Google doesn’t specifically assess the authority of a website, according to John Mueller, a webmaster trends analyst.
This statement was made during the latest Google Webmaster Central hangout when Mueller was asked about ways a site can enhance its authority.
The webmaster posing the question mentioned their site experienced a significant drop in organic traffic following the June core algorithm update.
The webmaster somehow concluded that there was a 50% decrease in their site’s authority due to the core update.
However, determining this would be impossible, as Mueller explains that Google doesn’t utilize any ‘authority’ metric.
“In general, Google doesn’t evaluate a site’s authority. So it’s not something where we would give you a score on authority and say this is the general score for authority on your website. That’s not something we would be applying here,” Mueller clarified.
Google’s quality rater guidelines include a section on assessing authority, but Mueller mentioned earlier in the hangout that quality raters do not evaluate sites individually.
In other words, quality raters aren’t assessing sites and assigning scores based on their perceived authority.
Mueller suggests that site owners should seek evaluations from real users. He advises gathering feedback from current or potential users about their perception of a site’s authority.
It’s important to find out if actual users feel they can trust the content on a website. From that point, feedback can be gathered on how to appear more authoritative.
Here is a full quote from Mueller:
“If you’re thinking about authority, if you’re thinking about the search quality raters, then that sounds like you’re kind of on the right track there. One of the other questions was also on expertise, authority, trustworthiness – that kind of goes in the same direction.
From my perspective, I would encourage getting more input from users and potential users. Seek out the hard feedback that’s sometimes difficult to accept, where people can honestly indicate areas for improvement by comparing different sites in the same niche or expressing distrust in the content on your page.
It’s likely you’re already doing many things well, but there might be areas where you can excel further in this regard.”
Hear Mueller’s full response starting at the 23:47 mark.
