An authority website is a site that is seen by both people and search engines as being an authority in its niche.
Having an authority website is a wonderful thing. People who write posts about your niche will link to you. Search engines will prefer your site over others. You can link from your authority website to other sites you own, giving them an instant boost in popularity.
The normal progression for a website is to start in relative obscurity, build up a terrific base of quality content, use great SEO tactics to rank highly in search engines, and over time to accumulate the reputation needed to be considered an authority website.
What if we could shortcut the time needed, and just start out with an authority website?
I’ll describe how in a moment, but first I’d like to analyze exactly what makes a site an authority. We have two audiences we’re looking to impress: people, and search engines.
People are impressed by the perception of quality content. Your content doesn’t have to be all that good, really, as long as it’s professionally presented and doesn’t have much in the way of spelling and grammar mistakes. And there should be a lot of content.
People are also impressed by sites that have been around for a while. The longevity of a site automatically adds to the perception of authority.
People will naturally link to sites that provide a perception of authority.
Search engines also like sites with a lot of regularly updated content. But backlinks are the key to search engines considering you to be an authority site. After all, if everyone is linking to your site as a reference, then it must be an authority.
So, the main steps to creating an authority website from scratch:
1) Write a lot of content before you launch your site. Do not launch it with a placeholder page and fill in content as you go.
2) Create the illusion of longevity by back dating your posts if you’re creating a blog, or your “what’s new” items if you’re creating a website. Make the casual visitor feel that they’ve stumbled onto a site that has been around for a while.
3) Promote your site in the usual ways
4) Keep your content updated and current. Strive for actually being an authority in your niche.
By creating the perception of authority from the start, you’re on your way to creating the reality of authority.
The benefits of this would be the ability to give powerful link love to other sites you own, and the eventual traffic that will come to the authority site.
Note that I haven’t used this technique yet, and would be interested to hear from anyone who does.
The longevity of a site does affect how it is perceived, as well as how search engines rank it. I would suggest registering domains and getting something small up as soon as you can, just so that google knows that you have been around for a while. Then, only let other people know about it once you have a bit of content and something to show.
Hi Steve, good to hear from you. Registering a domain name early does help with search engine rankings, but once Google knows about your site it’s impossible to keep people away until you’ve properly created the perception of authority. So it’s a bit of a trade off.
Worth trying both ways to see what works best.
A very difficult topic and one i`m not sure where i sit. I guess i have an authority site in my personal blog because it predominately discusses Japan seeing as i live here. There is however, an undertone as to how i make money from the internet, they both go hand in hand and are dished out with appropriate percentages. I often wonder if and when my blogging will take on more of a `how i make money online` standpoint as a blanket across the 3 or 4 sites i have across very different niches and maybe at that stage i have by default become an authority on a different topic. I see blogs as often changing focus depending on their initial niche.
It is common for blogs to morph from niche to niche. I think it is probably a bad idea, but the nature of blogging makes it hard to prevent. If you find yourself writing more about how to make money online than your original niche, maybe try starting up a new blog on that topic, and keep your original blogs on topic. That will help keep them authorities on their topic and not dilute your search engine traffic.