You’ve probably heard these SEO terms: Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA). Maybe you’ve seen scores next to a competitor’s website or wondered why your own DA fluctuates. There’s a common misconception that these are official Google ranking factors, but that’s not quite right.
So, what exactly are DA and PA, why do they matter, and how can you leverage them to improve your online presence and ultimately, your search engine ranking?
This guide explains everything you need to know about DA and PA, from beginner concepts to advanced strategies, helping your website rank on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
What Are Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA)? The Core Definitions
Let’s start with the basics. Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) are proprietary SEO metrics developed by Moz. They are predictive scores (on a 1-100 logarithmic scale) that estimate how well a website or specific page will rank on search engine results pages.
- Domain Authority (DA): This score predicts the ranking strength of an entire domain or subdomain. It’s a broad metric indicating the overall “authority” of your website. A higher DA generally means a website has a stronger chance of ranking well for relevant search queries.
- Page Authority (PA): This score predicts the ranking strength of an individual page on your website. While DA looks at the whole site, PA focuses on the authority of a specific URL. A high PA suggests that a particular page is likely to rank well.
Think of it this way: If DA is your website’s overall reputation, PA is the reputation of a specific article or service page within that website.
The Million-Dollar Question: Are DA and PA Google Ranking Factors?
No, Absolutely not. This is crucial to understand. Google uses hundreds of its own algorithms and signals to rank websites, and DA and PA are not part of those algorithms. They are third-party metrics created by Moz.
So, if they’re not Google ranking factors, why should you care about them?
Because while they aren’t directly used by Google, they are excellent indicators of how Google might view your site. They serve as proxies for factors that Google does consider, particularly those related to link building strategy and overall website trust. They help SEOs and webmasters:
- Benchmark performance: Compare your site’s authority against competitors.
- Evaluate link opportunities: Assess the quality of potential high-quality backlinks from other websites.
Track progress: Monitor the effectiveness of your SEO efforts over time.
How Are DA and PA Calculated? Understanding the Signals
Moz’s algorithm for DA and PA takes into account various factors that influence a website’s ranking potential. While the exact formula is proprietary, the key components are related to a website’s link profile:
- Number of Linking Root Domains: The more unique websites that link to your site, the better.
- Number of Total Backlinks: The sheer quantity of links pointing to your site.
- Quality of Backlinks: Links from high-authority, relevant websites carry more weight than links from low-quality or spammy sites. This is why high-quality backlinks are paramount.
- Diversity of Link Sources: Links from a variety of different types of sites and industries are beneficial.
- MozRank and MozTrust: These are Moz’s own metrics for link popularity and trustworthiness.
- Other factors: Moz also considers factors like content quality and overall site health in its predictions, though backlinks are a dominant component.
It’s important to remember that DA and PA are logarithmic scores. This means it’s much harder to go from a DA of 70 to 80 than it is to go from 20 to 30. Improving your score gets increasingly challenging as it rises.
How to Check Your Website's DA and PA
Several tools allow you to check DA and PA:
- Moz Link Explorer: The official source for DA and PA. You can check a limited number of URLs for free or subscribe for more extensive access.
- Other SEO Tools: Many popular SEO platforms (like Semrush, Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, etc.) integrate DA (or their own equivalent authority scores) into their dashboards and analyses.
Simply enter your website’s domain or a specific page’s URL into one of these tools, and it will display the respective scores.
What's a "Good" DA or PA Score?
There’s no universal “good” score, as it’s largely relative to your industry and competitors. However, here are some general guidelines:
- Below 30: Often indicative of newer websites or those with a less developed link profile.
- 30-50: A respectable score, especially for small to medium-sized businesses. It shows you’re building authority.
- 50-70: Strong authority. These sites often rank well for competitive keywords.
- 70+: Very high authority, usually reserved for well-established brands, major news outlets, or government sites.
Key takeaway: Focus on improving your score relative to your direct competitors rather than chasing an arbitrary number. If your competitors have a DA of 45, aiming for 50-55 would be a significant win.
How to Improve Your Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA
Since DA and PA are heavily influenced by your link profile, the core strategy for improvement revolves around high-quality link building and overall website strength.
- Prioritize High-Quality Content Creation: This is the foundation. Create high-quality content that genuinely helps your audience, solves their problems, or provides unique insights. Content that stands out naturally attracts links. Aim for comprehensive, well-researched, and engaging articles.
- Focus on Building High-Quality Backlinks: Guest Blogging: Write guest posts for other reputable blogs in your niche, linking back to your own content. This is a powerful way to earn high-quality backlinks.
- Broken Link Building: Find broken links on other websites and suggest your content as a replacement.
- Resource Pages: Get your content listed on relevant resource pages.
- Unlinked Mentions: Find instances where your brand or content is mentioned online without a link, and ask for a link.
- Digital PR: Create shareable assets (infographics, studies) that naturally attract media attention and links.
- Avoid Spammy Links: Steer clear of link schemes, link farms, or buying low-quality links. These can harm your SEO.
- Improve Internal Linking: Link to other relevant posts on your own blog. This helps Google understand your site structure and passes “link juice” to other pages. It also keeps users on your site longer.
- Enhance User Experience (UX): While not directly a DA/PA factor, good UX leads to lower bounce rates and higher engagement, which indirectly signal quality to search engines and can make your site more link-worthy. Ensure your site is fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate.
- Remove Toxic/Spammy Backlinks: Periodically audit your link profile using tools like Moz Link Explorer or SEMrush. If you find low-quality or spammy links pointing to your site, consider disavowing them through Google Search Console to protect your authority.
- Ensure Technical SEO Health: A technically sound website is easier for search engines to crawl and index. This includes a fast loading speed, mobile responsiveness, an XML sitemap, and no broken pages.
Monitor, Analyze, & Adapt: The Continuous Improvement Cycle
SEO is not a one-time task; it’s an ongoing process.
- Google Search Console: Monitor your search performance: which keywords are you ranking for? What’s your click-through rate?
- Identify crawl errors and index issues.
- Check for manual actions or security issues.
- Google Analytics: Track traffic to your blog posts.
- Understand user behavior: how long are they staying? Which pages are they visiting?
- Identify your most popular content.
- Track Keyword Rankings: Use SEO tools to monitor your keyword positions.
- Analyze Competitor Performance: Keep an eye on what your competitors are doing well.
- Update & Refresh Old Content: Google loves fresh content. Regularly update your evergreen posts with new information, statistics, and examples. This can give them a significant ranking boost.
KeyTakeAways: Your Path to Google Ranking Success
Ranking on Google isn’t about magical tricks or secret algorithms; it’s about consistently providing immense value to your audience while adhering to proven SEO principles.
By meticulously researching keywords, crafting exceptional content, optimizing your on-page elements, ensuring technical soundness, and actively promoting your work, you’re not just writing blog posts – you’re building a powerful online presence that will undoubtedly attract the attention of both readers and search engines.