Domain authority
Domain authority is a third-party score, on a scale of 1 to 100, that predicts how well a website will rank in search results. Higher scores correlate with stronger ranking potential.
Also known as:
DA
What is domain authority?
Domain authority, abbreviated as DA, is a metric created by SEO tool Moz that scores how likely a domain is to rank well in search engines. The score runs from 1 to 100 on a logarithmic curve, so the gap between DA 70 and DA 80 is far larger than the gap between DA 20 and DA 30. Like all third-party metrics, DA is calculated by Moz rather than published by Google, so it is a useful estimate, not a verdict.
DA 1–20: Brand-new sites, personal blogs or pages with minimal external links
DA 20–50: Established small businesses, niche publications and growing content sites
DA 50–80: Authority sites in their category, regional newspapers and major brands
DA 80–100: Top-tier global domains like Wikipedia, the New York Times and Google
Why does domain authority matter?
Domain authority works as a quick way to size up a website's ranking strength against its peers. A DA gap of 20 points or more between your site and a competitor often explains why their pages outrank yours on shared queries, even when the content is comparable. Brand teams use DA to vet partner sites, set realistic ranking targets and prioritize the link-earning work most likely to lift visibility.
How do you use domain authority?
Treat DA as a directional signal, not a precise rank predictor, since Moz updates the algorithm and individual queries vary widely.
Compare your DA to the top three to five competitors in your niche to set realistic ranking expectations.
Pair DA with topical relevance and on-page quality, since a high-DA backlink from an off-topic site does less than a mid-DA backlink from a relevant one.
