What Is Domain Authority? A Simple Explanation for Beginners (2026)

Domain authority is a score from 1 to 100 that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search results. The higher the score, the stronger the site’s link profile looks to the tool that made the score. If you have ever seen a number like “DA 34” next to a website, that is domain authority at work.

Here is the part most beginners miss: domain authority is not a Google score. It was created by Moz, a company that makes SEO software. Google does not use it, publish it, or check it when it ranks pages. It is a third-party estimate — useful for comparison, but never a guarantee of rankings.

What Is Domain Authority, Exactly?

Domain authority (often shortened to DA) estimates how a whole domain might perform in search, based on its backlink profile. A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Moz feeds its link data — how many sites link to you, how strong those sites are, and how spammy the links look — into a machine learning model, and the model outputs one number.

Think of it like a credit score for a website’s link profile. A credit score does not decide whether you get a loan on its own, but lenders use it as a shortcut. Domain authority works the same way for SEOs: it is a shortcut for judging link strength, not a ranking rule.

Two details matter a lot:

• The scale is logarithmic, not linear. Moving from DA 20 to DA 30 is far easier than moving from DA 70 to DA 80. Each step up gets harder, because the sites at the top have huge, long-built link profiles.
• The score covers a whole domain. It includes subdomains too. For a single page, Moz has a separate score called Page Authority (PA).

Domain Authority vs Domain Rating vs Authority Score

Moz is not the only company with this kind of score. The three big ones measure similar things in different ways, so their numbers for the same site will not match — and that is normal.

Do not compare a DA score with a DR score. Pick one tool, and compare sites inside that tool only. A site with DA 45 and DR 60 is not “really” 60 — the two tools count links differently.

Is Domain Authority a Google Ranking Factor?

No. Moz says this plainly itself: domain authority is not a Google ranking factor and has no effect on search results. Google’s own staff have said the same — Google does not keep a website authority score like this.

That does not make the score useless. It correlates with rankings because it measures something Google does care about: links from trusted, relevant sites. But correlation is not control. Raising your DA alone will not raise your rankings unless the real work behind it — better content and real links — also happens.

What Is a Good Domain Authority Score?

There is no universal “good” number. A good score is simply one that beats your direct competitors. A local bakery with DA 25 can outrank every other bakery in town if the others sit at DA 10–15. A national news site at DA 80 is playing a different game entirely.

As a rough guide, many SEOs describe the ranges like this:

• Below 20: typical for a new or small site. Normal, not a problem.
• 20–40: a solid small-business range. You can rank for local and niche terms here.
• 40–50: average to strong. Competitive in most niches.
• 50–60: good. You can compete for harder terms.
• Above 60: excellent. Mostly large, well-known sites live here.

New sites start at DA 1. That is expected. Every site starts there, and the score climbs only as real links and history build up.

How to Check Your Domain Authority for Free

You do not need a paid tool to see your score. Three free routes cover most people:

1. Moz Link Explorer: Moz’s own tool. A free Moz account gives you a limited number of lookups per month, and it shows DA, Page Authority, linking domains, and Spam Score.
2. MozBar: Moz’s free browser extension. It shows DA for any page you visit, which makes competitor checks fast.
3. Free checkers from Ahrefs and Semrush: These show their own scores (DR and AS), not Moz DA — handy if you want a second opinion, but remember the numbers are not interchangeable.

Check your score once, write it down with the date, and check again in a few months. Daily checks will only frustrate you: the score moves when Moz updates its index, not when you publish a post.

How to Increase Domain Authority (the Honest Way)

There is no button that raises DA. The score follows the link profile, so the work is the same work that builds real rankings:

1. Earn links from real, relevant sites

One link from a respected site in your niche beats fifty links from random directories. Write content worth linking to — original data, clear guides, useful tools — and let people find it. Guest posts on real sites in your field help too, as long as the site is genuine and the post is useful.

2. Fix the technical basics

Broken pages, slow load times, and messy site structure do not directly set your DA, but they cost you links and rankings over time. People do not link to a page that loads badly or returns errors. A clean, fast site keeps the links you earn.

3. Remove or disavow truly toxic links

If your site has links from spam networks or paid link schemes, clean them up. Moz also publishes a Spam Score alongside DA for this reason: a link profile full of spam signals drags the whole picture down.

4. Be patient and consistent

DA moves slowly because it reflects months and years of link history. A site that earns a few good links every month will pass a site that buys a burst of links once and then stops. Consistency wins this metric.

Mistakes That Hurt More Than They Help

• Buying links to chase a number. Paid link schemes can get a site penalized by Google, and the DA gain rarely lasts. The score is not worth a penalty.
• Comparing DA across tools. DA 40 (Moz) and DR 40 (Ahrefs) are different measurements. Compare like with like.
• Obsessing over small changes. A drop from 32 to 30 usually means Moz updated its index or a competitor gained links — not that your site got worse.
• Judging a site by DA alone. Before you pay for a link or a guest post based on DA, check the site’s traffic, relevance, and content quality too. A high-DA site with no real readers is a weak placement.

Should Beginners Worry About Domain Authority?

Not at first. If your site is new, your time is better spent publishing helpful content, fixing technical problems, and earning your first real links. Check your DA every few months as a progress marker, and compare it with the sites you actually compete against — not with Wikipedia or YouTube.

Used that way, domain authority is a handy compass. It tells you roughly where you stand and whether your link-building work is paying off. It just never replaces the work itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is domain authority in simple words?

It is a 1–100 score from Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search results, based on the strength of its backlink profile. It is an estimate, not a Google ranking factor.

Does Google use domain authority?

No. Google does not use Moz’s domain authority score, and it does not publish an equivalent score of its own.

What is the difference between domain authority and page authority?

Domain authority rates a whole domain. Page authority rates one single page, using the same kind of link data.

How long does it take to increase domain authority?

Usually months, not days. The score reflects your link history, so steady link-earning over time moves it — a single post or link rarely does.

Can a low domain authority site still rank?

Yes. Low-DA sites rank all the time for specific, less competitive searches, especially when their page answers the question better than bigger sites do.

Last updated: November 2026

For the page-level version of this score, see our guide to what page authority is and how it differs from a site-wide score.