Domain Authority (DA)

What is Domain Authority (DA)?

Domain Authority is a proprietary score created by Moz that estimates the ranking potential of an entire domain. It ranges from 1 to 100 — higher is better — and is calculated based primarily on the number and quality of backlinks pointing to the domain, along with other factors including linking root domains, MozTrust, and MozRank. DA is not a Google metric and does not directly affect rankings. Google uses its own internal signals, and has stated that it does not use any third-party domain scoring system. However, DA is widely used by SEOs as a benchmark for comparing domain strength and setting realistic expectations for ranking difficulty. A new website starts with a DA of 1. Established national news sites or major brands may have DA 80-95+. For most local businesses in India and Australia, a DA of 20-40 is respectable; a DA of 50+ is strong for a local or regional business. Similar metrics include Ahrefs's Domain Rating (DR) and Semrush's Authority Score — these tools have their own link indices and scoring methodologies, so the same website may have different scores across tools. Link building — earning high-quality backlinks from relevant, authoritative websites — is the primary way to increase domain authority over time. Guest posting, digital PR, creating linkable assets (tools, research, infographics), and local citations all contribute. DA should be tracked as a directional trend, not an absolute target.