What Is Domain Authority, And How Does It Work?
While playing the SEO game, you've probably come across the term Domain Authority (DA) thrown around. It’s one of those metrics people love to obsess over. Although it is not actually an official Google ranking factor, it still matters—if you're trying to figure out how strong your website is compared to other websites out there, especially your competitors.
Domain Authority is a score developed by Moz to predict how well a website might rank on search engines. It ranges from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating a stronger site. Websites like Wikipedia or Forbes have a DA in the 90s, while a brand-new blog might start at 1. Moz looks at a bunch of factors to calculate this score, but the most influential ones are the number and quality of backlinks, the overall link profile, and how trustworthy or relevant your site seems based on that data.
What makes DA interesting is that it's a comparative metric. It's not really about hitting a certain number. It’s about asking these questions.
Are we stronger than our competitors in terms of authority?
Are we building the kind of backlink profile that would help us rank better?
That’s where DA starts to get useful.
Now, here’s something most people overlook—DA fluctuates. A lot. And that’s not always a bad thing. Moz updates its algorithm from time to time, and when it does, scores shift. A drop in DA doesn’t necessarily mean your SEO is tanking. It’s not. It might just be a recalibration of how Moz sees the web. What truly matters is your actual search performance. Are you getting more organic traffic? Are your rankings improving? That’s the stuff worth monitoring.
Instead of obsessing over DA, focus on doing the things that naturally push it up anyway. Earn high-quality backlinks by creating content people actually want to reference—like original research, sharp insights, or genuinely useful guides. Get featured on sites that already have credibility. Tighten your internal linking so that your own content supports itself better. And don’t forget to audit your backlink profile occasionally to weed out spammy or low-quality links that might be doing more harm than good.
One thing I often see people getting wrong is confusing Domain Authority with Page Authority. DA looks at the strength of your entire domain, while PA zooms in on individual pages. It is as simple as that. Just because you have a high DA doesn’t mean every page on your site is going to rank well. You still have to do the work on each page—solid SEO, relevant content, and proper optimization.
At the end of the day, Domain Authority is just one signal in a much bigger picture. It’s easy to get caught up in the numbers, but the smarter move is to use DA as a directional tool, not a destination. Focus on creating value, earning trust, and building a strong foundation. The rankings will follow—not because your DA went up but because your site genuinely deserves to rank.
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