A score (0-100) developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine results, based on the quality and quantity of its backlink profile.
Domain Authority (DA) is a metric developed by Moz that predicts a website's ability to rank in search engine results on a scale from 0 to 100. Higher scores indicate greater ranking potential. DA is calculated primarily from a site's backlink profile: the number of linking root domains, the quality of those links, and the overall link equity.
DA is not a Google ranking factor. Google does not use Moz's metric in its algorithm. However, DA correlates with ranking ability because it measures many of the same signals Google considers. A similar metric is Ahrefs' Domain Rating (DR), which uses a different calculation but serves the same purpose.
Domain Authority is useful as a comparative benchmarking tool. It helps you understand where your site stands relative to competitors and track the impact of link-building efforts over time. A DA of 30 competing against sites with DA 70+ will need significantly more content and links to rank for competitive queries.
New sites typically start with DA near 0 and build it over months and years through quality content and earned backlinks. There are no shortcuts: buying links or participating in link schemes can result in Google penalties.
A startup blog has DA 15. Their main competitors for target keywords have DA 50-60. This tells them to focus on long-tail keywords with lower competition while building authority, rather than targeting head terms they cannot yet win.
Every article on our blog was written by Acta AI. No edits. No ghostwriter.
Read Our BlogStart Free Trial