# What Is Domain Authority (and Why It Doesn't Decide Your Google Ranking) > Domain Authority is a 1-to-100 score invented by Moz to predict ranking, not a signal Google uses. Here is what it actually measures and the three things a small business should do instead of chasing the number. *Roald, Founder Fonzy · Aug 27, 2026 · 8 min read* Source: https://www.fonzy.ai/blog/what-is-domain-authority --- **Short answer:** Domain Authority is a 1-to-100 score built by the SEO company Moz to predict how likely a site is to rank against competitors. It is not a Google ranking factor. Google's John Mueller said flatly that Google has nothing like a website authority score, and even Moz's own page calls it a prediction, not a direct signal. A plumber tells you his web guy quoted him $500 a month to "raise his Domain Authority from 18 to 40." He asks if it's worth it. The honest answer is no, and the reason is that the number he's paying to raise is not a lever Google pulls. It is one company's guess about how he might do, dressed up as a grade. That confusion costs small businesses real money. So let's take the scary-looking score apart and put it back together in plain words. ## What Domain Authority actually is, in one sentence Domain Authority, usually shortened to DA, is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to show up on Google compared to other sites, on a scale from 1 to 100. Higher means Moz thinks you have a better shot at ranking. That is Moz's own definition, from their page last updated in March 2025. Read it slowly, because the important word is "predicts." DA does not measure how Google sees you. It is Moz looking at your site, comparing it to others, and offering a forecast. A weather app predicts rain. It does not make it rain. A brand-new bakery site usually starts around 1. A national news outlet might sit near 90. Most local businesses live somewhere in the teens, twenties, or thirties, and that is completely normal. ## Who invented it, and why it exists at all DA is not a Google product. It came from Moz, a software company that sells SEO tools, and it exists so that people using those tools have a single number to compare sites with. Even Wikipedia's entry describes Domain Authority plainly as "a search engine ranking score developed by Moz," which is a useful reminder that it is a vendor's metric, not an official grade from the search engine. Every big SEO tool has its own version. Ahrefs has Domain Rating. Semrush has Authority Score. They do not match each other, because each company builds the number its own way from its own data. If three tools give your site three different scores, that is not a glitch. It is proof that none of them is the real thing. They are three companies guessing. Understanding what SEO actually involves helps here, and our [plain-language guide to what SEO is](/blog/what-is-seo) covers the ground DA sits on top of. ## Is Domain Authority a Google ranking factor? No. This is the part that saves you money, so here is the direct evidence. Back in a public Google hangout, Google Search Advocate John Mueller said, on the record, "we don't have anything like a website authority score." That quote was reported by Search Engine Roundtable in 2016 and has never been walked back. Google's own analyst, telling everyone that the authority score owners lie awake over is not something Google keeps or ranks by. Moz does not disagree. Their page states plainly that "Unlike Google's ranking algorithms, Domain Authority is not a direct ranking factor." The company that sells you the score is telling you it is a comparative yardstick, not a switch inside Google. Ahrefs says the same about its own metric. In a help article updated in October 2025, they write, "There's no evidence that search engines use Domain Rating (or similar scores such as Domain Authority, the power of domain, etc) as a ranking factor at all," and they cite Mueller's confirmation to back it up. So you have Google, Moz, and Ahrefs all pointing the same direction. The number is a prediction. Google does not read it. ## How the score is actually calculated Moz builds DA from its own web index, called Link Explorer, using dozens of factors. But the heavy lifting comes from one thing: the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing at your site. Other websites linking to you is what moves the number most. Two things follow from that. First, DA is relative, not absolute. It is scored on a curve against every other site Moz has indexed. As the whole web gets more links, the bar to hold your score rises. You can do nothing wrong and still watch your DA dip, because everyone else moved. Second, the score is never static. Moz says it fluctuates as sites and search evolve. A number that changes on its own, based on a competitor pool you cannot see, is not a target you can honestly aim at. Because links are the main input, DA is really a downstream shadow of your backlink profile. If you want to understand that input directly, our guide on [how many backlinks you actually need](/blog/how-many-backlinks-do-i-need) and the walkthrough on [how to get backlinks the honest way](/blog/how-to-get-backlinks) get at the thing DA is only reflecting. ## What counts as a "good" DA score Owners always want a target. Is 30 good? Is 50? The trap is that the number only means something next to your specific competitors, and even then it is a prediction rather than a result. A DA of 25 might be excellent for a two-year-old dog groomer competing against other local groomers. That same 25 would be low for a site trying to rank nationally against magazines. There is no universal "good." There is only "good relative to the exact sites showing up for your exact searches." Chasing a round number misleads owners in two specific ways. You start buying