How to Outrank a Site with Higher Domain Authority?

Disclaimer: 

Below pointers are applicable for only pages, which are already ranking on the 1st page.

1. SERP layout: Analyze the SERP layout for the target keyword. List down the competitors, type of SERP features, content type (Text, Image, Video), etc.

2. Content Gap: Compare competitors' pages with your page to identify content gaps. Add these missing content sections to your content optimization plan. Ensure to answer all relevant People Also Ask questions.

3. Build Brand, Not Domain Authority score: First things first, not all websites with higher domain authority are highly authoritative websites.

- How to identify those authoritative websites?

Domain will be one of the top-known brands within the niche. Along with following best optimization practices, do build a brand. 

- Easy to Outrank Cases: Domain with a high domain authority score & low authoritativeness. Location-specific business.

- Difficult to Outrank Case: Popular brands in the niche. 

4. Featured Snippet: If a competitor ranks as a featured snippet for any queries or there is a possibility for featured snippets, structure your content accordingly to rank for the respective featured snippet type.

5. User Engagement: Track the user engagement metrics like time spent, scroll depth, etc. to understand the content quality.

6. EEAT: Ensure the content showcasing experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness to qualify as helpful content. Refer to this checklist by Aleyda Solis to evaluate the content.

7. Backlink Profile: Audit competitor's backlinks. Filter out relevant domains & acquire backlinks from the same or similar domains. Maintain a balance of 70% -Follow & 30% - No-Follow.

8. CRO: Implement the right CRO strategies. A higher conversion rate is a positive signal for improving and retaining page ranking.

9. Build Topical Authority on the topic you want to improve ranking for.

10. Cover content on all the relevant Keywords.

11. Build Internal links via relevant keywords from relevant pages of your website.

Conclusion:

The approach to outrank any competitor or a big competitor will remain the same.

It takes a lot of time & effort to outrank a big competitor for a highly competitive keyword.