Domain Authority (DA): What It Is and How to Increase It

Domain Authority (DA) is a score from 1 to 100, created by Moz, that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search results. The higher the score, the stronger the site's overall backlink profile — and the easier every new page on it tends to rank. It has become the industry's default shorthand for "how strong is this site?", quoted in outreach emails, guest post negotiations and link prospecting lists everywhere.

It is also one of the most misunderstood numbers in SEO. So before the how-to: what DA actually is, and just as importantly, what it isn't.

What is DA — and what it is not

Moz calculates Domain Authority primarily from a site's link profile: how many sites link to it, how strong those sites are, and the overall shape of the link graph around it. The score is then fitted onto a 1–100 scale against real ranking outcomes across the web.

Three facts keep the number honest:

• DA is not a Google metric. Google has said repeatedly it uses no "domain authority" score. DA is Moz's educated imitation of how Google's link-based signals probably add up. Ahrefs' Domain Rating (DR) and Semrush's Authority Score are rival imitations of the same idea — related, but calculated differently, which is why the numbers never match across tools.
• DA is logarithmic. Climbing from 10 to 20 is vastly easier than from 50 to 60. Early scores move quickly, then every point costs more.
• DA is relative. It recalibrates against the whole web, so your score can dip when giant sites gain links even if you lost nothing. Compare your DA against competitors, never against an absolute target.

What counts as a good DA score?

Only in context. A DA 25 site competing against DA 15 rivals is the strong player; a DA 45 site up against DA 70 publishers is the underdog. As loose orientation: brand-new sites start at 1, most small established businesses sit somewhere in the teens to 30s, strong niche publications in the 40s–60s, and the 70+ range belongs to major media, institutions and platforms. The useful question is never "is my DA good?" but "is it in the same neighbourhood as the sites I need to outrank?"

How to increase domain authority

Because DA is computed from links, raising it is simply link building viewed through one metric. The levers, in order of impact:

1. Earn links from new referring domains

The count of unique linking sites moves DA more than anything else — a tenth link from the same domain barely registers, as we covered in referring domains vs backlinks. Digital PR, original data, guest posts on real sites and unlinked mention reclamation all feed this number — and if you need real sites to pitch, our curated site list spans dozens of niches with traffic figures shown.

2. Get links from strong sites

Authority flows downhill: links from high-DA sites lift your score fastest, because DA heavily weighs the strength of who links to you. One national publication mention can outweigh months of small-blog placements.

3. Cut the dead weight

Fix redirect chains and 404 pages that scatter incoming link equity, and consolidate near-duplicate pages so links to your content pool rather than split. You already own this equity; stop leaking it.

4. Strengthen internal linking

DA is a domain-level score, but internal linking decides how equity circulates and how well the whole graph looks. Hub-and-spoke clusters with generous contextual links make every external link work harder.

5. Keep publishing link-worthy assets

Nobody links to a service page out of love. Statistics roundups, original research, calculators, definitive guides — these are the pages that accumulate citations for years and quietly drag the whole domain's score up.

6. Be patient and measure quarterly

Moz recrawls and recalibrates on its own schedule; expect scores to respond to link growth over months, not days. Track DA quarterly alongside referring domains — and remember rankings and traffic are the actual scoreboard. Want a realistic plan for your niche instead of a generic target? Get in touch.

The Moz DA score: myths worth dropping

• "Raising DA raises rankings." Backwards. The links raise your rankings; DA merely summarises them. Chasing the score with junk links raises neither.
• "Google penalises low-DA sites." Google never sees the number. Low-DA sites outrank higher ones constantly on better content, relevance and page-level links — see page authority vs domain authority.
• "A DA 40+ guest post site is automatically good." DA can be inflated by link schemes. Always sanity-check a prospect's traffic and content quality; a real DA 25 blog with an audience beats a manufactured DA 50 shell.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check my domain authority?

Moz's free Link Explorer and Domain Analysis tools show DA for any site, plus its linking domains and top pages. Ahrefs and Semrush show their equivalent scores alongside richer backlink data.

How long does it take to increase DA?

New sites can reach the 15–25 band within six to twelve months of consistent link earning. Beyond 40, single points can take a quarter or more — the logarithmic scale guarantees it.

Can domain authority go down?

Yes — losing significant links, acquiring a spammier profile, or simply the web-wide recalibration can trim points. A one-or-two-point wobble means nothing; investigate only when a drop coincides with real lost referring domains.