Domain Authority vs Page Authority: What's the Difference?

Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) are both Moz scores from 1 to 100 that predict ranking strength, and the difference is scope: DA rates an entire domain or subdomain, while PA rates one specific URL. Use DA to size up a competitor or a link prospect as a whole site, and use PA to judge the exact page you are trying to outrank or get a link from.

This guide is for e-commerce and Shopify teams who see DA and PA in SEO tools, outreach pitches and agency reports and want to know which number to trust for which decision. You will get a side-by-side comparison, what Moz and Google actually say about each score, a decision table, a step-by-step plan for raising PA on the pages that make money, and how DA and PA map to Ahrefs' Domain Rating and URL Rating.

Domain Authority vs Page Authority in 60 seconds

Moz built both metrics with the same method. Its Page Authority guide says PA "is calculated in the same way as Domain Authority but at the individual page level." That shared method is why the two scores are easy to confuse. The practical differences come down to four things:

• What gets scored. DA scores a root domain or subdomain. PA scores a single URL, so your homepage, a collection page and a blog post on the same store each get their own PA.
• What moves it. DA moves when the site's overall link profile changes, especially the number of unique linking root domains. PA moves when links to that specific page change, plus the site-level signals Moz folds in.
• How fast it moves. A single strong link to a product guide can change that page's PA without visibly changing the domain's DA. DA tends to shift slowly because it reflects the whole site.
• What decision it supports. DA is for site-level questions (is this competitor or publisher strong overall?). PA is for page-level questions (can my page beat that page, and which page on a partner site should link to me?).

If you want a deeper explanation of the domain score alone, our guide to Domain Rating covers the Ahrefs equivalent. This post stays focused on the comparison and on how to use the two scores together.

What Domain Authority measures

Moz defines Domain Authority as "a search engine ranking score developed by Moz" that predicts how likely a website is to rank on search results pages compared to competitors. Scores run from 1 to 100, and higher scores indicate a greater ability to rank.

How Moz calculates DA

According to Moz's Domain Authority guide (last updated March 18, 2025), DA comes from a machine learning model that evaluates multiple factors, "primarily focusing on backlink data." The inputs include the number of linking root domains, the quality of those links and other signals that correlate with rankings across thousands of search results. Moz names referring domains as "one of the most important factors" in the score.

Why DA is relative, not absolute

DA is graded against every other site in Moz's index. Moz gives a blunt example: if Facebook.com acquired a billion new links, other sites' DA would drop relative to Facebook's. Large, heavily linked domains occupy the top of the scale, which is why Moz says it is easier to grow a score from 20 to 30 than from 70 to 80. It also means your DA can fall even when you lost nothing, simply because other sites grew faster or Moz updated its model. Moz cites the 2019 rollout of Domain Authority 2.0 as an example of an update that "restructured how scores are calculated."

What a good DA looks like

Moz says there is no universal "good" or "average" DA because the score is relative. New websites start at 1. A DA of 30 might be exceptional in one industry and low in another, so the only useful benchmark is the DA of the sites you actually compete with in the search results.

What Page Authority measures

Moz defines Page Authority as a score that "predicts how well a specific web page will rank" in search results, also on a scale from 1 to 100. Moz describes PA as "a 100-point logarithmic scale," which again means early gains come more easily than late ones.

What goes into PA

Moz's Page Authority guide (November 18, 2024) says PA uses link counts and "dozens of other factors (more than 40 in total)." The partial list Moz publishes includes linking URLs, linking root domains, linking subdomains, followed and nofollowed links, anchor text distribution, 301 and 302 status, new versus old links, top-level domains, branded mentions and Spam Score. Moz sums it up itself: "PA is a link-centric metric."

What PA ignores

Moz is explicit that PA "does not take into consideration specific on-page elements like keyword use or content optimization." A product page with perfect copy and no links can have a low PA and still rank well for a long-tail query. A thin page with many links can have a high PA and rank for nothing useful. That gap is why PA should never be your only measure of a page.

DA vs PA side by side

Here is the full comparison in one place. Every row comes from Moz's own documentation unless marked otherwise.

The short version: DA tells you about the neighborhood, PA tells you about the house. A strong page on a weak site and a weak page on a strong site both happen all the time, which is why you need both numbers before you make a call.

Does Google use Domain Authority or Page Authority?

No. Both scores are Moz products, and Moz says so directly. Its DA guide states that "Domain Authority is not a Google ranking factor and has no effect on the SERPs." Its PA guide says PA "is not an acknowledged Google search engine ranking factor" and calls it "a metric invented by Moz."

