Complete Guide On Moz Brand Authority

What Is Brand Authority?

Brand authority is the level of expertise, trust, and influence a brand has in a particular industry or topic area. It is built over many years through consistent, high-quality content, product offerings, customer service, and overall brand-building efforts. Brands with strong authority are recognized as leaders and trendsetters in their field.

Brand authority serves as a credibility signal to search engines. When a brand has built substantial authority, search engines will tend to rank pages from that site higher in results for relevant queries. This is because users are more likely to find that brand’s content useful and reliable for those topics.

Benefits of Strong Brand Authority

Building powerful brand authority provides a number of important benefits:

• Higher organic search rankings – Google favors authoritative brands, resulting in better SERP position.
• Increased site traffic – More search visibility drives more qualified visitors to the brand’s site.
• Lower customer acquisition costs – SEO traffic has a very low cost compared to paid methods.
• Stronger brand recognition and recall – Authority builds familiarity and awareness.
• Greater sales and conversions – More trust leads to more customer purchases.
• Higher lifetime value – Authoritative brands tend to retain customers longer.
• Greater resiliency – Authority insulates brands from volatility and downturns.
• Improved reputation – A solid brand reputation enhances employer branding, recruiting, partnerships and more.
• Expanded influencer and partnership opportunities – Influencers and partners are drawn to work with respected authorities in the industry.
• More referral traffic – Customers and partners are much more likely to recommend authoritative brands.
• Increased media interest – Reporters look to cover respected industry authorities.

So there is tremendous value in taking the time and effort required to build true brand authority, not just for search performance but for the overall strength and growth of the brand.

List Of  Components That Makes up Brand Authority And Search Visibility:

Moz notes that brand authority is made up of several key components:

Trust – How much a brand is trusted by consumers

Expertise – The depth of knowledge and expertise a brand has in its field

Reach – The size of a brand’s audience and influence

Relevance – How closely a brand’s products/services match user intent

Prominence – How well-known and established a brand is

Brands with higher authority tend to perform better in organic search because they have earned trust and respect. Google’s algorithm aims to surface the most authoritative, trustworthy results for any given search query. So brands that have built strong authority tend to rank higher.

• Domain authority – A measure of the power of a site’s domain, based on its age, backlink profile, content quality, and traffic. Sites with higher domain authority tend to rank better.
• Content quality – Brands that publish comprehensive, well-researched, accurate information on a topic build authority and trust with search engines. Unique, user-focused content also helps.
• Social signals – Things like followers, shares, links, and engagement on social media platforms can boost a brand’s authority.
• Brand mentions – Being referenced or linked to by other authoritative brands and publications lends credibility.
• Review volume and sentiment – Having many positive customer reviews on third-party sites like Yelp demonstrates authority.
• Site traffic – Popular sites that attract a lot of organic search traffic signal expertise on their topics.

The higher a brand’s authority, the more dominance it usually has on key search terms related to its products, services, and content focus. Users trust these brands to provide the best information.

Example of Brand Authority

One example of a brand with high authority is The Home Depot. When users search for terms related to home improvement, tools, appliances, lawn & garden supplies, and more, The Home Depot dominates many first page results.

The Home Depot has earned this brand authority over decades by:

• Offering a huge selection of top-quality products for home projects
• Employing knowledgeable staff who provide excellent customer service
• Creating comprehensive DIY guides and home improvement content
• Developing brand recognition through consistent national advertising
• Maintaining a user-friendly website and apps with robust product info
• Curating positive customer reviews and testimonials
• Participating actively on social media with advice, trends, and inspiration

This brand authority allows The Home Depot to outrank lesser-known niche competitors and informational sites for high-value search queries. When users see Home Depot in the results, they instantly recognize it as a trusted authority.

How To Develop Brand Authority

Building substantial brand authority takes time, but these best practices can help:

• Publish high-quality, in-depth content that is better and more useful than competitors’ content. Focus on topics where you want to be seen as an expert.
• Make sure content is well-optimized for SEO with target keywords, headers, meta descriptions, alt text, etc. This helps search engines understand the topics and recommend pages.
• Develop a strong backlink profile by earning editorial links from trusted publications related to your field. Pitch guest posting opportunities.
• Be active on social media by sharing your best content, engaging followers, posting original videos/images, and monitoring brand mentions.
• Encourage customer reviews, testimonials, and brand mentions to demonstrate word-of-mouth authority.
• Ensure your website provides an excellent user experience from start to finish, with fast load times and intuitive navigation.
• Build relationships and collaborate with authoritative brands and industry influencers to gain credibility by association.
• Invest in PPC and retargeting ads to bring in more visitors and increase domain authority metrics. Promote your best content.
• Consistency and persistence are key. Over time, these efforts will associate your brand with expertise and authority in the eyes of customers, other brands, and search engines.

