# Domain Authority

A score from 0–100 that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine results, based on the strength of its backlink profile.

Domain Authority (DA) is a metric developed by Moz that estimates how competitive a website is in search engine results pages (SERPs). It is scored on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100 — the higher the score, the more likely the domain is to rank well.

## How Domain Authority is Calculated

DA is calculated using dozens of factors, but the most influential are:

- **Linking root domains** — the number of unique domains pointing to your site
- **Total backlinks** — the overall volume of inbound links
- **Link quality** — the authority of the sites linking to you

## Domain Authority vs. Domain Rating

DA is Moz’s metric. Ahrefs uses a similar score called **Domain Rating (DR)**, and Semrush uses **Authority Score**. They measure similar things but use different data and algorithms, so scores are not directly comparable across tools.

## How to Use It

Use DA as a _relative_ benchmark — compare your score against direct competitors, not against unrelated sites. A DA of 30 may be strong in a niche industry but weak in finance or health.

Focus on earning high-quality backlinks from relevant, authoritative sites to improve your DA over time.

## Important Caveats

DA is a **third-party metric** — Google does not use it in its ranking algorithm. Do not optimise for DA directly. Instead, build a strong backlink profile and DA will follow.