Domain Trust: classify trust instead of blindly looking at metrics
What is meant by domain trust, how trust signals arise and why individual metrics are often too rough.
The strongest effect usually arises when the topic is not only theoretically understood, but directly checked on real URLs, page types and search intentions.
What is meant by domain trust, how trust signals arise and why individual metrics are often too rough. This wiki page arranges the topic practically and shows, When priority arises, which mistakes are often and how you derive concrete measures from them.
Example: Two tools evaluate the same domain differently
One backlink service reports a high authority value, another a low one. First, compare data stock, scale, and measurement date. These vendor values are not a publicly readable Google rating and should not be treated as a common official trust score.
For a link decision, thematic fit, real content, link position and recognizable user relevance also count. An increased third-party value alone proves neither qualified visitors nor a secure ranking win.
Why is Domain Trust so important?
Since it is very easy to put a website on the net, the content of which is not independently checked, Internet users search for trustworthy websites. Google, in turn, wants to offer users the best possible experience and is therefore also interested in serious and high-quality pages. And they will be in it. SERPs (organic search results) appear as far ahead as possible.
In the environment of such search results, advertisers then place their ads, which in turn is the business model of the search engines. Therefore, these list pages with a high domain trust in front places, if they can identify it.
How can domain trust be measured?
There are some criteria that in principle indicate the trustworthiness of one side. These are not necessarily to be considered in isolation. Rather, they work in their entirety. Here are the most important ones:
- Backlinks: Many backlinks basically testify to a trust in the page. For this purpose, one of the Google founders (Larry Page) developed a calculation model at the end of the 1990s, the so-called PageRank. This sounds like page rank, but derived from the name of the inventor. The PageRank measured not only the number of incoming backlinks, but also their weight: Backlinks from important pages were considered much more valuable. Since backlinks can also be produced by promoters, Google has officially suspended the PageRank after 2010. It is to be assumed, however, that he still plays a role. Basically, webmasters can assume that it is good if they get backlinks from several reputable sites. In the best case, these are voluntarily set and not self-produced (from own blog posts) or even bought, which the search engine operators punish as Black Hat SEO.
- Alter der Domain + Zahl der Zugriffe: Es ist immer gut, wenn eine Seite schon sehr lange im Netz steht und relational zu ihrem Alter auch sehr viele Zugriffe hatte. Diese Metrik lässt sich ganz eindeutig messen.
- User signals: With a trustworthy page, users interact differently than with a supposedly dubious or at least inferior page. They stay there longer and click through the submenus, they also share the page or call it again and again. These user signals can also be measured to determine the domain trust.
- Quality of the content: Good content binds users, which in turn flows into the user signals in the form of a longer dwell time and again of sharing.
- Sharing: It should be emphasized again several times that shared pages must be good sides. An untrustworthy site probably no one will share with their friends.
- Topic of the website: Also a serious topic creates domain trust. The side of an authority enjoys from the outset more trust than that of an advertiser. For private companies, the industry plays a role. A gambling site can still strive – it can probably not hope for a particularly high domain trust.
- User reviews: Comments and star ratings also increase confidence in a page if it turns out positive.
- Advertising Activities: Sites overloaded with banners lose to domain trust. Certainly not the site should be suspected of spreading spam itself.
- Imprint or other information about the site operator: Imprint is mandatory in Germany and many other countries. Also on an international level, the Google algorithms assess how well the website operator can be identified.
- Links to other pages: It is positive if one page occasionally links to other pages. But if it leaves mass links, it could be a (forbidden) link farm. Even a little too many links can damage the domain trust. For example, most press portals allow a maximum of two outgoing links in an editorial post with at least 400 words in order not to damage their own domain trust.
- Register information and seriousness of the web host: The Google bots can also retrieve data for the registration of the website. This makes it possible to identify a bad neighbourhood (bad neighborhood) at the hoster. This would damage the domain trust and thus also affect SEO.
How to increase domain trust?
Webmasters should pay attention to the quality of the content and technology, maintain the page and strictly observe the guidelines of the search engine operators. Also, a regular review of your own link profile is important. Sometimes dubious websites link to their own domain. These can be devalued with the Google Disavow tool. Another measure for a better domain trust is to store your own page in the Google Search Console, which automatically informs about unnatural links, hacks and other problems.