Google has said the same thing many times. John Mueller of Google posted in 2020 that "Google doesn't use Domain Authority at all when it comes to Search crawling, indexing, or ranking," as compiled with links to the original posts in Search Engine Journal's ranking factor review of Domain Authority. Gary Illyes of Google posted in 2016 that he didn't know of "anything in ranking that would translate to 'domain authority'."

So why do the scores still matter?

Because links still matter to Google. Google's How Search Works page says one of the factors used to determine quality is "understanding if other prominent websites link or refer to the content." DA and PA are Moz's attempt to estimate that link strength from the outside. They are useful exactly to the extent that they help you compare link profiles quickly. Google's own systems use their own signals, and Mueller has acknowledged that Google has site-level and page-level signals of its own, without calling them authority or equating them with Moz's scores.

When to use DA and when to use PA

Most mistakes with these metrics come from using the right number for the wrong question. Use this table to pick the score that fits the decision in front of you.

An e-commerce example

Say you sell running gear and want to rank a "trail running shoes" collection page. The top result is a large retailer with a far higher DA than your store. That looks hopeless until you check PA and see that the retailer's ranking page has very few links of its own, while a specialist review site in position three has a page with a much higher PA. The page-level picture tells you who you are really up against and what kind of links the winning page earned. You can then plan links and internal links to your collection page specifically, instead of chasing a sitewide number.

How to raise Page Authority on pages that sell

For a store, the pages that matter are collections, best-selling products and the guides that feed them. Moz says the best way to influence a page's authority "is to improve its link profile." Here is a practical order of operations.

1. Pick five to ten money pages. Choose collection and product pages that already rank on page one or two for buying keywords. Moving a page from position 8 to position 3 is usually worth more than lifting a page nobody sees.
2. Benchmark the page, not the site. For each target keyword, record the PA of the pages ranking above you and the number of linking root domains to each. That is your gap.
3. Build one linkable asset per category. Product pages rarely earn editorial links on their own. A sizing guide, a comparison, original data or a buyer's guide is far easier to pitch. Moz recommends "original research, expert guides, and shareable resources" for exactly this reason.
4. Earn links to that asset. Pitch publishers, partners and suppliers who already write about the category. Claim the brand mentions you already have (our guide to unlinked brand mentions walks through it).
5. Pass the authority to the money page with internal links. Link from the guide to the collection with descriptive anchor text. Moz notes that internal links help "distribute link equity across your site." Check your structure with the free internal link checker.
6. Keep anchors natural. Anchor text distribution is one of the inputs Moz lists for PA, and over-optimized anchors look manipulative to Google as well. Review yours with the anchor text analyzer.
7. Fix what leaks. Moz lists 301 and 302 status among PA's inputs. Redirect retired product URLs to the closest live page rather than letting them 404, and test chains with the redirect checker.
8. Measure what Google measures. Re-check PA monthly, but judge success on rankings, clicks and revenue for each target page in Search Console and GA4.

DA and PA vs Ahrefs DR and UR

Other SEO tools have their own versions of these scores, built on their own link indexes. The numbers are not interchangeable, so compare sites using one tool at a time.

The site-level versus page-level split matters beyond classic rankings too. Ahrefs studied 75,000 brands to see what correlates with being mentioned in Google's AI Overviews. Its domain-level link metric (Domain Rating) correlated more strongly than its page-level one (URL Rating), and branded web mentions beat both by a wide margin. These are correlations, not causes, but they suggest that for AI answers, how often the web talks about your brand matters more than any single page's link score.

If you want to see where you stand in AI answers today, our guide to checking what ChatGPT says about your brand is a ten-minute starting point, and the AEO checker scores a page's readiness for AI answers.

Mistakes that make DA and PA misleading

Both scores are useful shortcuts, but they break down in predictable ways. Here is how to spot the problem and what to do instead.

The paid link point deserves emphasis. Google's guidance on qualifying outbound links says paid placements should be marked with rel="sponsored." A link bought for its DA, without that attribute, is a risk to your rankings, and it does nothing to improve the actual pages you sell from. For the full picture on earning links safely, see what link building is and how it works for e-commerce.

What to do next with DA and PA

Use DA to sort the field and PA to pick the fight. Pull the PA of the pages beating your top five collection pages, list the linking domains behind them, and plan one linkable asset and a set of internal links for each gap. Re-check monthly and judge the work on rankings and revenue, not on the scores themselves.

If you would rather have a team map those gaps for you, our SEO services start from the pages that drive revenue. Or talk to us and we will show you which pages are closest to moving.