Website authority in SEO ranking is a concept of SEO that represents the overall credibility of a websites, trustworthiness and strength in search engines like Google.
The Website authority also indicates the websites likelihood of ranking high on the search engine results pages for relevant search queries.
Website authority is also fundamentally built on the quality and quantity of the site's backlink profile, as well as user experience and content expertise.
Key things of website authority include.
Technical SEO and User Experience or UX, Domain Age and domain history, Quality of Content or EEAT and profile of backlinks.
The backlink profile of a website is the main driver of website authority.
High authority websites are defined as having high quality and reputable relevant websites that are linking to the websites.
These high quality backlinks to the website are what acts as votes of confidence and pass link equity or ranking power to the high authority website.
Content that also demonstrates a persons Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness also known as E-E-A-T helps your website establish topical authority in search engines like Google, which shows that search engine that the website is a reliable source of information.
Older domains that also have a clean history of, or no history of spammy behavior are also often considered to be more trustworthy in the eyes of search engines, including Google.
And a fast loading and secure HTTPS website and mobile friendly site also enhance the trust of the user, which is a signal of a website being of high quality.