Key Takeaway:
- Domain Authority is scored on a scale of 1 to 100. Higher scores mean greater ranking potential.
- DA is not a Google ranking signal. It’s a Moz metric used for competitive benchmarking.
- Backlinks from high-authority sites are the biggest driver of your DA score.
- A “good” DA score is relative to your competitors, not an absolute number.
What Is Domain Authority? DA Explained for SEO
Domain Authority (DA) is a score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). If you’ve ever wondered why some websites consistently show up at the top of Google while others barely get seen, domain authority is one piece of that puzzle.
Domain Authority is a third-party metric, not a Google ranking factor, but it’s a useful benchmark for understanding your site’s relative link equity and competitive standing. In this guide, we’ll cover what domain authority actually measures, how it’s calculated, what a “good” score is, and more.
What Does Domain Authority Actually Measure?
Domain Authority was created by Moz to give SEOs a way to gauge the relative strength of a website’s backlink profile. The score runs from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating stronger ranking potential. To be clear, DA is not a Google ranking factor. Google doesn’t ever use Moz’s score to determine where a site ranks. What DA does is to give you an understanding of your backlink strength compared to competitors in your niche.
The metric is built on a logarithmic scale. That means moving from a DA of 10 to 20 is considerably easier than moving from 70 to 80. If you’re a newer site sitting in the 20s or 30s, don’t be discouraged. It’s completely normal.
How Is Domain Authority Calculated?
Moz calculates DA using dozens of signals, but the most influential ones come down to your backlink profile.
The key factors include:
- Linking root domains: The number of unique websites linking to yours
- Link quality: Whether those linking sites are themselves authoritative and relevant
- Link spam score: Moz penalizes scores when a site has an unusually high proportion of spammy or low-quality links
- MozRank and MozTrust: Internal Moz metrics that factor in link popularity and trustworthiness
Moz recalculates DA scores frequently as it re-crawls the web. This means your score can fluctuate even if you haven’t changed anything, simply because the broader link landscape has shifted.
What’s a Good Domain Authority Score?
There’s no one right answer here. Perhaps the most accurate answer is “it depends.” It depends on factors like your industry and your business size.
A DA of 30 might be very competitive in a niche local services market. That same score would put you at a significant disadvantage in a high-competition vertical like finance or e-commerce, where top sites often have DAs in the 70s and 80s.
Here’s a general benchmark:
| DA Score | What It Typically Represents |
| 1 to 20 | New or very early-stage websites |
| 21 to 40 | Growing sites with some link equity |
| 41 to 60 | Established sites with a solid backlink profile |
| 61 to 80 | Strong, well-linked sites in competitive spaces |
| 81 to 100 | Major publishers, national brands, or dominant platforms |
The most practical approach is to check the DA scores of the sites ranking in the top 5 for your target keywords. That tells you the real competitive base you’re working against and how you can adjust your efforts accordingly to improve your DA.
Domain Authority vs. Domain Rating: What’s the Difference?
If you use Ahrefs, you’ll see a metric called Domain Rating (DR) instead of DA. Both measure backlink strength, but they’re calculated differently and come from different tools.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the two:
| Metric | Tool | What It Measures |
| Domain Authority (DA) | Moz | Link equity, spam signals, trust |
| Domain Rating (DR) | Ahrefs | Quantity and quality of linking root domains |
Neither one is more “correct.” They’re different methodologies applied to the same concept. Most SEO professionals track both as reference points rather than treating either as the main reference tool.
Other tools like Semrush have their own versions, called Authority Score. The underlying logic is similar across all of them. The more high-quality backlinks from relevant, trustworthy sites means a higher score.
Why Domain Authority Matters for Your SEO Strategy
Even though Google doesn’t use DA directly, the underlying factors that raise your score are the same things that actually do influence rankings.
DA is especially useful for the following:
- Competitive analysis: Quickly sizing up the link strength of sites you’re competing against
- Link prospecting: Evaluating whether a potential linking partner is worth pursuing
- Tracking progress: Watching your DA trend upward over time as a signal that your link building efforts are working
- Setting realistic expectations: Understanding why a new site may struggle against entrenched competitors even with great content
When you build high-quality backlinks, you improve DA. You also improve Google’s view of your site’s credibility. They’re not the same thing, but they point in the same direction.
How to Improve Your Domain Authority
Building your DA takes time. Here are a few best practices that guide you on where to focus your energy.
Build High-Quality Backlinks
This is the most direct way to move your score. Not all links are created equal. One link from a highly relevant, high-DA site will outweigh dozens of low-quality directory links.
Effective tactics include:
- Digital PR: Getting your brand or data mentioned in industry publications
- Guest posting: Contributing genuinely useful content to relevant blogs in your niche
- Link reclamation: Finding unlinked mentions of your brand and requesting a link be added
- Creating linkable assets: Original research, tools, or data-driven content that others want to cite
Fix Your Internal Link Structure
External links get most of the attention, but internal links matter too. A clean internal linking structure helps Moz (and Google) understand which pages on your site carry the most authority, and it distributes that equity more effectively.
Remove or Disavow Toxic Links
If you have a lot of broken links, that can drag down your DA even if your overall backlink count is solid. You can use Moz’s Link Explorer or Google Search Console to identify and disavow links from low-quality or irrelevant sources.
Publish Content Worth Linking To
At the end of the day, link building is easier when you have content people genuinely want to reference. Backed-up data, well-researched guides, and original perspectives on your industry attract links naturally over time.
This connects directly to your broader content marketing strategy. If your content is purely promotional or surface-level, the link building battle gets harder.
How Often Should You Check Your DA?
Checking your DA monthly is reasonable for most sites. Because Moz recalculates scores on a rolling basis, weekly fluctuations aren’t that significant. Look for directional trends over three to six months rather than reacting to short-term dips.
If your DA drops noticeably, it’s worth checking whether:
- Moz updated its algorithm (this causes broad score shifts across the web)
- A high-DA site that was linking to you removed or changed that link
- Your spam score increased, which can compress your overall score
Final Thoughts
Domain Authority gives you a useful north star for understanding where your site stands relative to the competition. Remember that the metric itself isn’t the goal. Building the kind of credible, well-linked website that earns a high DA is.
Focus on earning quality backlinks, publishing content that serves real search intent, and keeping your technical foundation clean. Do those things consistently, and your domain authority score will follow.
About the Author: Grace Wong
