Domain authority measures a website’s credibility (and potentially its search engine visibility) compared to its competition.
Checking your site’s domain authority (DA) can help you understand how it’s performing as a whole. A stronger DA means you’re earning backlinks from authoritative websites and building trust over time. It doesn’t directly impact your search ranking, but provides a solid benchmark for measuring relative quality.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to increase domain authority with six tips for introducing stronger backlinks and robust SEO practices to your site.
What’s domain authority, and why is it important?
DA isn’t an official Google metric. It’s a score created by Moz, an SEO platform, that estimates how likely a website is to rank in search engines based on its backlink profile. Think of it like a directional signal for measuring how competitive your website’s domain is within your industry.
DA adds context to your broader SEO strategy:
- Benchmarks against competitors. DA helps you compare your site’s backlink profile with others in your market to see who has more potential SERP ranking strength.
- Builds site credibility. A strong DA score typically comes from reputable backlinks. Searchers are more likely to view sites that are linked to by authoritative sources as also being credible and trustworthy.
- Supports stronger backlinks. Growing authority can help your site attract more links in other places and collaborations with credible brands.
- Guides link-building strategies. Tracking and comparing DA and organic traffic can help you determine if your link-building efforts translate into visibility.
How do you check domain authority, and what’s a good DA score?
You can measure DA using Moz’s free DA checker. The score is based mainly on your domain’s inbound links, but it also factors in link quality patterns and a “Spam Score” through a machine-learning algorithm that estimates ranking potential.
Moz’s 0 to 100 scale isn’t an external benchmark. A ‘good’ score is one that’s close to or higher than other sites ranking for your target keywords. DA also fluctuates over time as your (and your competitors’) link profiles evolve.
There aren’t any official Moz cutoffs or universal scores, but here’s a working interpretation for the DA score range.
Misconceptions about domain authority
There are a few myths about DA’s role and impact as a popular ranking metric.
Myth: Domain authority influences Google rankings
DA is a directional benchmark. Google’s ranking systems use a variety of signals (such as content, relevance, and usability) to rank individual pages rather than a single sitewide score.
Myth: Domain authority is an official metric that Google and other search engines use
Google doesn’t use DA as a ranking factor. DA is a third-party metric and doesn’t play a role in any search engine ranking signals.
Myth: Domain authority is the only site authority ranking metric
DA is a widely recognized and adopted ranking metric, but it’s one of several similar tools created by SEO platforms to do the same thing. For example, Ahrefs’ Domain Rating and Semrush’s Authority Score also measure site authority using backlinks, but weigh the specifics and run their calculations differently.
Myth: Domain authority is an absolute measure for comparing websites
DA scores are comparative, not absolute. Use the score to compare your site with competitors, since the figure depends on Moz’s own model and database.
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6 ways to improve your site’s domain authority
Improving DA depends on the signals that make your site more credible and encourage others to link to you. Here are six effective ways to strengthen those cues.
1. Focus on quality content creation
2. Consider guest posting
3. Apply redirects when appropriate
4. Optimize your website structure
5. Prioritize strategic content marketing
6. Leverage digital PR for brand visibility
1. Focus on quality content creation
Quality content gives other websites a reason to reference and share your pages. To increase DA, create written content and copy that closely matches keyword relevance and audience intent rather than publishing for volume alone.
Ranking for a term doesn’t inherently mean your content is valuable. Adding keywords where they don’t make sense just to have them can hurt the content’s credibility, even if it’s otherwise useful. And if a reader can’t find anything interesting in your writing, they have no reason to cite it, send it to colleagues, or build on it in their own work. Relevance and shareability turn content into a long-term authority asset.
2. Consider guest posting
Guest posting, or creating content for other reputable sites in your industry, can support your domain growth — if you focus on relevance rather than link volume. Contribute thoughtful, original blog posts to high-authority sites to associate your company with brands your audience already trusts. This can help you earn quality backlinks and strengthen your reputation at the same time.
3. Apply redirects when appropriate
When a specific URL doesn’t link to an expected page (or any page at all), users who enter it will be met with an error instead. That confusion is reflected in your DA score.
To keep everything running smoothly, apply a redirect to automatically push users to the new correct page. Search engines recognize redirects as a cue that this new page is the same as (or an iteration on) the older one and reclassify your site, keeping the DA you’ve already built in tact.
Consider using a redirect after changing a URL, consolidating related multiple pages, or restructuring the site as a whole. These redirects should be temporary; redirects that appear permanent like HTML meta refreshes aren’t good for DA, as they slow load times. A 301 redirect clarifies the change for users and search engines and keeps pages responsive.
4. Optimize your website structure
A user-friendly site structure gives visitors and search engines context as they browse your content. Clear navigation, logical page grouping, and useful internal links all make it easier to understand how your pages relate to each other and the best way to move between them.
DA doesn’t increase through isolated pages (having too many pages can hurt your DA score if there’s no context for them). Instead, it grows when your site works as a connected system. For larger websites, optimized structures also support better scalability, as each new page you add over time already has a clearly defined place to sit.
5. Prioritize strategic content marketing
You need to put your content in front of the right audiences for it to impact DA. Marketing your content increases the likelihood that search engines and readers will discover, share, and link to it.
For example, you can promote high-value pages through newsletters and social media, and partner with other sites for collaborative blog articles instead of treating individual publications on your site as the finish line. Use formats that naturally attract attention, like original research and educational resources, with unique insights to give other sites something valuable to cite.
6. Leverage digital PR for brand visibility
Digital public relations builds authority by turning your expertise into stories and data other sites want to reference. Say you publish a report on how enterprise buyers evaluate software vendors. If an authoritative industry publication, such as Biztech Magazine, cites that report in an article, your brand earns visibility from the high-value backlink.
Unlike traditional link building, digital PR works best when the content itself organically creates value for editors, journalists, and publishers, and compels them to share your newsworthy knowledge.
Turn authority gains into long-term growth with Webflow
DA may be a third-party metric, but it contributes valuable insights. It can show you where to create relevant content for organic traffic while keeping your site technically sound to satisfy algorithms. This data all works together to help you understand what makes an authoritative website in your industry that stands out in search results.
Webflow helps you act on those insights. With a visual design environment and built-in SEO tools, you can publish, optimize, and scale in one place instead of worrying about publishing content through multiple disconnected platforms.
Build your website in Webflow and keep earning trust long after it goes live.
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