Domain Authority Explained: What Moz's DA Score Measures and How to Use It
Domain Authority is a number between 1 and 100 that Moz assigns to a website to predict how well it might rank in Google compared with other sites. That is the whole definition, and most of the confusion around DA comes from people forgetting the word "predict". Google does not use DA and has never seen your DA. It is a third-party estimate built from link data, and it is useful only when you read it as one.
Where Domain Authority comes from
Moz created Domain Authority as part of its SEO toolset, and today you see it in Moz's Link Explorer and the MozBar browser extension. The score is calculated from Moz's own index of the web: how many unique domains link to a site, how strong those linking domains are, and a range of other link signals. Since the DA 2.0 update in 2019, Moz has used a machine learning model trained to match how sites actually rank in search results, which then outputs a score on a 100-point scale.
Two consequences follow from this.
First, DA only knows about links Moz has crawled. If Moz hasn't discovered a link pointing at your site, it doesn't count toward your score, even if Google found it months ago.
Second, the score is relative. When Moz updates its index or retrains the model, scores across the web can shift even if nothing changed on your site.
Why the scale is logarithmic
DA is not linear. Going from 10 to 20 is far easier than going from 60 to 70. A small site that earns a handful of links from decent local sites can climb into the teens or twenties fairly quickly. Moving a site from the 50s into the 60s usually takes a large, steadily growing profile of links from strong domains.
This is why comparing raw gains is misleading. "We gained 8 DA points" means very different things at DA 12 and at DA 52.
What a good Domain Authority looks like
There is no universal good score. The useful question is how you compare with the sites you actually compete against for the same searches.
Take a home bakery in Jaipur competing for "eggless cake delivery Jaipur". The pages ranking on page one might belong to sites with DA anywhere from single digits to the 30s, plus a couple of large delivery platforms with much higher scores. If the local competitors sit in the 10 to 20 range, a bakery at DA 15 with a well-built page and a strong Google Business Profile is in the game. Spending money to chase DA 50 would be a waste.
Now take a SaaS company going after "invoice software for small business". Page one could be dominated by sites in the 70s and 80s. A DA 20 site will struggle on that head term however good the page is, and should go after narrower terms first.
A quick way to benchmark:
- Search your target keyword in Google.
- Note the top 10 ranking domains.
- Check their DA in Moz (a free account gives a limited number of lookups).
- Look at the median, not the highest number.
If the median is far above you, target longer, more specific phrases until your link profile catches up.
What DA is good for
DA is a reasonable shortcut in a few situations:
- Screening link prospects. If you have 300 possible guest post sites, DA helps you sort the list before you look at each site by hand.
- Tracking your own trend. A slow climb over 12 months suggests your link building is working. A sudden drop is a prompt to check whether you lost links.
- Sizing up competition. Comparing yourself with the sites on page one tells you which keywords are realistic right now.
Where DA misleads people
DA can be manipulated. Because it is computed from link counts and link strength in one index, people inflate it with link networks, redirect tricks or bulk links from sites that have high scores but no real audience. A site with DA 60 and almost no organic traffic is a common sight in link marketplaces. That pattern is a warning, not a bargain.
DA also says nothing about relevance. A DA 45 site about online casinos linking to a pediatric clinic in Pune is not a useful link for that clinic, whatever the number says.
And DA is a domain-level score. A strong domain can have a weak page, which is why Page Authority exists as a separate metric.
When you evaluate a site, look at DA alongside:
- Organic traffic estimates and whether they are trending up or down
- Topical relevance to your site
- Whether the site's other outbound links look editorial or paid
- Moz's Spam Score and a quick manual look at the content
How to raise Domain Authority honestly
You raise DA the same way you raise rankings: earn or build links from a growing number of distinct, reputable domains. More links from the same few sites help much less than links from new domains, which is why referring domains matter more than raw backlink counts.
Things that usually move the score over time:
- Content people want to cite, such as original data, useful calculators or detailed local guides
- Guest posts and PR placements on relevant sites
- Fixing broken pages that already have links pointing at them, since a 404 with inbound links wastes that value (the broken link checker helps you find them)
- Internal linking so authority reaches the pages you care about
Some tactics raise DA without raising rankings or traffic: buying links from high-DA sites with no audience, private blog networks and mass low-quality links. Google's spam policies treat links bought to pass ranking credit as a link scheme, so a higher DA earned this way can sit on top of real risk.
Treat DA as a thermometer
Pick three to five direct competitors, record their DA and yours in a simple spreadsheet, and check it once a month next to your Search Console clicks. If DA rises but clicks don't, your links aren't relevant enough or your pages need work. If clicks rise, you're on track regardless of what the number does. Set up that spreadsheet this week and fill in the first row today.