Domain Authority (DA/DR)
A 0-100 third-party score predicting a site's ability to rank, based on its backlink profile.
Domain Authority is a third-party score, invented by Moz, that predicts how likely a domain is to rank. It is a useful comparative shorthand and nothing more: Google does not use it, does not publish anything equivalent, and ranks pages rather than domains. Treat it as one competitor-research signal, never a target.
Definition
Domain Authority is a third-party metric (not used by Google) that predicts how well a website will rank. Moz calls it DA (0-100), Ahrefs calls it DR (Domain Rating). Both are based on the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to the domain.
While not a Google ranking factor, DA/DR correlates well with rankings and is useful for comparing your site against competitors.
Why It Matters
DA/DR helps prioritize link building targets. Guest posting on a DR-70 site passes more authority than a DR-10 site. It also helps evaluate competitors — if top-ranking pages have DR 60+ and you are DR 15, you need a different keyword strategy.
Example
A new SaaS site starts at DA 1. After 6 months of content marketing and earning 50 quality backlinks, it reaches DA 25 — enough to compete for medium-difficulty keywords.
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