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What do you consider an authority site?

by Daniel Molano
11 replies
I was just thinking about this yestarday. I am under the impression that people generally intrepret the term "authority site" in different ways.

That's what this poll is about, to see what is people's perception of an actual authority site.

I'm guessing the only way to measure this would be in terms of actual traffic.

So how much traffic does a site need in order to be considered an authority site according to your own perception?

- Dan
#authority #site
  • Profile picture of the author MosaicDan
    OK my arbitrary definition. I'll consider something an authority site if it's got 150+ pages, been around a while (say approximately a year or more), and pulls in at least 750 unique visitors a day consistently.

    Regards,
    Dan
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Molano
      Originally Posted by MosaicDan View Post

      OK my arbitrary definition. I'll consider something an authority site if it's got 150+ pages, been around a while (say approximately a year or more), and pulls in at least 750 unique visitors a day consistently.

      Regards,
      Dan
      So you would personally consider a site that is 1 year old, with 30,000 unique visitors per month and 200 pages of more authority than that which is 6 months old, has 200,000 uniques per month and only 50 pages?
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  • Profile picture of the author MosaicDan
    Daniel,

    Didn't realize I had to say this explicitly, but there are obviously no hard and fast rules for what constitutes an authority site. I'm not aware of any definition in the dictionary or wikipedia.

    An authority site is like hard porn: you know it when you come across it, as I think one Supreme Court Justice once famously quipped.

    Granted, my definition isn't nearly perfect but I've never been asked to define it before. However, a site that is 6 months old, gets 200,000 consistently uniques per month, and only has 50 pages is probably a very rare event indeed.

    I own and am part owner to some "authority" sites, and some may disagree with me that they are even authority sites, but they are certainly not one page sites, nor do they fall under a mini-site definition. They have hundreds of pages, get thousands of visitors, but there is a wide variation between them nonetheless.

    Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author nick1123
    In my opinion, an authority site has less to do with the amount of total traffic and more to do with the content that it provides to its visitors.

    Some niches are very small and don't have millions of people interested in them. But you could have an authority site in one of these narrow niches.

    I judged an authority site based on the content and how likely I am to bookmark it. I would also look at how likely I am to recommend it to other people in this niche.
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Molano
      Originally Posted by MosaicDan View Post

      Daniel,

      Didn't realize I had to say this explicitly, but there are obviously no hard and fast rules for what constitutes an authority site. I'm not aware of any definition in the dictionary or wikipedia.
      I'm just asking for your opinion and I find all of your points valid. I'm looking at the different perceptions out there, that's all.

      Originally Posted by nick1123 View Post

      In my opinion, an authority site has less to do with the amount of total traffic and more to do with the content that it provides to its visitors.

      Some niches are very small and don't have millions of people interested in them. But you could have an authority site in one of these narrow niches.

      I judged an authority site based on the content and how likely I am to bookmark it. I would also look at how likely I am to recommend it to other people in this niche.
      Very interesting point Nick, I would have to agree with you on that one.

      Here goes my definition of an authority site.

      Authority sites are those that possess a large percentage of the niche traffic. Just like an offline business has a given market position and the best ones corner a percentage of the niche specific market.

      I would consider a site an authority if it's among the top 25 percentages of that niche's market in terms of traffic.

      Content is secondary, you might disagree with me, but it is. It's in how you get the most people within that niche to see the actual content, otherwise you have achieved nothing.

      Of course quality content will allow you to receive returning visitors which will simply add to that traffic. Like Dan said in his last post, there is a correlation between traffic and good quality content.
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  • Profile picture of the author MosaicDan
    Nick,
    I agree.

    However, there is a correlation between traffic and good quality content, especially if the site is large.

    Authority sites are sites like webmd.com. The FDA. In fact, many government sites (even if you disagree with a lot of the info on them).

    Yes, they can be niched.

    I purchased an authority site that was created by a dermatologist, and it's about 200 pages on all variations of skin disorders. He was a rather famous doctor who appeared on some big national shows, like Montell Williams. The site, BECAUSE of all of its great content, was pulling in about 8,000 unique visitors a day when we acquired it.

    It was a classic example, in my view, of an authority site. And still is one.

    Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author Charlie Parker
    In my opinion an authority site is a site which is always in the top google postions for most of the phrases in its niche. Obviously it will need a to have lots of content to achieve that.

    Nothing to do with traffic, for example I have a site that only has 2 public pages, very little in the way of actual informative information and gets around 8000 visits per day.
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Molano
      Originally Posted by Charlie Parker View Post

      In my opinion an authority site is a site which is always in the top google postions for most of the phrases in its niche. Obviously it will need a to have lots of content to achieve that.

      Nothing to do with traffic, for example I have a site that only has 2 public pages, very little in the way of actual informative information and gets around 8000 visits per day.
      Very interesting point too.

      But then what is the point in having thousands of pages with unique quality content if a site with 10 pages can potentially achieve more traffic?

      After all, the money is in the targetted niche traffic.
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Daniel, in my mind you are looking at two different things. One is a high-traffic site, the other is an authority site. A site can be both, but it doesn't have to be.

        Within a given niche, if my pockets are deep enough I can create unlimited traffic, at least in theory. If I buy a million visitors a month to a short, one-page squeeze, is that an authority site?

        On the other hand, if I have a site that links out to a bunch of valuable resources, and a bunch of related sites link to me for information, but I only get a few thousand visitors a month, does that mean I don't have an authority site?

        I rate authority sites more by their content and general usefulness within the niche than by raw traffic numbers.

        Of course, the best authority sites rate high for both usefulness and traffic...
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        • Profile picture of the author Daniel Molano
          Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

          Daniel, in my mind you are looking at two different things. One is a high-traffic site, the other is an authority site. A site can be both, but it doesn't have to be.

          Within a given niche, if my pockets are deep enough I can create unlimited traffic, at least in theory. If I buy a million visitors a month to a short, one-page squeeze, is that an authority site?

          On the other hand, if I have a site that links out to a bunch of valuable resources, and a bunch of related sites link to me for information, but I only get a few thousand visitors a month, does that mean I don't have an authority site?

          I rate authority sites more by their content and general usefulness within the niche than by raw traffic numbers.

          Of course, the best authority sites rate high for both usefulness and traffic...
          John, I agree with you.

          How about rating it based on the natural and possibly organic traffic received?

          By that I mean the traffic it obviously receives for free due to the usefulness of the site itself.

          Sustained Google rankings in long periods of time for hard hitter keywords (those with massive search results and also massive competition) could be a good way to measure this.

          Considering Google is possibly the less manipulable source of traffic when it comes from the listings, not the ads.

          The perfect example would be the Real Estate niche, those top 10 sites in Google for the actual term "Real Estate" would be the definition of authority.
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          • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
            Originally Posted by Daniel Molano View Post

            John, I agree with you.

            How about rating it based on the natural and possibly organic traffic received?

            By that I mean the traffic it obviously receives for free due to the usefulness of the site itself.

            ...
            Yes, I think a combination of traffic from natural links and search listings might be a quite valid way to compare the 'authority' of sites in competitive niches.

            Just to see what I'd get, I just ran a search on Google for real estate, and most of the listings on the front page I would consider authority sites in the niche.

            There were a couple of listings that I'd have to think about, though. One was a more general news site, and a couple were based on my location (or more accurately, the location of the network node for my ISP). I would class those sites as authority sites within the sub-niche of Sarasota real estate, but not in the larger main niche.
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