Reach Authority
What is Reach Authority?
Reach Authority is a metric designed to assess the overall influence and visibility of a website in the digital landscape. It gives you a comprehensive view of how powerful and impactful a domain is, not just based on traditional SEO metrics like backlinks or domain authority but also considering a range of factors that contribute to its reach and influence.
Reach Authority is particularly important for:
- Digital marketers assessing the influence of a website for partnerships, influencer outreach, or content distribution.
- SEO specialists measuring not only how authoritative a site is but also how broad its reach is across various platforms.
- Businesses evaluating their own site’s performance against competitors in terms of influence and market visibility.
Components of Reach Authority Calculation
Reach Authority uses a combination of metrics to offer a more holistic view of a domain's power. Below are the key components used in the calculation and their significance:
Domain Authority (DA)
- Weight: 30%
- This is a widely used metric from MOZ, representing the overall strength of a domain’s backlink profile. Higher domain authority means the site is generally more authoritative and trustworthy. We give this metric a substantial weight as it reflects the overall SEO power of the domain.
Page Authority (PA)
- Weight: 25%
- This metric assesses the authority of a specific page. Since websites often have multiple pages, Page Authority evaluates how a particular page (often the homepage or any other relevant page) performs. We use it to balance the overall authority provided by Domain Authority.
Brand Authority (BA)
- Weight: 15%
- This is a calculated metric based on a combination of the website’s domain authority, page authority, backlinks, referring domains, and spam score. Brand Authority reflects the trustworthiness and recognition of the domain. Websites with strong brands will have higher brand authority.
Total Backlinks
- Weight: 15%
- The total number of backlinks a site has can significantly contribute to its visibility. Backlinks from authoritative sites indicate that the domain is being referenced by others, enhancing its reach. However, we normalize this metric (e.g., capping it at a certain level) to avoid giving too much importance to extremely large backlink profiles.
Referring Domains
- Weight: 5%
- This is the number of unique domains that link to the website. The more diverse the referring domains, the more trust the website earns from various sources. Diversity of backlinks from multiple domains is better than having many backlinks from a single source
Spam Score
- Weight: -5% (Negative impact)
- This metric penalizes websites that have spammy or low-quality backlinks. A high spam score can negatively impact a site's overall authority and visibility, so we subtract points to penalize domains with spammy backlinks.
External Pages to Root Domain:
- Weight: 3%
- These are external pages linking to the domain with nofollow tags. While they don’t directly impact SEO in the same way as standard backlinks, they still indicate reach, and some platforms (like social media) may often use nofollow links.
Nofollow Pages to Root Domain
- Weight: 3%
- These are pages indirectly referencing the domain. For example, mentions or links from other sites that do not link directly but still contribute to the domain's visibility.
External Indirect Pages to Root Domain
- Weight: 3%
- These are pages indirectly referencing the domain. For example, mentions or links from other sites that do not link directly but still contribute to the domain's visibility.
Domain Age
- Weight: 3%
- Older domains tend to have more authority because they are established and likely have a longer history of content and backlinks. However, newer domains aren’t heavily penalized, as the weight is relatively small.
How Reach Authority is Calculated
The Reach Authority score is calculated using a weighted formula that combines the above factors. Each factor is multiplied by its respective weight to contribute to the overall Reach Authority score. Here’s a high-level breakdown of the formula:
Reach Authority = (DA * 0.30) + (PA * 0.25) + (Brand Authority * 0.15) + (Normalized Backlinks * 0.15) + (Log(Referring Domains + 1) * 0.05) - (Log(Spam Score + 1) * -0.05) + (Log(External Pages + 1) * 0.03) + (Log(Nofollow Pages + 1) * 0.03) + (Log(External Indirect Pages + 1) * 0.03) + (Domain Age Score * 0.03)
Example of Reach Authority Calculation
- Domain Authority (DA): 50
- Page Authority (PA): 45
- Brand Authority (BA): Calculated as 40
- Total Backlinks: 8,000
- Referring Domains: 500
- Spam Score: 10
- External Pages to Root Domain: 1,200
- Nofollow Pages to Root Domain: 600
- External Indirect Pages to Root Domain: 300
- Domain Age: 10 years
Normalized Backlinks: Total Backlinks normalized by capping at 10,000, giving 80 (8,000 / 10,000 * 100)
Domain Age Score: Since the domain age is 10 years, we scale this to contribute a maximum of 10 points. If the domain age were over 20, it would cap at 20.
Based on these values, the Reach Authority score would be calculated by summing the weighted contributions from each factor, ensuring the final result lies between 0 and 100.
Why Reach Authority is Important
Reach Authority provides a comprehensive view of a domain’s potential impact. Unlike standalone metrics like Domain Authority or Page Authority, Reach Authority takes a holistic approach by factoring in various elements that contribute to a domain's real-world influence, including backlinks, domain age, spam score, and both direct and indirect links.
This metric is essential for businesses and digital marketers looking to:
- Assess Competitors: Understand how competitors stack up in terms of reach and authority.
- Measure Digital Influence: Evaluate a site's performance not just in SEO but across a variety of digital touchpoints.
- Optimize SEO Strategy: Use the metric to identify areas of improvement, like increasing high-quality backlinks or reducing spammy ones.
- Monitor Brand Growth: Track how the reach and influence of a domain grow over time as more quality content and backlinks are added.
In conclusion, Reach Authority is an essential metric that combines a range of SEO, brand, and reach factors to give you an all-encompassing view of a website's impact in the digital ecosystem.