss each of these terms and how you can improve your SEO strategy to have trustworthiness, SEO relevance and authority for your audience and the search engine.
What is Authority?
Authority is the strength and quality of your content. It’s what gives your website content weight and makes it trustworthy in the eyes of search engines.
As one of the pillars of SEO, authority is determined by a website’s age, popularity, and link profile. The more authority, the more likely the website will rank high in search results. A site with many high-quality links will be more authoritative than the other sites with fewer links.
There are three primary ways to build authority:
- Create great content that people want to link to – This is the most common and effective way to build authority. If you can produce high-quality, valuable content that people want to link to, you will naturally earn links and improve your search engine optimization.
- Participate in online communities – Another way to build authority is to participate in online communities related to your niche. Being active in these communities, you can become known as an expert in your field and earn the trust of other members.
- Build relationships with influencers and experts – You can also build authority by developing relationships with experts and influencers in your niche. Getting these influential people to link to or endorse your content will go a long way towards building your website authority.
Why does Authority matter?
Authority is a critical factor in SEO because it signals to Google and other search engines that your content is credible and trustworthy by providing accurate and reliable information. It can help you attract more visitors to your site and improve your search rankings. When your site has high authority, people are more likely to trust what you say.
3 Authority Levels
Building up the authority of your website is essential. Focusing on domain, page, and link authority can improve your chances of ranking for the keywords you’re targeting. Remember these factors as you work on your SEO marketing strategy.
Each level has a ranking factor you need to be aware of to improve your search engine rankings.
1. Domain Authority
Domain authority (DA) is a metric first introduced by Moz to keep track of if you want your site to have higher rankings in search results and can increase your chances of ranking for your target keywords, so you need to do keyword research. It ranges from 1 to 100, with higher numbers indicating a more substantial domain.
There are three levels of domain authority: low, medium, and high.
- Low-domain authority websites are typically new websites with little content.
- Medium domain authority websites have some backlinks and are starting to rank for some keywords.
- High-domain authority websites have many backlinks and rank for multiple keywords.
To improve your domain authority, you can add more content to your website, get external links from other websites, and optimise your website.
2. Page Authority
Page authority (PA) is a score (100-point scale) that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines. Its basis is link data or link counts, on-page content, and other ranking factors.
You can look at a few indicators to get an idea of how strong your page authority is.
- Quality and number of links pointing to your page. The more high-quality inbound links you have, your page authority will be higher.
- Domain age. Domains that have been around longer have higher page authority.
- Length and quality of your content. Longer, well-written articles will usually have a higher page authority than shorter, less comprehensive ones.
To increase your website’s page authority, you can improve the quality and quantity of internal links and optimise your website’s content and structure. Improving your web pages’ authority can help you rank higher in SERPs and drive more organic search traffic to your website.
3. Link Authority
Link authority is the link juice that flows from one site to another. When a site links to another site, it’s passing along some of its link authority. It would help if you focused on link-building high-quality backlinks from trusted websites to improve your link authority.
These factors influence the amount of link authority:
- Nofollow attribute
- Page authority of the page linking out
- Location and number of links on the page linking out
The nofollow attribute tells search engines not to follow a link. It means that the link juice will not flow from the linking site to the linked site.
The page authority of the linking out page measures how strong the link is. A page with a high page authority will pass along more link juice than a page with low page authority. The number of links on the page linking out also affects the link authority. If there are many links on the linking page, each link will carry less link juice.
Internal linking can help distribute link equity throughout a website, which can improve the authority of all pages on the website. By linking to relevant and valuable content within your own site, you signal to search engines that your site is well-organized and full of useful information.
The link’s location on the page also plays a role. A link at the top page is more likely to be clicked on than a link buried at the bottom, so it will carry more link juice. Links in the body of the text give more weight than links in the sidebar or footer.
What is Relevance?
Relevance is the state or quality of being closely connected or appropriate to what is being done or considered. As one of the pillars of SEO, relevance refers to how well a given website meets searchers’ needs for a keyword phrase. Creating a user-friendly website keeps visitors coming in and staying on your site.
There are key factors that influence the relevancy of a website.
- Topic of the site. If the site is about a specific topic, it is more likely relevant to related research.
- Content of the site. If you have relevant and high-quality website content, it is more likely to be relevant to searchers.
- Authority of the site. It is more likely to be relevant to searchers if the site has high authority.
Why does Relevance matter?
Relevance is essential because it helps determine how well your content will rank on search results. The more relevant it is to a user’s search query, the higher your content will rank.
But topical relevance isn’t just about keywords; it’s also about ensuring your content is valuable and informative. If you can provide users with relevant information, you’ll not only rank higher, but you’ll also build trust and relative authority.
3 Areas of Relevance
By focusing on these three areas of relevancy, you can ensure that your website is in tip-top shape regarding SEO. Brand, link, and page relevancy are all ranking factors in search engine algorithms, so don’t overlook them!
1. Brand
Brand relevancy is how closely related your website is to the search intent. If the user’s query is “red shoes,” and your website sells red shoes, you are highly relevant to that searcher. However, if someone is searching for “red shoes” and your website sells green shoes, you are not as relevant to that searcher.
There are ways to increase your brand relevancy; we will review a few of them now.
- Use the correct website keywords. You must use the keyword “red shoes” on your website if you want that keyword. You can use it in your title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and throughout the body of your content.
- Create content relevant to the searcher’s intent. To rank for the keyword “red shoes,” you must create content about red shoes. It could be blog posts, product descriptions, or even articles. The more relevant your content is, your brand’s relevancy will be higher.
