Domain authority is not a Google metric. Google does not use it and does not know it, and Moz, the company that calculates it, says so itself: it is a comparative measure, not a ranking factor. It still turns up as a target in proposals and reports, which is measuring what is easy to measure rather than what brings customers.
The score fills a gap Google left. Google used to show its own PageRank, a number from 0 to 10, in a browser toolbar, and everyone watched it. In 2016 it stopped showing it altogether. SEO tools stepped in with scores of their own, each an outside estimate based on the links that tool happens to find.
| Score | From | Based on |
|---|---|---|
| Domain Authority, 1 to 100 | Moz | Mostly links, with a model trained to predict who ranks |
| Domain Rating, 0 to 100 | Ahrefs | The strength of the link profile |
| Authority Score, 0 to 100 | Semrush | Links, estimated search traffic and spam signals |
| No public score | Hundreds of signals per page, not per domain |
Because each tool finds different links and calculates differently, one site gets three different numbers. Compare within one tool, never across tools. And the scale is not linear: Moz explains it is easier to go from 20 to 30 than from 70 to 80, because giants like Wikipedia occupy the top.
Each ten points costs more than the last
effort per ten points
- 10 to 30 most local businesses
- 40 to 70 national brands and media
- 90 to 100 giants like Wikipedia
Illustration. A segment's width shows effort, not a measured value.
What the score cannot tell you
Google ranks pages, not domains, so a site with a modest score can top the results for a question it alone answers in full. Local searches such as "accountant Leeds" are decided far more by your Google Business Profile, reviews and proximity than by links; that is local SEO. A score of 40 that produces no enquiries earns you less than a score of 12 that brings three a week, which is what your KPIs should show. And AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini weigh what has been written about you and whether your answer is right, not a vendor's score; see generative engine optimisation.
When you enter a new country, the score is even less helpful. A strong domain at home brings little if no site in the new market links to you or mentions you. What counts there are links and mentions from that market, as explained under backlink.
The numbers that do show SEO working
For Business Centrum, a payroll bureau in Ghent, a score was never the target. We tracked what Search Console shows: in five weeks the site went from 220 to 10,200 impressions a day, and the number of non-brand search terms on page one from 13 to 1,593. That came from hundreds of pages each answering one employer question in full, not from a higher score. How long that kind of growth usually takes is covered in how long SEO takes, and the budget in what SEO costs.
Judging a link offer in three questions
- Is the site about your trade or market?A trade journal or local association with a low score outweighs a general blog with a high one.
- Does it get real visitors?Most tools estimate traffic too. A score of 40 with no visitors points to a site that exists to sell links.
- Is it full of sponsored posts on everything?Then it sells links to anyone, and you would sit between casinos and diet pills.
What clients ask about their score
What is a good domain authority?
It depends on your competitors. Local businesses often sit between 10 and 30. Compare with the sites ranking for your search terms, not with a fixed number.
How do you raise domain authority?
With real links from strong, relevant sites. But do not steer on it: steer on visitors, rankings and enquiries, and the score usually follows.
My score suddenly dropped. Should I worry?
Usually not. Tools retrain their models or lose track of links. Check whether impressions and clicks in Search Console fell too; if not, nothing happened.