What Is Domain Authority?

Domain Authority (DA) is a score from 0 to 100, created by the SEO company Moz, that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search results. A higher DA suggests stronger ranking potential. But it’s important to know one thing up front: Domain Authority is a third-party metric, not a factor Google uses. It’s a useful comparison tool, not a score you’re being ranked by.

Here’s what DA actually measures, what it doesn’t, and how to use it sensibly.

What Domain Authority measures

Domain Authority estimates a site’s overall ranking strength based largely on its backlink profile — the quantity and quality of sites linking to it — along with other signals. It’s scored on a logarithmic 0–100 scale, so climbing from 20 to 30 is much easier than climbing from 70 to 80. It was designed as a comparative metric: a way to gauge how one site stacks up against another, not an absolute measure of quality.

The critical caveat: Google doesn’t use DA

This trips up a lot of people, so it’s worth being blunt: Google has repeatedly confirmed it does not use Domain Authority. DA is Moz’s own model, an attempt to predict ranking ability — not an input Google reads. Other tools have their own versions (Ahrefs’ Domain Rating, Semrush’s Authority Score), and they all estimate the same general idea differently. So chasing a specific DA number as if it were your Google score is a mistake. Treat it as a thermometer, not the temperature.

What counts as a “good” domain authority

Because DA is comparative and logarithmic, “good” depends entirely on your competition:

• New sites typically start near 1–10.
• Established small-business sites often land around 20–40.
• Strong industry sites reach 50–60+.
• Major authoritative brands sit at 80–100.

The only DA that matters is yours relative to the sites you’re competing against for a given keyword. A DA of 35 might dominate a niche local market and be invisible in a national one.

How to use DA sensibly

Use Domain Authority for what it’s good at: quick competitive comparison (are my competitors’ sites far stronger than mine?), tracking your own trend over time (is my authority growing?), and evaluating potential link sources. Don’t obsess over the exact number or treat raising DA as the goal itself. The real goal is rankings, traffic, and customers — and the way you improve DA is the same way you improve actual rankings: quality content and genuine, authoritative backlinks. Improve the fundamentals and DA follows, not the other way around.

DA vs. real authority in the AI era

Metrics like DA measure link-based authority, but AI search increasingly rewards entity trust — whether engines recognize your brand and author as a corroborated, real entity. That’s a different (and arguably more durable) kind of authority than a link-score, and it’s covered in entity SEO. Both matter, but don’t mistake a DA number for the whole authority picture.

Frequently asked questions

What is domain authority in simple terms? Domain Authority (DA) is a 0-to-100 score created by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search results, based mainly on its backlink profile. A higher score suggests stronger ranking potential. It’s a useful comparison tool, but it’s a third-party estimate, not a score Google actually uses to rank your site.

Does Google use domain authority? No — Google has repeatedly confirmed it does not use Domain Authority. DA is Moz’s own metric designed to predict ranking ability, not an input Google reads. Other tools have similar scores like Ahrefs’ Domain Rating and Semrush’s Authority Score. They’re helpful for comparison, but none of them is your actual Google ranking factor.

What is a good domain authority score? It’s relative to your competition, since DA is comparative and logarithmic. New sites start around 1–10, established small-business sites often reach 20–40, strong industry sites hit 50–60 or more, and major brands sit at 80–100. What matters is your DA compared to the sites you’re actually competing against for your keywords.

How do I increase my domain authority? Improve the same fundamentals that improve real rankings: publish high-quality, useful content and earn genuine, relevant backlinks from authoritative sites over time. Because DA is largely driven by your backlink profile, building real authority raises it as a byproduct. There’s no shortcut, and trying to game the number directly doesn’t produce real results.

Is domain authority the same as page authority? No. Domain Authority estimates the ranking strength of an entire website, while Page Authority (also a Moz metric) estimates the strength of a single page. A site can have high overall DA while an individual new page has low PA until it earns its own links and signals. Both are predictive third-party metrics, not Google factors.

Should I focus on domain authority or rankings? Focus on rankings, traffic, and customers — the real outcomes. Domain Authority is a useful indicator and comparison tool, but it’s a means, not the end. Since DA rises as a result of the same work that improves actual rankings, improving your content and authority naturally lifts it, whereas chasing the number itself misses the point.

What’s the difference between DA, Domain Rating, and Authority Score? They’re competing metrics that estimate the same general idea — a site’s ranking strength — using different models. Domain Authority is Moz’s, Domain Rating is Ahrefs’, and Authority Score is Semrush’s. None is used by Google; each is that tool’s prediction. Because they’re calculated differently, a site’s score varies across tools, so compare within one tool, not across them.

Written by Bryan Collins, SEO & AEO strategist. Want authority that actually ranks? See an SEO engagement or run a free local SEO audit.