What is domain authority and why does it matter?

Domain Authority is one of those SEO metrics that gets talked about a lot—and misunderstood even more – by Ally Lennon

At a glance, it’s a third-party score that estimates how likely a website is to rank in search compared to other sites. It runs on a 1–100 scale, and in broad terms, a higher number usually means a stronger site backed by a better link profile and more trust signals.

Here’s the part that actually matters: Domain Authority is not a Google ranking factor. Google doesn’t use it, measure it, or care about the number itself. DA exists to help businesses, marketers, and site owners quickly size up the competitive landscape. Think of it as a reality check. It answers a simple question: how hard is this going to be to outrank what’s already on page one?

That’s where DA becomes useful in practice. If a site is going up against competitors with significantly higher authority, average content and wishful thinking won’t get the job done. It takes better content, stronger positioning, and links that actually move the needle. When authority is already on your side, results tend to come faster and more predictably—as long as the fundamentals are in place.

To understand why, it helps to know what DA is really measuring.

It’s not judging whether your writing is good or whether your product is the best. It’s looking at signals that correlate with ranking power—most notably the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to your domain. Links from reputable, relevant sites act like votes of confidence. Enough of those votes, and the web starts treating your site as a known entity rather than an unknown newcomer.

That doesn’t mean every link matters equally.

A handful of strong links from trusted industry sites can be more meaningful than dozens of low-quality directory links. DA also tends to be “relative” in a very real sense: improving from 15 to 25 is often much easier than improving from 55 to 65. The higher you climb, the more competitive it gets, because you’re not just earning links—you’re competing with brands that have been building reputations for years.

It’s also worth noting that Domain Authority is model-based, which means it can move even if you didn’t do anything. If your competitors earn great links, the benchmark shifts. If the tool provider updates how they calculate the score, you might see changes overnight. That’s another reason DA should be treated as a directional metric, not a KPI you report like revenue.

So how should you actually use it? First, use DA to set expectations.

If you’re a newer site trying to rank for a term where the top results are major publishers and household-name brands, it’s not a “just write a blog post” situation. You’ll need a smarter angle: tighter targeting, better intent match, more authority-building content, and a link strategy that isn’t an afterthought. On the flip side, if you’re competing against sites in the same general range, you can often win with exceptional content and solid on-page execution.

Second, use DA to guide opportunity selection. Instead of obsessing over a single number, compare it across the SERP. If the first page is a wall of high-authority domains, you may be better off targeting longer-tail versions of the keyword, building topical coverage, and earning links as you go. Those wins compound. As your site becomes more established, you can push into more competitive terms without everything feeling like an uphill battle.

Third, pair DA with metrics that reflect real outcomes.

Rankings, traffic, and conversions are what pay the bills. DA can help explain why something is hard, but it doesn’t tell you whether the content is converting, whether the keyword is valuable, or whether users are getting what they need. A site can have a lower DA and still dominate a niche by being the best answer and building credibility in the right places.

Over time, Domain Authority works as a decent barometer for whether SEO efforts are headed in the right direction. Sites that consistently earn quality links, publish useful content, and build a real reputation online usually see their authority grow as a side effect of doing the right things. It’s not the goal—it’s the smoke that suggests there’s a fire of real momentum underneath.

Chasing Domain Authority for its own sake misses the point.

You can inflate numbers with spammy tactics and still fail to rank where it matters—or rank briefly and then disappear. The better approach is boring, but it works: publish content that deserves to exist, make it easy for search engines to understand, and earn links because you’ve built something worth referencing. Use DA as a comparative metric for setting expectations, evaluating competitors, and understanding what it’s really going to take to win in search.