A lot of experts in SEO believe that the authority of a website in Google is often the most important factor in search engine rankings. This article will explain what authority is, what factors go into it, how to measure a website's authority, and suggest some ways to increase your own site's authority.
Again, no SEO offers definite suggestions for how to measure it.
This article will illustrate a simple way to measure a website's authority in Google. The objective is to provide the webmaster with a quantitative clue as to how their website's authority compares to that of other websites.
In this way, a webmaster can formulate realistic improvement plans to become an authority website.
Qualities and Definitions of “Authority”
Some SEO beginners find it hard to understand what “authority” means to search engines. Being an authority website is analogous to being an “authority” in the real world.
For example, say you need advice about a health problem. Of course, everyone can give you an opinion about it. Your friend can suggest medications, or co-workers can suggest other things that you need to do to improve your health.
But will you believe or follow all of their suggestions? Most people consider advice, but many of them would go to a person of authority to get final recommendations.
If you're looking for an authority in this situation, you will certainly need to see a doctor. The doctor is an “authority” on health. The doctor's educational background, medical license to practice and years of experience treating patients makes him an authority person that can solve your health problem.
So, how does a doctor becomes an authority?
Educational background and license to practice medicine.
Years of experience.
Referral/recommendations from other, previously treated patients, for great service.
Referral/recommendations from other doctors because of expertise/specialization in a certain field of practice (orthopedics, pediatrics, etc).
Large number of treated patients adds up to actual working experience.
Let's go back to how this information relates to a website being an authority. Say you are searching for quality information relating to “computers.”
You go to Google.com to search for related information. Google returns Dell.com as one of the top results because:
Dell.com has been in the business for a long time, offering quality information about computers as well as its products.
Dell.com is run by experts in the computing field.
Dell.com has lots of links coming to it from other websites as “votes” or recommendations which indicate that Dell provides quality service.
Dell.com also has links coming to it from other, related websites, because Dell specializes in computers.
Dell.com offers lots of quality information relating to computers.
Google returns authority websites at the top of search results because Google thinks that authority sites provide clear, quality and expert information relating to the user's search query.
Of course, there are thousands or even million of websites talking about “computers” on the Internet which are indexed by Google. But they are not authority sites and have less expertise or fewer recommendations from other websites. As a result, they are not ranked as well by Google.
Google Optimization 
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