is there a sensible way to increase website authority?

Worth knowing that "authority" scores like DA and DR are made up by the tool companies, Google doesn't use them. They mostly count links pointing at you though, so the sensible way is earning links from relevant sites: something people want to cite (original data, a decent free tool, a guide that's actually the best on the topic), then telling the people who'd cite it. Bought links push the number up and can get you a manual action, so not worth it.