What is Domain Authority?

What Is Domain Authority?

Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to appear in Google’s top results, scored on a scale from 1 to 100.

Moz created DA to approximate how Google evaluates overall domain strength. It’s not a Google metric — Google doesn’t use DA in its algorithm at all. But it’s become the most widely referenced third-party authority metric in the SEO industry. Nearly every SEO tool, pitch deck, and link-building outreach email references it.

A Moz study found that the correlation between DA and actual Google rankings is roughly 0.2 — meaningful but far from definitive. DA is a useful directional indicator. Not a scoreboard.

Why Does Domain Authority Matter?

DA gives you a fast, comparative benchmark for evaluating websites — yours and everyone else’s. That’s its real value.

• Competitive benchmarking — Comparing your DA to competitors tells you roughly where you stand in your niche’s pecking order
• Link prospecting — When building backlinks, DA helps you quickly filter high-value targets from low-quality ones
• Progress tracking — While the number itself is arbitrary, watching DA trend upward over months indicates your link building and content strategy is working
• Client reporting — Agencies and freelancers use DA as a digestible metric clients can understand without an SEO background

Here’s the important caveat: DA is a prediction tool, not a ranking factor. Google has explicitly said they don’t use any third-party authority metric. Treat DA as a compass, not a GPS.

How Domain Authority Works

DA is calculated using a machine learning model that correlates link data with actual Google search results. Here’s what goes into it.

The Scoring Model

Moz’s algorithm looks at over 40 factors, but the two biggest inputs are the number of unique referring domains linking to your site and the quality of those links. A single link from a DA 80 site (like a major news outlet) is worth more than 50 links from DA 10 sites.

The Logarithmic Scale

DA uses a logarithmic scale, not a linear one. Going from DA 20 to 30 is much easier than going from 60 to 70. This means early gains come fast, but climbing gets exponentially harder as you approach the top. Brand new sites start at DA 1.

How Often It Updates

Moz recalculates DA scores periodically as they recrawl the web and update their link index. Your score can fluctuate even if you didn’t gain or lose any links — because other sites are also gaining and losing links, shifting the curve.

Types of Authority Metrics

DA isn’t the only authority metric. Different tools have their own versions:

• Domain Authority (DA) — Moz’s metric, scored 1-100. The original and most widely referenced.
• Domain Rating (DR) — Ahrefs’ equivalent, also 1-100. Focuses purely on backlink strength and tends to weight raw link quantity more heavily.
• Authority Score — Semrush’s version, blending organic traffic data, backlink quality, and spam signals. Ranges 1-100.
• PageRank — Google’s original (now internal) page-level authority metric. No longer publicly visible but still part of Google’s ranking system.
• Trust Flow / Citation Flow — Majestic’s dual metrics measuring link quality (Trust Flow) and link quantity (Citation Flow).

No single metric tells the whole story. Most experienced SEOs check 2-3 of these when evaluating a site.

Domain Authority Examples

Example 1: A local law firm starting SEO A personal injury firm launches a new website. DA starts at 1. After 6 months of consistent blogging, earning local directory citations, and getting featured in a local news article, DA rises to 18. They’re now competitive in their metro area’s search results.

Example 2: Evaluating link-building opportunities A marketing manager is pitched a guest post opportunity on a “high-authority” blog. She checks the site’s DA — it’s 12, with mostly spammy referring domains. She passes. Another opportunity has DA 54 with clean links from real publications. That’s the one worth pursuing.

Example 3: Agency reporting for an SMB client An SEO agency uses theStacc to publish 30 articles/month for a regional HVAC company. Over 8 months, the steady stream of content attracts natural backlinks from industry sites and local directories. DA moves from 14 to 29 — a meaningful jump that the client can see in monthly reports alongside actual traffic growth.

Domain Authority vs. Domain Rating

These get confused constantly. Here’s the breakdown.

	Domain Authority (DA)	Domain Rating (DR)
Created by	Moz	Ahrefs
Scale	1-100	1-100
Primary input	Link quality + quantity, 40+ factors	Backlink profile strength
Weighting	Heavier on link quality and diversity	Heavier on raw backlink volume
Best for	Overall competitive benchmarking	Quick backlink strength assessment
Updates	Periodic (Moz crawl cycles)	Near real-time (Ahrefs crawl)

Which one should you use? Whichever tool your team already pays for. The numbers don’t correspond 1:1, so pick one system and stay consistent.

Domain Authority Best Practices

• Focus on earning links from unique domains — 10 links from 10 different sites beats 100 links from 1 site. Referring domain diversity is the single biggest lever for DA growth.
• Build links gradually, not in bursts — A natural-looking link velocity matters. Buying 500 links in a week will trigger spam filters, not improve authority.
• Publish content worth linking to — Data studies, original research, and genuinely useful guides earn links organically. theStacc handles the volume side of content publishing — 30 articles per month — which creates more pages that can attract backlinks over time.
• Don’t obsess over the number — DA is a relative metric. A DA 25 site can outrank a DA 60 site for specific keywords if the content and on-page SEO are better.
• Audit and disavow toxic links — Low-quality or spammy backlinks can drag your authority down. Use Moz’s Link Explorer or Google’s disavow tool to clean up your link profile.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s a good Domain Authority score?

DA is relative to your niche. For a local business, DA 20-30 is competitive. For a national brand, DA 50+ is the baseline. New sites start at 1. The most important thing is that your DA is comparable to or higher than your direct competitors.

Does Google use Domain Authority?

Google does not use Moz’s Domain Authority metric. Google has its own internal systems — including a version of PageRank — for evaluating site authority. DA is a third-party approximation, not a Google ranking factor.

How long does it take to increase DA?

Expect 3-6 months of consistent link building and content publishing to see meaningful DA movement. Going from DA 1 to 20 can happen in under a year with steady effort. Climbing from 40 to 50 might take 2+ years.

Is a higher DA always better?

Not necessarily. A high DA with irrelevant content won’t rank for your target keywords. And DA can be artificially inflated with spam links. What matters is DA relative to your competitors combined with strong on-page SEO and relevant content.

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Sources

• Moz: What Is Domain Authority?
• Moz: Domain Authority 2.0
• Ahrefs: Domain Rating Explained
• Google SearchLiaison: Google Does Not Use DA
• Backlinko: Search Engine Ranking Factors Study