Domain authority is a third-party score from 1 to 100, created by Moz, that predicts how likely a website is to rank. Google does not use it and has never used it. It is a useful comparative benchmark against competitors and a bad target to optimise for directly.
That distinction causes most of the confusion around the metric. A DA score is a weather forecast, not the weather. Treating it as the thing itself is how agencies end up selling link packages that raise a number and nothing else.
What Domain Authority Is: The DA Score Explained
Moz built domain authority as a way to estimate the ranking strength of a whole domain. The DA score runs on a logarithmic scale from 1 to 100, calculated largely from the quantity and quality of backlinks pointing at a site.
Logarithmic matters here. Moving from DA 20 to DA 30 is achievable with steady work. Moving from 70 to 80 is extraordinarily hard. The scale compresses at the top, which is why established sites cluster in the 80s and 90s and almost nothing reaches 100.
Other tools publish their own equivalents: Ahrefs has Domain Rating, Semrush has Authority Score, Majestic has Trust Flow. They measure similar things with different formulas, which is why the same website can score 42 in one tool and 58 in another. Neither number is wrong, and neither is Google's.
How Domain Authority Is Calculated
Understanding the inputs makes it obvious why the score behaves the way it does.
Linking root domains. The number of distinct websites linking to your domain. This is the single largest input. Fifty links from one site count for far less than fifty links from fifty sites.
Total backlinks. The raw count, weighted much less than referring domains.
Link quality. A backlink from a high-authority website passes more than one from a low-authority site. This is why a handful of strong links can move a DA score more than hundreds of weak ones.
The machine learning model. Moz trains DA against actual search results, so the score is recalibrated periodically. Your DA can change when the model changes, even if your backlink profile did not.
Scale effects. Because the scale is logarithmic and relative, your DA can drop simply because other websites gained authority faster than you did. A static DA in a market where everyone is improving is a decline in relative terms.
Two consequences follow. First, DA is a relative measure, which is exactly why it works as a competitive benchmark and fails as a target. Second, chasing the score by buying links from high-DA sites is both the most common tactic and the one most likely to end in a penalty, because the links are bought rather than earned and Google evaluates them on entirely different criteria.
Google Does Not Use Domain Authority as a Ranking Factor
This is the part worth being blunt about.
Google has stated repeatedly that it does not use Moz's domain authority, or any third-party authority metric, as a ranking factor. Those scores are built by external companies using their own crawl data and their own models.
Google does have internal notions of site-level quality and trust. Those are not DA, they are not public, and nobody outside Google knows how they work.
So when someone tells you that raising your domain authority will raise your rankings, they have the causation backwards. Sites with strong backlink profiles tend to rank well and tend to score high on DA, because both reflect the same underlying links. Raising DA does not cause the rankings. The links cause both.
What a Domain Authority Score Is Genuinely Useful For
It is not a useless metric. It is a misused one.
Competitive benchmarking. If your competitors sit at DA 45 and you are at DA 18, that tells you something real about the gap in authority you need to close. This is the best use of the score.
Evaluating link prospects. When assessing whether a backlink is worth pursuing, DA is a quick proxy for whether a site has any authority at all. Use it as a first filter, not a decision.
Tracking direction over time. Your own DA trending upward over months suggests your backlink profile is strengthening. The trend is informative; the absolute number is not.
Spotting toxic patterns. A sudden spike in referring domains with very low DA often indicates spam links pointing at your site.
What it is not useful for: setting goals. "Get our DA to 40 by Q3" is a target that can be hit without improving your business at all.
What Actually Raises Domain Authority: Backlinks and Referring Domains
Because DA is calculated mostly from backlinks, raising it means earning better links. The work is the same work that raises rankings, which is the point.
Earn links from relevant, authoritative sites. One link from a respected industry publication outweighs fifty from directories nobody reads.
Create things worth linking to. Original research, data, genuinely useful tools and guides. Nobody links to a service page; people link to resources.
Digital PR. Being quoted, cited and featured. Slower than buying links and it does not get you penalised.
Fix your technical foundation first. Authority flowing into a broken site goes nowhere. Our technical SEO audit checklist covers what to check.
Distribute authority internally. Links arriving on one page should flow to the rest of the site. Most sites waste this entirely. Our guide to internal linking covers how.
Be patient. Authority accrues over years. Anything that promises a rapid DA increase is buying links, and that is a risk to your site rather than an investment in it.
Our link building and authority growth work is built around earning these properly.
What Does Not Raise Your DA Score
Things sold as DA boosters that are either useless or harmful.
Buying links or link packages. The fastest way to a manual action.
Private blog networks. Google has been dismantling these for a decade.
Mass directory submissions. Low-quality links from sites with no traffic.
Comment and forum spam. Nofollowed, ignored, and embarrassing.
Link exchanges at scale. Reciprocal linking as a scheme is a recognised pattern.
If a service offers to raise your DA by a specific number within a specific window, they are buying links. The number may move. The consequences arrive later.
Why a Low Domain Authority Website Can Outrank a High DA Site
This happens constantly and it is the clearest evidence that DA is not a ranking factor.
Relevance beats raw authority. A specialist site with DA 25 covering one subject deeply can outrank a DA 70 generalist on that subject.
Page-level signals matter more than domain-level. The specific page, its content, its own backlinks and how well it matches intent decide most queries.
Intent match is decisive. A page that answers the actual question beats a stronger page that nearly answers it.
Freshness matters in some categories.
Local relevance overrides authority in local search, where proximity and the Google Business Profile carry weight DA knows nothing about. Our local SEO work deals with that set of signals entirely.
So a small business should not look at a competitor's DA 60 and conclude the market is unwinnable. On specific, well-chosen queries, it very often is not.
What We Track Instead of Domain Authority
Metrics that reflect the business rather than a model of it.
Organic traffic and its trend.
Rankings for the keywords that convert, not every keyword.
Conversions from organic, which is the only number that pays anyone.
Referring domains, actual link growth rather than a score derived from it.
Impressions and average position in Search Console, which move earliest.
Assisted conversions, because organic often starts the journey rather than finishing it.
We report DA when a client asks or when competitive benchmarking makes it useful. We do not set goals against it, because a DA target can be hit in ways that help nobody.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is domain authority a Google ranking factor?
No. It is a Moz metric. Google has confirmed it does not use it or any third-party authority score.
What is a good domain authority score?
It depends entirely on your competitors. DA 30 may be strong in a niche local market and weak in a national one. Compare against the sites you compete with, not an absolute benchmark.
How long does it take to increase domain authority?
Months to years. It is driven by backlink acquisition, which cannot be safely accelerated.
Why did my domain authority drop?
Usually because Moz updated its index or recalibrated the model, or because links you previously had were lost or devalued. A small drop with stable traffic is not a problem.
Is Domain Rating better than Domain Authority?
Neither is better. Ahrefs' DR and Moz's DA use different crawl data and formulas. Pick one tool and track the trend rather than comparing across tools.
Should I pay for a service that raises my DA?
No. Those services buy links, which risks a penalty. Invest in content and digital PR that earn links instead.
Build Real Authority, Not a Score
The useful question is not what your domain authority is. It is whether your site earns links, ranks for terms that convert, and is trusted by the people you want as customers. DA is a rough proxy for the first of those and silent on the other two.
Empire Internet Solutions builds authority through content and earned links, and reports on the metrics that affect revenue. Book a free consultation and we will benchmark you honestly against your competitors.
