Domain Authority explained: what it is and what it is not
Domain Authority, Domain Rating and Authority Score are third-party estimates, not Google metrics. How to use them sensibly, and what actually builds authority.
· 3 min read
"How do I increase my Domain Authority?" is one of the most searched SEO questions. It is also a question built on a misunderstanding, so it is worth being clear about what these scores are.
What these scores are
Domain Authority (Moz), Domain Rating (Ahrefs) and Authority Score (Semrush) are scores created by SEO tool companies. Each one estimates how strong a site's backlink profile is, based on that company's own crawl of the web and its own formula.
They are useful, but they are not search engine metrics. Google has said it does not use any of these third-party scores. A site with a high score is not guaranteed to rank, and a site with a low score can rank very well for the right queries.
Why the scores differ
Each tool crawls a different part of the web, finds different links and weighs them differently. That is why the same site can score very differently in each tool, and why scores move when a tool updates its crawler or formula, even if nothing changed on your site.
What they are good for
- Comparing sites quickly: a rough sense of which competitor has the stronger link profile.
- Spotting changes: a sudden drop can be a prompt to check for lost links.
- Prioritising outreach: a rough filter when deciding which sites are worth approaching.
Use one tool consistently, compare like with like, and treat the number as a hint, not a goal.
What they are not good for
- Promising results: "We will raise your DA to 50" is not a business outcome.
- Judging quality on their own: a site can have a high score and still be a poor place to be linked from.
- Buying links by score: sellers often price links by DA. That is exactly the kind of link scheme search engines' spam policies describe.
What actually builds authority
Authority in the real sense, being the site people and search engines trust on a topic, comes from:
- Content that deserves to be cited: original data, clear expertise, genuinely useful resources.
- Links earned from relevant sites: a few from sites your audience reads beat many from unrelated ones.
- A good experience on the site: fast, clear, easy to use, and accurate.
- Being known for something specific: depth on a topic beats breadth on everything.
Do those things and third-party scores tend to rise as a side effect. Chase the score directly and you usually end up buying the kind of links that put a site at risk.
How to report it to clients
If clients ask for a DA number, give it, but next to the things that matter to the business: organic traffic to pages that convert, rankings for the queries that bring customers, enquiries and revenue from organic search. Explain that the score is an estimate from one tool, and steer the conversation to outcomes.
How do you explain authority scores to clients? Share your approach in the comments.