What is Domain Authority and Does It Actually Matter?
Domain Authority is the number everyone quotes and few truly understand. It is a handy gauge, though not what most people think. Google does not use it at all. Here is what Domain Authority really is, where it is useful and why obsessing over the number is a mistake.
Domain Authority (DA) is a score from 1 to 100 created by the SEO tool Moz to predict how likely a site is to rank, based mainly on its backlink profile. Ahrefs has a similar metric called Domain Rating and Semrush calls its version Authority Score. The key thing to know is that Google does not use any of them. They are third-party estimates, not ranking factors. DA is still useful for comparing your site to competitors and tracking whether your link building is working over time. But it is easily overrated. A relevant link from a low-DA site can beat a high-DA irrelevant one, so treat DA as a rough guide rather than the goal.
A guide, not Google's
Not Google's
DA is a third-party score, never a Google ranking factor.
Comparative
It estimates ranking potential against other sites.
Not the goal
Useful for benchmarking, though relevance matters more.
What Domain Authority really is
Domain Authority gets quoted constantly, often as if it were a verdict from Google itself. It is not. Understanding what it actually measures, as well as what it does not, saves a lot of wasted effort. Here is the honest picture of DA and how much it really matters.
What DA is and how it works
Domain Authority is a metric created by Moz that scores a site from 1 to 100 to predict how likely it is to rank. It is built largely on your backlink profile, especially the number and quality of unique referring domains. The scale is logarithmic, so climbing from 20 to 30 is far easier than 70 to 80. Ahrefs and Semrush offer their own versions, Domain Rating and Authority Score, calculated differently, which is why the numbers rarely match across tools.
Google does not use it
This is the part that trips people up. Google does not use Domain Authority, Domain Rating or Authority Score in its ranking systems. Moz says so plainly. Google's own representatives have repeatedly stated there is no domain authority score in the algorithm. Google uses its own signals, largely at the page level, with links still playing a part through PageRank. So a high DA is never a direct cause of better rankings.
Why it still has its uses
None of this makes DA worthless. Because it is built on links, it tends to correlate with things Google does value, so a rising DA often means your link building is on the right track. It is genuinely handy for two jobs: benchmarking your site against competitors and quickly sizing up a potential link source. A consistent, comparable number you can pull in seconds is useful, as long as you remember what it is. We cover using it sensibly in Monitoring backlinks without obsessing over DA.
Why obsessing over it backfires
The danger is treating DA as the goal rather than a rough gauge. Judging links purely by their DA leads you to chase high numbers and ignore relevance, which is a mistake. A relevant link from a modest site can do far more than a high-DA link from an unrelated one. The score is also gameable, so a big number does not always mean a genuinely strong site. Relevance and real traffic matter more, as we explain in What relevance really means in backlink evaluation.
How to use DA sensibly
So treat Domain Authority as one input among many, never the target. Use it to benchmark and to compare prospects at a glance, though always weigh relevance, real traffic and editorial quality alongside it. Do not turn down a perfectly relevant link because its DA is modest. Equally, do not chase a high-DA link that has nothing to do with your topic. We look at why chasing big numbers can mislead in DA90 Backlinks. What genuinely makes a link worth having is in How Google values editorial links from real publishers. Our Backlink Services team uses DA as a guide and relevance as the rule. The full method is in The Complete Guide to Backlink Building.
Three things to take away
A Moz metric
DA is a third-party score from Moz, not a Google ranking factor.
Good for benchmarking
It helps compare competitors and track your link building.
Not the goal
Relevance and real traffic matter more than chasing a high DA.
Domain Authority at a glance
What DA is, how it is worked out, whether Google uses it and how to use it well.
Domain Authority,
the quick answer
Using DA well
vs misusing it
A helpful tool
- Benchmarking rivals
- Vetting prospects
- Tracking progress
- One input of many
- Relevance still rules
A costly distraction
- Treating it as Google's
- Chasing the number
- Ignoring relevance
- Judging links by DA alone
- High DA at any cost
Confused by DA and DR scores?
We use authority metrics as a guide and relevance as the rule, so you earn links that genuinely help rather than just look good. See how we judge a link.
Links judged on what matters,
from £350 per month.
We weigh relevance and real traffic over vanity scores, then report on what moves. Free quote, no pressure.