Domain Authority
Moz's proprietary 1–100 score predicting how well a domain will rank in search results, based on its backlink profile.
Definition
Domain Authority (DA) is a proprietary metric developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank in search engine results pages on a 1–100 logarithmic scale. It is calculated using multiple factors derived from the domain's backlink profile: the number of linking root domains, the authority of those linking domains, and the overall volume and quality of inbound links. Higher DA scores correlate with greater ranking potential, but DA is a predictive model, not a Google metric.
It is critical to understand that Google does not use Domain Authority in its algorithm. DA is a third-party metric that approximates Google's assessment of a domain's authority, but it is a proxy, not the real signal. Similarly, Ahrefs has "Domain Rating" (DR), Semrush has "Authority Score," and Majestic has "Trust Flow" and "Citation Flow" — all different proprietary interpretations of the same underlying concept.
DA is most useful for competitive benchmarking (comparing your domain's authority to competitors' DA to understand the gap), link prospecting (evaluating whether a potential link source has meaningful authority), and tracking your site's authority growth over time. Do not obsess over the absolute number — a DA 30 site can outrank DA 60 sites for specific queries through better content quality, topical authority, and on-page optimization. Use DA as one data point in a broader competitive analysis.