- Build links from relevant websites. The more relevant sites link to you, the higher your brand relevancy. To rank for the keyword “red shoes,” you need to get links from websites about red shoes.
2. Link
Link relevancy concerns the link quality and relevance to your website. Google looks at the link’s anchor, context, and the linking website’s authority.
- Anchor text is the text on a hyperlink that is clickable and appears on a web page. It hyperlinks one piece of web content to another. The anchor text of a link can give search engines clues about the link page’s relevancy.
- The content of the linked page is also essential. If the linked page contains relevant, keyword-rich content, it is likely to be considered more appropriate than a page with less relevant content.
- The context of a link can also determine relevancy. If a link is surrounded by relevant content, it is likely to be considered more relevant than a link that is not.
You can do things to make sure your links are relevant:
- Make sure your site’s content is relevant to the site you’re linking to. If you’re linking to a site about cats, make sure your site is about cats, too.
- Use keyword-rich anchor text. It is the text that appears when someone hovers over a link. Using keywords in your anchor text will help improve your site’s relevancy.
- Link to web pages that are high quality and have a lot of content. It will show that your site is relevant and trustworthy.
Also, internal linking improves the navigation of users on your website. As users navigate through your web pages, it shows that your website is well-structured and provides relevance to user’s searches.
3. Page
Page relevancy is how well your web page content aligns with the user’s keyword query. It means using those specific keywords throughout your web page, including title, body text, and meta tags.
Page relevancy is determined by several factors, including the content on the page, the title and meta tags associated with the page, and inbound and outbound links.
Content is the most crucial factor in determining page relevancy. If a page contains relevant, keyword-rich content, it is more likely to be deemed relevant by Google. Likewise, if a page’s title and meta tags are closely related to the content on the page, that page is also more likely to be considered relevant.
Finally, links play a role in relevancy as well. If a page has many inbound links from relevant, high-quality websites, it is more likely to be considered relevant by Google. Likewise, a page with outbound links to low-quality or irrelevant websites may be deemed less appropriate.
What is Trustworthiness?
Trustworthiness is one of those elusive qualities that we all know — we see it, but it can be hard to define. Trustworthy websites are typically well-established, have a good reputation, and regularly update fresh, relevant content. Trustworthiness is one of the pillars of SEO that refers to a website’s ability to earn user and search engine trust the trust of users and search engines.
In general, the more trustworthy your website is, the better the chance of your SEO success.
Why does Trustworthiness matter?
Trustworthiness is essential because it helps Google determine whether or not to trust your site. If you have a lot of relevant and high-quality content, search engines will be more likely to trust your site.
Trustworthiness helps determine how relevant your site is. If your site is not trustworthy, it will not be relevant to searchers. However, if you have low-quality content, Google will be less likely to trust your site.
Things to do to increase trustworthiness:
Trustworthiness will improve your SEO and build credibility with your audience. Here are five ways to make your website more trustworthy.
1. Include contact information.
By including contact information on your website, you are increasing the trustworthiness of your site in the eyes of major search engines and visitors. It can help to boost your SEO efforts and improve your website’s overall performance.
There are things you can do to include contact information on your website:
– Include an “About Us” page with contact information, including your business’ physical address, email address, and phone number.
– Include a “Contact Us” form on your website that visitors can fill out to send you an email.
– Include social media links so visitors can connect with you on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
– Include a live chat widget on your website so visitors can chat with you in real time.
2. Include trust seals and credentials.
Seals and credentials from credible organisations can help build trust with potential customers. Include links to Better Business Bureau (BBB) profiles, industry association memberships, and any other third-party seals or credentials. If you’re an eCommerce site (or other site), displaying security badges such as SSL certificates can also help build trust.
It includes awards your company has won, industry memberships, and media mentions. Include customer testimonials as well. You can also list here any certifications or licenses. The more trust signals you can include, the better.
3. Showcase social support.
Showing others trust and support your business helps increase your trustworthiness in the eyes of potential customers.
One way to showcase social support and increase trustworthiness is through user-generated content (UGC). It could include testimonials, reviews, or even social media marketing by posting about your brand.
Another way to show social support is through social signals. It generally refers to engagement on your site or content (likes, shares, comments, etc.).
4. Build emotional appeal in all of your touchpoints.
Your touchpoints are the places where people interact with your brand. It could be your website, social media, advertising, customer service, or even in-person interactions. You want to ensure that all these touchpoints have a consistent message and tone that creates an emotional connection with the visitors or users of your site.
People buy from brands they trust. By creating emotional appeal in your touchpoints, you increase trustworthiness and make it more likely that people will do business with you.
Here are a few ways to build emotional appeal in your touchpoints:
- Use positive language
- Be relatable
- Tell stories
- Create a strong visual identity
- evoke positive emotions
5. Offer clear and thorough policies.
If you have a website, make sure your policies are easily accessible and easy to understand. You can do this by having a detailed “About Us” page that outlines your company’s mission and values. You should also have a privacy policy that explains how you collect, use, and protect user data.
Lastly, it’s essential to have a service agreement that outlines the rules and regulations for using your site. These policies can show more users that you’re a reliable and trustworthy company.
Summary
These three pillars of SEO — authority, relevance and trustworthiness are essential digital marketing factors. It helps you rank prominently by Google.
The quality of your content determines authority, the number of backlinks you have and the strength of those backlinks.
Relevance determines how well your content matches the user’s search query.
Your site’s history determines trustworthiness, your domain’s age and the number of high-quality sites that link to you.
With these factors, you can improve your SEO efforts and build credibility with your audience and Google.
