What is Domain Authority (DA) and Does It Matter?

If your SEO strategy is missing the mark, take a closer look at DA when making decisions about keywords to target and content to create.

What is domain authority?

Domain authority, abbreviated as DA, is a search engine ranking metric developed by the SEO and digital marketing tool, Moz. Every website on the internet is ranked on a scale from 0 to 100. According to Moz, the number “predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages”.

You can check your DA by using a tool from Moz such as Link Explorer, the MozBar, or the SERP Analysis section of the Keyword Explorer.

How is DA calculated?

DA is calculated by factors such as the number of backlinks to a site, the number of keywords the site ranks for, and how often the site ranks in the SERPs.

Does Google use DA?

It’s important to note that while Google does not directly use DA as a factor when deciding how to rank a website, a site that has a better chance of ranking well will likely have a higher DA because Google and Moz’ DA algorithms look at many of the same factors when favoring certain websites.

Domain authority is more of a measure of how well a site performs using Google’s algorithm created to measure this because Google does not assign such a number to websites.

Domain Authority vs Page Authority

Domain authority (DA) is the number assigned to a domain as a whole (example.com), whereas Page Authority (PA) is the number assigned to a specific page on a website (example.com/page/).

A website with a high DA does not necessarily have a high PA on every page if Google thinks another website with a similar page is a better resource.

How can I use DA when developing an SEO strategy?

DA is just one of the factors you can consider when keyword researching, but the more factors you consider, the higher your chances of creating content that ranks.

If you find a great keyword that has a high search volume, low competition, and the first page of the SERPs leaves room for improvement, check out the DAs of the top 10 results. If they are similar to your site’s DA, you have a better chance of ranking! It’s not a hard and fast rule though—if you think you can offer a better resource for the search term give it a shot!

How can I increase my DA?

To build domain authority and therefore have a better chance of ranking higher in the SERPs, it’s important to make sure your website offers a good user experience, ranks for several search terms, and has backlinks. It’s a slow, but rewarding process.

We Can Help!

It can take time to build your DA. Need help keyword researching or improving your website? Get in touch!