links to inflate the score, which can drag Google's actual trust down. Or you feel defeated by a low number and quit, even though you were already outranking your neighbors for the searches that bring in calls. Both mistakes come from treating a prediction as the finish line. ## Why a low-DA local business beats a high-DA competitor Here is the scene that makes it all click. Someone in your town searches "emergency plumber" at 11pm with a flooded kitchen. A plumber with a DA of 15 outranks a national directory site with a DA of 70 for that search. Every day. In every city. How? Google reads the plumber's page as more relevant to that exact, local, urgent search. The directory is generic; the plumber is specifically there, in that town, offering that service right now. On top of relevance, the plumber has a steady stream of real Google reviews, and Google trusts that lived signal more than a raw third-party score. Relevance plus reviews plus matching what the searcher actually wants beats a big DA number. We dig into this exact mismatch in our piece on [why competitors outrank you](/blog/why-competitors-rank-higher), because a low DA is one of the most common false culprits owners blame. It is almost never the real reason. In our experience doing this work for owner-run shops, the businesses that win are rarely the ones with the highest scores in any tool. They are the ones whose pages answer the precise question a nearby customer typed, backed by fresh reviews. A cafe that writes one honest page about its gluten-free menu will pull "gluten free bakery near me" traffic that a high-DA site with a thin, generic page never touches. The specific, relevant page wins the click. ## What to do instead of chasing DA Stop staring at the score. Point that same energy at three things Google and AI search actually reward. Write pages that answer real searches. One clear page per service or question your customers ask, in the words they use. Earn real reviews. Ask every happy customer, and reply to the ones you get. Get a handful of relevant, honest links, from your local paper, a supplier, a trade body, not bought in bulk. Do those three, and your DA usually rises on its own, as a side effect. That is the right order: the work first, the number as a lagging echo. ## Where to check your DA, and how much to trust it You can check DA free with Moz's own bar or through most SEO tools. Ahrefs and Semrush show their own equivalents. Treat any of them as a rough progress gauge over months, not a weekly scoreboard. Far more useful is tracking whether you actually show up for the searches that matter, and our guide on [how to check your Google ranking](/blog/how-to-check-google-ranking) walks you through watching the thing that pays, your real position for real searches, instead of a vendor's forecast. One firm rule: never pay anyone who promises to "raise your DA." That promise almost always means buying junk links, which is exactly what can get you demoted in Google. You would be paying to move a number Google does not read, using a method Google punishes. ## Frequently asked questions ### Does Domain Authority affect my Google ranking at all? No, not directly. Google's John Mueller said Google has "nothing like a website authority score," and Moz itself calls DA a prediction, not a ranking factor. It can loosely track how you're doing, because it is built mostly from backlinks, but Google does not read the DA number when deciding where to rank you. ### What is a good Domain Authority score for a small business? There is no universal good score. DA is relative to your specific competitors, so a 20 can be strong for a local trade and weak for a national brand. Compare yourself to the actual sites ranking for your searches, and treat any number as a rough gauge rather than a goal. ### Why is my Domain Authority going down when I haven't changed anything? Because DA is scored on a curve against the whole web, and Moz says it fluctuates as sites and search evolve. If other sites gain links, your relative score can slip even when your own site is unchanged. This is one more reason not to treat it as a target. ### Should I pay someone to increase my Domain Authority? No. Services that promise to raise DA usually do it by buying low-quality links, which is exactly the kind of thing that can hurt your standing in Google. You would be spending money to move a number Google ignores, using a tactic Google penalizes. ## The bottom line Remember that plumber quoted $500 a month to lift his DA from 18 to 40. Send him back to his search results instead. He is already the first result for "emergency plumber" in his town, ahead of a directory triple his score, because his page fits the search and his reviews are real. That is what winning looks like, and no vendor's grade captures it. Fonzy is built to keep pointing your effort at the pages, reviews, and relevance that actually move you up, so the number takes care of itself. ## Sources - [Moz: defines Domain Authority as a 1-to-100 predictive score and states it is not a direct ranking factor](https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain-authority) - [Search Engine Roundtable: Google's John Mueller says Google has no website authority score](https://www.seroundtable.com/google-no-website-authority-score-22874.html) - [Ahrefs Help Center: no evidence search engines use DA or Domain Rating as a ranking factor](https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/907673-do-search-engines-use-domain-authority-domain-rating-as-a-ranking-factor) - [Wikipedia: confirms Domain Authority is a ranking score developed by Moz, a vendor metric](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_authority) --- Published by [Fonzy](https://www.fonzy.ai) — expert articles that get you found on Google and AI search.