What is Domain Authority?

Moz's proprietary 0-100 score modeling a domain's ranking strength from its link profile — a predictive proxy, not a Google metric.

Does Google use Domain Authority?

No — Google has repeatedly stated it computes no such metric. DA models Google's behavior from the outside.

How should DA be used?

As a comparative filter within a niche, alongside topical relevance and traffic data — never as a contracted outcome.

Growth Marketing Glossary

Domain Authority

do·main au·thor·i·ty/doʊˈmeɪn əˈθɔɹəti/noun

The number SEOs quote and Google doesn't compute — useful exactly as far as you remember that.

Schematic — a DA gauge with its proxy disclaimer

Term: Domain Authority
Abbreviation: DA
Creator: Moz (proprietary)
Scale: 0-100, logarithmic, relative

Forms & parts of speech

DA · acronym

Moz's domain score.

"DA 70 referring domain — strong proxy, but check its actual traffic before the pitch."

Definition in plain terms

Domain Authority is Moz's proprietary 0-100 score predicting how well a domain is likely to rank in search, computed primarily from its link profile (linking root domains, link quality patterns) via a machine-learning model trained against actual search results. It is a third-party MODEL of ranking strength — Google has repeatedly confirmed it uses no such 'domain authority' metric. Competitors run their own equivalents (Ahrefs' Domain Rating, Semrush's Authority Score).

The mechanics

The scale is logarithmic — climbing 20→30 is far easier than 70→80 — and RELATIVE: scores recalibrate as the whole web's link graph shifts, so your DA can fall while your site improves. Moz's 'DA 2.0' update (2019) rebuilt the model against link-spam patterns. The honest uses: comparing domains in the same niche, triaging link-prospect lists, and communicating rough site strength to non-SEOs. The dishonest ones: selling DA points as a deliverable, judging links by DA alone (a DA-90 site's spammy subdirectory beats nothing), and reporting DA growth as if it were traffic.

When it matters

DA matters as shared shorthand in an industry that needs SOME comparable number — agencies triage prospects with it, link builders filter outreach lists, and publishers price guest placements (a practice that invited the score's gaming — private blog networks farm DA specifically). The professional posture: use it as one filter among several (traffic estimates, topical relevance, real rankings), prefer the same vendor's score consistently rather than mixing scales, and never let a model metric appear in a contract as the outcome.

Worked example. An outreach campaign filters prospects purely by DA 50+, and three months of placements move nothing. The relevance audit explains it: high-DA general-news sites whose links sit in irrelevant contexts, plus two DA-60 'publications' that turn out to be link farms wearing borrowed authority. The rebuilt filter stacks DA WITH topical relevance and organic-traffic estimates — the new placements average DA 38 on niche sites that actually rank for the target topics. Rankings move within weeks. The score was never wrong; it was just never the point alone.

Failure modes to watch. Quoting DA as a Google metric; contracting deliverables in DA points; judging links by domain score without page context and relevance; and mixing DA, DR, and AS as if one scale.

Synonyms & antonyms

Synonyms

DADomain Authoritydomain rating (the Ahrefs analog)

Antonyms

page-level authoritytopical relevance (the missing half)

Origin & history

Coined as a product metric by Moz (then SEOmoz) in the late 2000s — introduced alongside its Linkscape index (2008-2010 era) as a machine-learned successor to simpler link counts and its own mozRank, deliberately named to express what PageRank's public retirement left unmeasured. The 'DA 2.0' rebuild shipped March 2019.

Etymology: source.

Usage trends

Search interest for this term over the last five years:

View interest-over-time on Google Trends →

Common questions

What is Domain Authority?: Moz's proprietary 0-100 score modeling a domain's ranking strength from its link profile — a predictive proxy, not a Google metric.
Does Google use Domain Authority?: No — Google has repeatedly stated it computes no such metric. DA models Google's behavior from the outside.
How should DA be used?: As a comparative filter within a niche, alongside topical relevance and traffic data — never as a contracted outcome.