DA stands for Domain Authority, a score from 1 to 100 created by the SEO software company Moz that estimates how likely a website is to rank compared with other sites, based mainly on its backlinks. It is a third-party prediction, not a Google metric: Google has said it does not use Domain Authority or any other tool's authority score to rank pages.
This guide is for store owners, marketers and anyone who has been quoted a DA number by a link seller or an agency and wants to know what it actually means. You'll learn how Moz calculates DA, how it compares with Ahrefs Domain Rating and Semrush Authority Score, what counts as a good score, where the metric falls short and how to use it without being misled.
What does DA mean in SEO?
In SEO, DA almost always means Moz's Domain Authority. Moz built it to answer one practical question: if two sites compete for the same keyword, which one has the stronger link profile and is more likely to rank? The score is calculated for a whole domain. Its page-level sibling is Page Authority (PA), which applies the same idea to a single URL. Our guide to domain authority vs page authority covers that difference in detail.
What DA is
- A prediction. DA estimates ranking potential. It does not measure traffic, revenue or rankings directly.
- A link metric. It is built mainly from the links Moz finds pointing to a domain.
- A comparative score. It is most useful when you compare sites in the same market, not as a grade on its own.
What DA is not
- Not a Google score. Google doesn't calculate, see or use it.
- Not the same as other tools' scores. Ahrefs, Semrush and others publish their own authority metrics with their own math and their own link data.
- Not a measure of trust or quality. A site can have a high DA and thin, unhelpful pages, or a modest DA and pages that rank very well for its niche.
How Moz calculates Domain Authority
Moz doesn't publish the exact formula, but it describes the method in its documentation. Here is the method as Moz describes it, in plain terms.
- Collect link data. Moz crawls the web to build its own link index, then counts the links and the linking root domains (unique websites) pointing to each domain.
- Weigh quality, not just volume. Links from many different, well-linked websites count for more than many links from a few sites.
- Train a model against real rankings. Moz uses a machine learning model that compares link data with how sites actually rank in Google's results, so the score reflects which link patterns tend to go with better rankings.
- Filter spammy patterns. With Domain Authority 2.0, launched in March 2019, Moz added signals such as its Spam Score and patterns of link quality to the model.
- Scale to 1 to 100. The final output is placed on a 1 to 100 scale that Moz describes as logarithmic, which means each point is harder to earn the higher you go. Moving from 20 to 30 is far easier than moving from 70 to 80.
Two consequences of this method matter in practice. First, DA depends on Moz's index, so a link Moz hasn't discovered doesn't count yet. Second, because the model is trained and scaled across the whole web, your score can move when Moz updates its model or when other sites gain links, even if your own profile didn't change.
Domain Authority vs Brand Authority
In 2023 Moz launched a separate metric called Brand Authority, which scores the strength of a site's branded search demand rather than its links. It sits alongside DA and doesn't replace it. If a report shows "BA", that's the brand metric, not a renamed DA.
Is Domain Authority a Google ranking factor?
No. Google has said so repeatedly. Google's John Mueller has said in public replies that Google doesn't use Domain Authority in its algorithms. On Google's own Search Off the Record podcast in 2021, Mueller and Duy Nguyen of Google's search quality team discussed how spammers chase third-party metrics that Google doesn't use, and said Google has hundreds of ranking signals.
That doesn't make DA meaningless. It means DA is a model of some things Google cares about, mostly links, built by an outside company with its own data. Google does use links as one signal among many, and its spam policies warn against buying links or exchanging them at scale to manipulate rankings. A high DA built on those tactics can look good in a report while doing nothing for, or actively hurting, your search performance.
Why DA still correlates with rankings
Sites with many links from many different, well-linked websites tend to rank well, and those same links push DA up. So DA and rankings often move in the same direction. The link is shared cause, not cause and effect: improving DA by itself does nothing, but earning real links can improve both.
We benchmark your store against your top three competitors on Google and AI answers, show the pages ready to move and prioritize the fixes with the revenue math.
DA vs Ahrefs DR vs Semrush Authority Score
The three most quoted authority metrics come from Moz, Ahrefs and Semrush. Each tool uses its own link index and its own math, so the same site will show three different numbers. Never compare a DA from one site with a DR from another.
| Metric | Made by | Scale | What goes into it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain Authority (DA) | Moz | 1 to 100, logarithmic | Links and linking root domains in Moz's index, weighted by a machine learning model trained on Google rankings, with spam signals |
| Domain Rating (DR) | Ahrefs | 0 to 100 | Quantity and quality of linking domains, and how many other sites each linking domain links to |
| Authority Score (AS) | Semrush | 1 to 100 | Link power, estimated organic traffic and six spam checks, eight weighted factors in all |
Ahrefs Domain Rating
Ahrefs' help center describes DR as the strength of a site's backlink profile compared with the others in its database, on a 100-point scale. A linking domain splits its rating equally among the domains it links to, so a link from a site that links to only a few domains passes more than a link from a site that links to a million. Ahrefs repeats the calculation across its database and then scales the result into the 0 to 100 range. Ahrefs also says plainly that it isn't possible to name a single good DR, because the score is relative. Our full guide to what domain rating is goes deeper.
