Domain Authority
Domain Authority (DA) is a third-party metric developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search results, scored 1–100 based on the quality and quantity of its backlink profile.
Domain Authority is not a Google metric — it is a proprietary score created by Moz to help SEO practitioners estimate a site's competitive strength in search. Higher DA scores generally correlate with stronger ranking potential. Similar metrics include Domain Rating (DR) by Ahrefs and Authority Score by Semrush, each using slightly different calculation methodologies.
How Domain Authority Is Calculated
Domain Authority is derived from several factors, including: the total number of linking domains pointing to a site; the authority of those linking domains; the quality and relevance of the backlink profile; and the absence of toxic or spammy links. The score updates periodically as Moz recrawls the web.
Domain Authority vs. Page Authority
Domain Authority evaluates the entire domain's ranking potential. Page Authority (PA) measures the ranking potential of a specific page within that domain. Both use the same 1–100 scale.
Limitations of Domain Authority
DA is a useful benchmarking tool but has important limitations. It can be gamed — private blog networks and link farms can artificially inflate a site's DA without genuine editorial authority. It does not measure content quality, user experience, or topical relevance. Google does not use DA as a ranking signal; it is an external proxy metric.
How to Use DA in Link Building
In link building, DA is commonly used to prioritize outreach targets — sites with higher DA are generally preferred for guest posts and link insertions. However, DA should never be the only selection criterion. Real traffic, topical relevance, and editorial quality are equally important indicators of a link's true value.
Related Terms
Backlink
A backlink is a hyperlink from one website that points to a page on another website, signaling trust, authority, and topical relevance to search engines — one of the most important ranking factors in SEO.
Domain Rating (DR)
Domain Rating (DR) is a proprietary backlink strength metric by Ahrefs, scored 0–100 on a logarithmic scale, estimating the overall strength of a website's backlink profile relative to other sites in Ahrefs' index.
Link Building
Link building is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from external websites that point back to your own, with the goal of improving domain authority, search engine rankings, and organic traffic.
PR & Marketing Glossary