Domain Authority

From PageRank to domain authority

When Google launched, its PageRank algorithm was revolutionary. PageRank assigned each web page a score based on the number and quality of links pointing to it. A link from a trusted, authoritative site would pass more “link juice” than a link from a low-quality or spammy site.

For years, PageRank scores were publicly visible, with websites receiving a score between 0 and 10. However, in 2016, Google stopped publicly displaying PageRank scores to prevent SEO manipulation and focus on more sophisticated ranking signals.

With PageRank no longer available, SEO platforms like Moz, Majestic, and SEMrush developed their own authority metrics to help marketers assess the strength of a website’s backlink profile.

Domain authority metrics from SEO tools

Several major SEO tools have their own version of Domain Authority, each with slightly different methodologies:

While each tool uses its own formula, they all aim to measure how authoritative and trustworthy a website appears to search engines.

How domain authority is calculated

Moz’s Domain Authority (DA) score ranges from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating a more authoritative site. The calculation takes into account factors such as:

• Number of linking root domains (how many unique websites link to your site)
• Quality of those links (links from trusted, relevant sites carry more weight)
• Link profile health (a balance between dofollow and nofollow links, and the absence of spammy links)

It’s important to note that DA is a relative metric. A DA of 50 might be high in one industry but average in another. It’s best to compare your DA to that of your direct competitors rather than treating it as an absolute benchmark.

Does domain authority affect Google rankings?

Domain Authority is not a direct ranking factor in Google’s algorithm. Google has never confirmed using any third-party authority metric like DA or Trust Flow. Instead, Google’s algorithms assess the quality of your backlinks, content relevance, user engagement, and many other signals to determine rankings. Domain Authority and metrics from other tools are designed to replicate how PageRank works, so is more of a measure than an actual ranking factor.

However, there is a correlation between high DA scores and higher rankings, because websites with higher DA tend to have strong backlink profiles, which are a known ranking factor.

What’s the difference between domain authority and page authority?

• Domain authority measures the overall strength of an entire domain.
• Page authority (also a Moz metric) focuses on the ranking potential of an individual page on a website.

For example:

• A website’s homepage might have a high DA because it receives the most backlinks.
• A blog post on that site might have a lower Page Authority if it hasn’t attracted as many links.

How does Trust Flow from Majestic differ?

Majestic’s Trust Flow is another popular authority metric, but it focuses more on the quality of links than the quantity. Majestic uses a seed set of trusted websites (such as government and educational sites) and measures how closely your site is connected to them.

A high Trust Flow score indicates that your site has links from high-quality, authoritative sources, which is more valuable than a large number of low-quality links.

Trust Flow uses similar process to the original Google PageRank and is probably the closest thing we have to have an idea of what the PageRank of a page would be.

How does SEMrush’s Authority Score work?

SEMrush’s Authority Score takes a broader approach, factoring in more than just backlinks. It includes:

• Backlink profile strength
• Organic traffic levels
• Engagement metrics (such as bounce rate and time on site)

This makes SEMrush’s metric more of a comprehensive site performance score rather than just a backlink-focused metric.

Is domain authority still useful for SEO?

Even though Google doesn’t use Domain Authority as a ranking factor, Domain Authority along with its counterparts like Trust Flow and Authority Score are still useful metrics for SEO professionals.

These metrics are a great way to compare your site’s authority to your competitors’ sites. If your DA is significantly lower than your competitors, it’s a sign that you need to work on building more high-quality backlinks.

Evaluating link building opportunities

When building backlinks, it’s important to target sites with strong DA or Trust Flow scores. Links from authoritative sites carry more weight in helping your site rank. If you get contacted by a website requesting a partnership or guest blogging opportunity, then it’s always good practise to check their Domain Authority. This way you will see instantly whether they are a credible website or not.

What is a “Good” domain authority Score?

There’s no universal “good” DA score. It’s all relative to your industry and competition. However, to get a gauge on the authority of a domain, you could look at different score ranges.

• 1-30: Low authority (new or small sites)
• 31-50: Medium authority (growing sites with a solid backlink profile)
• 51-70: High authority (established sites with strong backlinks)
• 71-100: Very high authority (top-tier sites like major brands, news sites, and government sites)

How to improve domain authority

If your site has a low DA score, it’s important to focus on building a stronger backlink profile. Similar to PageRank, the more links you have, the higher your score. And more importantly, the more links you have from websites that have a high Domain Authority, the higher yours will be.

1. Create high-quality, linkable content – Content that provides value is more likely to attract backlinks.
2. Reach out for backlinks – Build relationships with relevant sites in your industry.
3. Disavow spammy links – Remove harmful links that could negatively affect your DA.
4. Ensure your site is technically sound – A fast, secure, mobile-friendly website is more likely to earn quality backlinks.

SEO manipulation

The problem with third party metrics like Moz’s Domain Authority, is they are open to manipulation by SEOs. It’s easy to manipulate Domain Authority by pointing paid links or ‘Private Blog Networks (PBNs) at a domain to increase the score. Blackhat SEOs do this when they are selling links or domains, and artificially increase the score until they have made the sale. This is why Domain Authority should always be treated as a rough guide and not a solid metric. If you are looking at the value of a domain, you would be better studying it’s history on the Way Back Machine, than using a metric like Domain Authority.

Domain Authority is a useful tool for tracking your site’s progress and comparing it to competitors, it’s important to remember that it’s not an official Google ranking factor.