Domain authority is a score developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank in search results based on its backlink profile. The score runs from 1 to 100. Higher scores indicate stronger link equity accumulated over time from other authoritative sites.
Domain authority is a third-party metric, not a Google ranking factor. Google does not use Moz’s score to rank pages. However, the underlying signal it approximates, the quality and quantity of sites linking to your domain, does influence Google’s assessment of your site’s credibility.
Similar metrics from other tools include Domain Rating from Ahrefs and Authority Score from Semrush. Each uses a slightly different methodology, so scores are not directly comparable across tools. What matters is the trend over time and how your score compares to competing sites in your specific market, not the absolute number. A domain authority of 35 can outrank a domain authority of 60 if the content is more relevant and the on-page optimization is stronger.
