Authority Sites – What are They?

Everyone is aware that y ou are supposed make it a goal to get links from sites with a high reputation as they are considered ‘authority’. How do you decide this? Is it solely based on PageRank or are there other factors you need to look for to determine if a site is considered an authority?

When you start looking for websites with authority a major consideration you need to take it seriously because it will become a cornerstone of your linking foundation and strategy. There are a number of ways to measure domain authority; the quality and quantity of the links, PageRank, domain rankings and relevancy of domain keywords. You need to take everything into consideration.

Here is something to keep in mind to help impress the importance of all of this. If an older domain which has 1000 links from other trusted sites links to you, it is worth more than a site with 10,000 junk links or from a site with 10 links. Quantity does not necessarily translate into quality. Sites with tons of links are everywhere, which is in part why we need to focus on authority sites. You have to balance the quality and quantity. Paid directories, where you can buy links for PageRank and Google allows it are a dying practice.  Paid for links are on the whole not allowed and not worth your money or time to pursue them. You want to keep it all organic as much as possible.

When it comes to PageRank, it can help you if it is coming in from another site. Don’t expect overnight results though as there is often several month lag between real time stats and the visible toolbar! Other factors may have a greater impact in the short term that you should focus some of your efforts toward. If a site already ranking for some of the keywords you are targeting links to you, that is a plus. If they are already ranking for that term and find you worthy of a link, Google pays attention and rewards you accordingly for that.

There are also some sites that do rank for keywords which don’t appear prominently on their site. Sites with a domains similar to yours can help you by linking to you. Keywords and anchor text help improve the quality of links, so keep that in mind as well. Be the kind of site other webmasters find valuable, and they will like to link to you. it is far better than trying to buy links and Google loves the organic growth.

If your links are coming from .gov and .edu sites that have relevancy to your topic, then you are linking well. Links from quality websites to you (when the linking page itself has good authority) can give you some authority. The url significance can also have an effect. You don’t want to be linked to from a session ID or randomly generated url.  .PDF or .doc extensions can affect weight quality – if the doc itself has numerous inbound links giving it authority of its own.

Authority sites meet the above criteria. The more high quality links you have, the more your site becomes an authority in its own right and the closer you are to the top of the pile. it is not always easy to get authority links, if it was everyone would do it, but with excellent content and a good site, you will find that authority sites will link to you in time in many cases. It just takes patience, and again, excellent content.