Measuring Brand Authority

Here are some ways to measure the progress of your brand authority-building efforts:

• Brand keyword ranking – Track which keywords your brand ranks for, and the ranking positions in search engines over time. Improved rankings, especially for competitive terms, show growing authority.
• Domain authority – Monitor Domain Authority scores in tools like Moz and Semrush. Higher scores indicate greater authority.
• Brand search traffic – Use Google Analytics to track organic traffic to your site from branded keywords. More brand search traffic indicates greater authority.
• Social followers and engagement – Measure followers counts on key social platforms, plus likes, shares, mentions, etc. These metrics should increase alongside authority.
• Direct site traffic – More direct visits suggest your brand name is recognizable and associated with expertise on your topics.
• Backlink growth – Use tools to monitor new high-quality sites linking to you over time, especially editorial links. This shows greater trust from others in the space.
• Competitor analysis – Compare your authority metrics over time to competitors. Your goals are to outperform them in rankings, traffic, DA, and awareness.

These metrics give a well-rounded view of how brand authority is developing. Consistent, long-term improvements across factors are ideal.

Moz’s Brand Authority Checklist

Moz created a helpful brand authority checklist with 10 factors they found correlate with higher authority brands:

• Brand name appears in SERP titles and descriptions
• Ranking for your own branded keywords
• Organic CTR over 3%
• Direct site traffic over 50%
• High domain authority (over 80)
• Featured Snippets for branded terms
• High percentage of keyword low difficulty ratings
• Strong social media engagement
• Increased brand search volume
• Strong branded link profile

The more of these factors your brand achieves, the higher your total brand authority. Moz also created a Brand Authority Worksheet to help devise strategy.

Top High Brand Authority Companies

Here are some examples of brands with very high authority in their verticals:

1. Google – Search engines
2. Amazon – Ecommerce
3. Wikipedia – Online encyclopedia
4. Mayo Clinic – Healthcare/medicine
5. CNN – News
6. WebMD – Health information
7. YouTube – Online video
8. Samsung – Consumer electronics
9. UPS – Shipping
10. Lowe’s – Home improvement

Achieving this level of authority as a trusted household name takes many years for most brands. But focusing on expertise, quality, and consistency can help get you there.

Brand Authority vs. Domain Authority

Brand authority and domain authority are related but distinct concepts:

Brand authority – A measure of a specific brand’s reputation and trust level in their niche. Based on real-world credibility and expertise.

Domain authority – A metric calculated by SEO tools that estimates the strength and ranking power of a website’s domain based on links and traffic.

A brand can have stronger authority than its domain authority score suggests if they have excellent real-world credibility but are newer to SEO. Or a site can have high domain authority without corresponding brand authority if they lack real expertise.

But in general, brand authority and domain authority reinforce each other – brands that build authority also tend to increase their domain authority over time as their content and links earn trust. So both are important measures to track.

Moz’s Guide To Brand Authority

Moz has an in-depth Beginner’s Guide to Brand Authority that explores why brand authority matters, how to build it, and how to measure your progress. They include insightful data on correlating ranking factors. Some key tips:

• Get visibility on high-authority sites related to your niche by contributing guest posts, giving interviews, or securing sponsorship.
• Develop content expertise around keywords you want to rank for and demonstrate thought leadership.
• Promote brand-focused content across social media and build engaged follower networks.
• Encourage user-generated content like reviews and testimonials that reference your brand.
• Monitor click-through-rate on branded search terms – high branded CTR shows greater relevance and authority.
• Build an authoritative internal link structure with links between high-value content pages.
• Investing in brand authority pays dividends in visibility, conversions, trust, and loyalty over the long-term. Moz’s guide offers an excellent blueprint to become a trusted leader.

Brand authority is critical for SEO success – it establishes your site as trustworthy in the eyes of search engines and users. Authority is built through expertise, high-quality content, strong branding, customer satisfaction, and industry awareness. Companies can measure progress through metrics like rankings, traffic, domain authority, and social signals. Becoming a recognized authority in your space takes time and consistency, but following best practices will help maximize your brand’s authority and search visibility.

In today’s crowded marketplace, establishing true brand authority is more important than ever. Authoritative brands that earn customer trust and respect have a critical advantage across many areas from organic search performance to overall brand growth.

Moz’s framework provides actionable guidance for brands to systematically build authority through high-quality content, audience engagement, securing endorsements, optimizing online properties and monitoring progress. Developing authority requires a multi-disciplinary, long-term approach – but it generates immense value.

Brands that focus on nurturing authority gain an influential voice in their industry, build committed audiences across platforms.