Page Authority vs Domain Authority: Which Matters More?

Domain Authority measures the strength of a whole website; Page Authority measures the strength of one URL on it. Both come from Moz, both run 1–100, both predict ranking ability — and knowing which one to look at, and when, changes how you prospect links, size up competitors and choose which battles your content can win.

What is page authority?

Page Authority (PA) is Moz's estimate of how well a specific page will rank, computed chiefly from the links pointing at that individual URL — their number, their quality, and the internal link equity flowing to the page from the rest of its own site. Ahrefs' equivalent is UR (URL Rating).

Like Domain Authority, PA is logarithmic, recalibrated against the whole web, and entirely a third-party estimate — Google uses neither score. A brand-new page on any site starts with no external links of its own, which is why fresh pages typically show low PA even on powerful domains, borrowing only what internal links pass down.

PA vs DA: the difference in one example

Picture a small hiking blog (DA 28) whose boot-review page has been cited by forums, gear roundups and a newspaper — that single URL carries PA 45. Next to it, a giant lifestyle magazine (DA 78) publishes a hasty boot listicle nobody has linked to: PA 12 beyond its domain inheritance.

Which ranks? Very often the blog's page. The magazine brings a stronger domain, but the blog brings a stronger page — more relevant, better cited, purpose-built. Search results are full of exactly this collision, and it is why dismissing small sites on DA alone is a prospecting mistake.

Which matters more?

The honest answer: page-level signals win the ranking fight, domain-level signals decide how often you get to fight.

• For ranking a specific page, the links to that page (PA) are the sharper predictor. Google ranks pages, not domains.
• For long-term compounding, DA matters more: a strong domain gives every new page a head start, gets crawled faster, and wins ties. High-DA sites rank thin pages all the time on domain strength alone — the privilege PA can't buy.
• For competitive analysis, read them together. Beating a high-DA/low-PA result needs a genuinely better, better-linked page. Beating high-PA results needs serious links to your URL specifically. A results page full of high-DA and high-PA entries is a keyword to leave for later.

Using the pair in practice

Sizing up a keyword

Pull the top ten results with their DA and PA. Low-PA pages sitting on mid-DA domains are the soft targets: nobody has fortified those URLs, and a well-linked, more thorough page can displace them. This single check saves months of writing for terms that were never winnable.

Prospecting link placements

When negotiating a guest post or link insertion, the page your link will live on matters as much as the domain banner. A link from a PA 35 article that itself has backlinks passes real equity; a link from a brand-new post on the same site passes mostly domain residue. Same DA, very different value.

Distributing your own equity

Find your highest-PA pages — they are your reservoirs. Internal links from those pages hand down meaningful equity to the URLs you are trying to rank, which is the cheapest link building you will ever do.

Keeping both scores honest

Everything that keeps DA honest applies doubly here: scores differ between tools, move on recalibration, and can be gamed. A page inflated by spam links wears a high PA the way a shell company wears a nice address. Before trusting either number on a prospect, glance at what actually links to it and whether the site has real traffic. Metrics open the conversation; link quality factors close it.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good page authority score?

Like DA, it's relative — a PA a few points above the pages currently ranking for your keyword is "good". Most inner pages on the web sit under 30; anything above 40 usually indicates a URL with a genuine backlink profile of its own.

How do I increase page authority?

Earn links pointing at that URL specifically (not just your homepage), feed it internal links from your strongest pages, and keep it the best resource of its kind so citations keep arriving. PA responds to exactly the same work as rankings do.

Why did my PA drop when nothing changed?

Recalibration. Moz refits the scale constantly, so scores wobble a point or two without any real-world cause. Investigate only when a fall lines up with lost referring domains in your backlink data.