Many entrepreneurs and bloggers think ‘if I write an interesting article and use the right keywords, people will come automatically.’ That is completely wrong. Yes, Google loves long content that takes SEO into account, but that gives you absolutely no guarantee that you will be found on the first page. Before you put hours into writing an article, you need to know what your competitor’s DA is and for which keywords they rank. DA? Yes, DA, or Domain Authority, is the king of SEO. Your competitor’s article may be ever so bad, but if the domain has high authority, it will cost you blood, sweat, and tears to stand even a semblance of a chance at that first spot with your article.
Domain Authority, or the authority of the domain, is Google’s way of assessing how readable and reliable the information on a website is. This is usually determined on a scale of 0-100. The most important factor here is how many other websites link to that domain, also known as backlinks. If your competitor has been active for a while and has engaged in link building, they will have a high DA and be found much more easily. Therefore, it is crucial to also look at which keywords your competitors have already used in their articles when conducting thorough SEO research on your keywords. This way, you can save time and effort by first ranking for easier keywords and still end up on that coveted first page. The moral of the story: Work smarter, not harder. Thorough SEO research and looking at what your competitors are doing can save you hours of work by avoiding wasting time on articles that are unlikely to ever be found.
