Domain Authority (DA): The Moz Score, Its Limits and a New Site’s Start
Domain Authority, or DA, is a score from 1 to 100 created by the SEO software company Moz to predict how likely a website is to rank in search results compared with competitors. Moz states plainly that DA is not a Google ranking factor and has no effect on the results. New sites start at 1, so a low score for a young product is normal.
Whose number is Domain Authority?
Moz made it and Moz computes it. The company sells SEO tools, and DA is a metric inside them, calculated from the link data in its own web index. It is a prediction, and Moz’s explanation says the score reflects how likely a domain is to appear in Google’s results, judged against competitors. A prediction by an outside company can be useful and can also be wrong about your site, and it is never a report from Google.
We read Moz’s guide to the metric on 13 November 2026, and every Moz statement below comes from it. If a platform quotes a DA to persuade you to pay for a listing, this is the page to hold the claim up against.
What does Moz itself say DA is and is not?
- A relative score. DA compares a website with others, so it is most useful for benchmarking inside an industry. There is no universal good or average number.
- Built mainly from link data. Moz says a machine-learning model weighs factors such as the number of linking root domains and the quality of those links, among others that correlate with rankings.
- Not a Google signal. In Moz’s words, DA is not a Google ranking factor and has no effect on the results pages.
- Not fixed. The score can move as search engines and other sites change, and growth gets harder at the top: Moz says it is easier to climb from 20 to 30 than from 70 to 80.
- New sites start at 1. A brand-new domain begins at the bottom of the scale and rises as it earns authoritative links.
That last point is the one makers misread. A DA of 1 on a three-week-old product site is a statement about its age and its lack of links, and it says nothing about whether the product is good.
How does DA differ from Domain Rating?
| Point of comparison | Domain Authority | Domain Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Moz | Ahrefs |
| Scale | 1 to 100 | 0 to 100 |
| What it states it does | Predicts how likely a site is to rank, against competitors | Shows the strength of a site’s backlink profile against others in the database |
| Method as described | A machine-learning model on link data and related signals | A rating that each linking domain splits equally among the domains it links to |
| Google’s use | Moz says it is not a ranking factor | A Google metric by that name is not described in Google’s documentation |
| A new site | Starts at 1 | Not stated on the page we read |
Because the two use different indexes and methods, the same site can show quite different numbers, and you cannot convert one into the other. Compare DA with DA and domain rating with DR, and never one against the other.
Example: a three-week-old product site meets a directory
An invented maker publishes a language-learning app and checks the score of their new site: DA 1. A directory they are considering shows a far higher number. The temptation is to read that gap as a quality ranking. It is a measure of age and accumulated links, and the maker cannot change it this month.
The useful comparison is within the directory’s own category: are other language-learning products listed there, and do the listings look current? The maker can also check what their own score does over a few months, as real links appear from listings and write-ups. Browsing the education app ideas shows which products already have an audience, which helps decide where to be listed.
How do you check a score, and what should you do with it?
- Look it up in a Moz tool. Moz lists Link Explorer, the MozBar toolbar and a free checker as options, and says Link Explorer is available with a free Moz Community account.
- Write down the date. Scores move, and a screenshot from last quarter misleads.
- Compare similar sites. Put three comparable directories side by side and look at what else differs: readers, recency, price.
- Spend effort on the cause, not the score. Earn mentions on pages your users read, and let the number follow.
The launch directory traffic calculator is better suited to a go or no-go decision, because it asks for expected visits, which DA cannot tell you.
What goes wrong when makers chase DA?
Some sellers advertise services that raise DA, and a score that can be pushed by volume is a score that stops meaning anything. Google’s spam policies treat buying links to influence rankings and automated link creation as link spam, so a package that promises a number is the opposite of what you want. Another error is dropping a good listing because its site has a low DA, when its readers are exactly yours.
A calmer plan is to launch your product free, watch where the visits come from and let the scores take care of themselves. The do launch directories give backlinks answer sets out what to expect from each kind of listing.
Related terms: a backlink is what both scores are built from, a referring domain counts the distinct sites behind them, and an anchor text is the wording of each link.
Frequently asked questions
What is Domain Authority?
It is a score from 1 to 100 made by Moz to predict how likely a website is to rank in search results compared with competitors. It is based mainly on link data. Moz says it is a relative metric and is not a Google ranking factor, so it informs comparisons only.
Does Google use Domain Authority?
No. Moz states that Domain Authority is not a Google ranking factor and has no effect on search results. It is Moz’s own model of ranking ability. Google’s documentation describes links and spam, and asks you to make helpful content, not to raise a third-party score.
What is a good Domain Authority?
Moz says there is no universal good or average score because it is relative. What matters is how your score compares with sites competing for the same searches. A new website always starts at 1 and rises as it earns links, so a low number early on is expected.
Is Domain Authority the same as Domain Rating?
No. Domain Authority belongs to Moz and Domain Rating to Ahrefs. They use different indexes and methods, so the same site can score differently on each, and you cannot convert one into the other. Compare scores only within the same tool.
Can I raise my Domain Authority quickly?
Not honestly. It follows from earning links from sites that others trust, which takes time. Services that promise a fast jump usually rely on link schemes, which Google’s spam policies warn against. Put the effort into a product people write about and let the score follow.
Written by Post your build ideas with AI assistance and edited for this site. Where a page names another product, the facts came from that product’s own pages on the date shown above; terms change, so check them before you rely on them. About the publisher.