View the data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| DR 10 site linking to 3 domains | 3.3 |
| DR 50 site linking to 50 domains | 1 |
| DR 80 site linking to 1,000 domains | 0.1 |
Source: QCK illustrative calculation
Semrush Authority Score
Semrush's knowledge base calls Authority Score a compound metric that grades the overall quality of a website or page. It combines link power (mainly follow referring domains and their authority), estimated organic traffic and a set of "Natural Profile" spam checks. Because it adds traffic and spam checks, Authority Score can fall for a site with many links but little organic traffic, which a pure link metric would miss.
Source: Semrush Knowledge Base, What is Authority Score?, accessed October 2026
Which one should you use?
Use whichever tool you already pay for, and stick with it. The value comes from comparing sites with the same metric over time, not from the absolute number. If you need to quote a score to someone else, say which tool it came from and when.
What is a good Domain Authority score?
A good DA is one that is competitive with the sites ranking for the keywords you want. There is no universal threshold. A local bakery with a DA of 15 may outrank every competitor in its city, while a national retailer with a DA of 50 may be the weakest site on page one for a competitive product query.
To judge your score, search for the queries that matter to you, note the sites on page one and compare their DA with yours. If your site sits within the range of the sites that rank, your link profile is probably not what's holding you back, and content, intent match or technical issues deserve your attention first. If you're far below every ranking site, links are likely part of the gap.
The limits of Domain Authority
DA is a useful shortcut, but it is easy to misuse. These are the limits that matter most for an e-commerce site.
| Limit | Why it matters | What to check instead |
|---|---|---|
| It's a third-party estimate | Google doesn't use it, so raising DA by itself changes nothing in Google | Rankings, clicks and revenue in Search Console and analytics |
| It's domain-wide | A strong domain can still have weak pages for a given query | The links and content of the specific ranking page |
| It depends on Moz's index | Links Moz hasn't found don't count, and other tools find different links | Google Search Console's Links report for links Google knows about |
| It's relative and can be gamed | Scores shift with model updates, and link schemes can inflate them | Whether a linking site has real traffic and relevant content |
| It ignores topic and intent | A high-DA site in an unrelated niche may be a poor link for your store | Relevance of the linking page to your products |
DA and link buying
Many link sellers price links by DA. That's the clearest reason to treat the score with caution. Google's spam policies list buying or selling links that pass ranking credit as link spam, and a site that exists to sell links can have a high DA and no real audience. If a link would only be worth having because of the number next to it, it probably isn't worth having.
Our free $100M AI Visibility Roadmap, built from 7,960 live pages and 197 A/B tests, shows how to get cited by ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity.
How to use DA the right way
Used as one input among several, DA helps you size up competitors and prioritize outreach. Here's a simple process.
- Pick one tool and stay with it. Moz, Ahrefs or Semrush. Mixing scores across tools makes comparisons meaningless.
- List your priority keywords. Start with the collection and product queries that drive revenue, not vanity terms.
- Benchmark the page-one sites. Record the domain score and the page-level score for each ranking URL. Page Authority or URL Rating often tells you more than the domain score.
- Find your realistic targets. Prioritize queries where the ranking sites are within reach of your own scores.
- Vet link prospects on relevance and traffic. Use DA only as a rough filter. Check that a site covers your topic, gets organic traffic and links out sparingly.
- Track monthly, judge quarterly. Scores move with tool updates. Look at the trend over several months and against competitors, not week to week.
- Report outcomes, not scores. Tie link work back to rankings, organic sessions and revenue. A rising DA with flat traffic is not a win.
How to improve Domain Authority
You improve DA the same way you improve your real ranking potential: by earning links from relevant, well-linked websites. Shortcuts that only move the score are a waste of money at best.
What tends to work
- Linkable resources. Original data, buying guides, sizing tools and how-to content that other sites want to cite.
- Digital PR. Product launches, founder stories and expert commentary that journalists and bloggers pick up.
- Partner and supplier links. Manufacturers, stockists and collaborators who already know your brand.
- Reclaiming unlinked mentions. Sites that mention your brand without linking are the easiest links to ask for.
- Fixing what you already have. Redirect broken URLs that still have backlinks, and strengthen internal links so authority reaches your important pages.
What to avoid
- Buying links priced by DA without
rel="sponsored"orrel="nofollow". - Large-scale link exchanges and private blog networks.
- Automated link building and low-quality directory submissions, both listed in Google's spam policies.
Our guide to link building covers these tactics step by step.
Where to go from here
Treat Domain Authority as a quick way to compare link strength, not a target. Benchmark it against the sites that rank for your money keywords, use it as a rough filter when you vet link prospects, and judge your work on rankings, organic traffic and revenue. If you want to see how your store stacks up against your top competitors and which pages are closest to moving, our SEO services team can show you, or you can request a free plan.
Skip the vanity metrics. In 30 minutes you'll get a competitor benchmark, the pages closest to ranking and a prioritized list of fixes for your store.
