What Is Domain Authority (DA)?

How Domain Authority Is Calculated

Domain Authority is calculated by Moz using machine learning to model how well a site ranks in Google's results. The model weighs dozens of factors, but the biggest inputs are the quantity and quality of the site's backlinks and its linking root domains.

The score is logarithmic, running from 0 to 100. Moving from 20 to 30 is far easier than moving from 70 to 80, because the top of the scale is reserved for the most-linked sites on the web, like major news outlets and global brands. Because Moz periodically retrains the model and recalculates scores, your number can shift even if your own links have not changed.

What Counts as a Good DA Score?

There is no universal "good" Domain Authority - it is a relative metric, most useful when compared against the sites you actually compete with in search. A DA of 40 might be excellent in a niche local market and weak in a competitive national one.

As a rough guide, new sites often sit between 1 and 20, established small-business sites land around 20 to 40, and authoritative industry sites reach 50 and above. Rather than chasing a specific number, benchmark your DA against the pages currently ranking for your target keywords and aim to close that gap.

Domain Authority vs Domain Rating (DR) and Other Metrics

Domain Authority is not the only third-party authority metric. Ahrefs offers Domain Rating (DR), and Semrush has Authority Score. Each uses its own data and formula, so a site's DA, DR, and Authority Score will rarely match.

DR, like DA, is scored 0 to 100 and leans heavily on backlink profile strength. Because these tools crawl the web independently, treat them as directional estimates rather than absolute truth. Use whichever you have access to consistently, and compare like with like - never mix a competitor's DR with your own DA and call it a fair comparison.

Is Domain Authority a Google Ranking Factor?

Domain Authority is not a Google ranking factor. Google has repeatedly confirmed it does not use any single "domain authority" or "site authority" score of this kind from third-party tools. DA is Moz's own prediction of ranking ability, built to correlate with Google's results, not a metric Google consumes.

This distinction matters. Raising your DA does not directly cause higher rankings; instead, DA tends to rise as you do the things that genuinely help SEO - earning quality links and growing organic traffic. Treat DA as a useful scoreboard, not the game itself.

How to Increase Your Domain Authority

Because DA models real ranking factors, the way to raise it is to improve the underlying signals:

• Earn quality backlinks from relevant, authoritative sites through strong link building and content worth citing.
• Remove or disavow toxic links that could drag down trust.
• Publish genuinely useful content that naturally attracts links and shares.
• Improve internal linking so authority flows through your site.

There are no shortcuts. Buying links or chasing spammy directories can hurt more than help. DA climbs slowly as your overall authority grows, so measure progress over months, not days.

How to Check Domain Authority

You can check Domain Authority with several free and paid tools. Moz's own Link Explorer and its free MozBar browser extension report DA directly, and many third-party "DA checker" sites pull the same data through Moz's API.

When you check, look at the trend rather than a single snapshot, and always view your competitors' scores at the same time for context. Remember that a score refresh from Moz can move everyone's numbers at once, so a small dip may reflect a model update rather than anything you did wrong.

Frequently Asked Questions