Guide to Domain Authority and How to Boost It
What Is Domain Authority?
Your domain is the web address for your business, and it’s how people and search engines find you online. But it’s not just about having a website; it’s about whether your site is considered trustworthy, relevant and competitive. That’s where domain authority comes in. Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz.
Domain authority is a way of measuring your website's ability to rank in search engine results. It reflects how strong and credible your site appears in relation to others in the same niche. While it’s not an official Google ranking factor, this metric is widely used to guide SEO strategy and track progress.
Domain authority is calculated by looking at several key elements, particularly your backlink profile, which includes the number of inbound links, the quality of those links, and how many referring domains and linking root domains are pointing to your site. Websites with diverse and high-quality backlink portfolios tend to score higher in Domain Authority. The more high-quality external links from authoritative websites you earn, the more your site’s authority will increase in the eyes of search engines.
This score helps businesses assess their current standing and improve visibility in search results. A good domain authority score can lead to more organic traffic, stronger visibility for individual pages, and better performance across search engine result pages. While domain authority isn't something Google uses directly, the factors behind it, like high-quality backlinks and strong technical SEO, align closely with what search engines look for when ranking websites.
Domain Authority vs Page Authority
Your site is made up of multiple pages, and those pages are ranked individually as well as collectively. Domain authority looks at the overall strength of your entire domain, while page authority focuses on how well a specific page is likely to rank.
Both are essential. If your domain’s DA score is high, new content on your site has a better chance of appearing higher in search engine rankings. On the other hand, a single, well-optimised page with strong, relevant backlinks and clear search intent can outrank pages with higher DA scores if the content is stronger and more useful.
Your goal should be to build both your website’s domain authority and the strength of your individual pages to maximise visibility and performance across the board.
How To Increase Your Domain Authority Score
Start with high-quality content. When you create high-quality pages that directly address user needs and align with search intent, other websites are more likely to link to your content. Create link-worthy content like original research and expert guides to attract backlinks. These links pointing to your domain act as endorsements, helping to increase your website authority and boost your search engine ranking score.
Your link-building efforts should focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks from reputable sites and high-domain authority websites. This might involve outreach, guest blogging, digital PR, or forming strategic partnerships. As your referring domains and linking domains grow, so does your domain authority.
Equally important is how your website is built. Technical SEO ensures that search engines can crawl, index and understand your site. A solid site structure, fast loading times, mobile responsiveness, and secure HTTPS hosting are all essential for a strong foundation. A fast and mobile-friendly website encourages visitors to engage with your content. These factors might not be visible to users, but they heavily influence your overall SEO performance.
Internal linking also plays a role in helping search engines navigate your site and understand the hierarchy between individual pages. Make sure each piece of content links logically to others within the same domain to distribute authority across your site.
Another key factor is time. Domain authority calculated today will naturally increase as your site gains age, stability and consistent performance. New websites always start with a Domain Authority of 1 and increase as they earn authoritative backlinks over time. New sites may struggle at first, but with the right strategy, you can see steady improvement. You might also consider acquiring an expired domain with existing authority, but this should be approached carefully to avoid inheriting spammy links or irrelevant content history.
Keep an eye on spammy backlinks as well. Not all links are helpful; in fact, low-quality or irrelevant ones can damage your score. Regularly auditing your website’s backlink profile helps you remove harmful links and protect your reputation.
Domain Authority Tools and Scoring Systems
Domain Authority By Moz
Domain Authority (DA) was created by Moz, the software company that is all about SEO. Moz creates tools and products which help with all aspects of SEO and are used by SEO businesses all over the world, including Approved Businesses. Domain Authority scores are updated approximately once per month by Moz.
DA is all about where your website ranks in your specific niche according to criteria such as website and link quality and is a scoring system from 1 to 100. Your website’s score is comparative, that is your score is dependent on your competitors and how well your site ranks compared to theirs.
Domain Rating By Ahrefs
This tool and rating system was created by another big player in the SEO industry, Ahrefs. This scoring system is also from 1 to 100, but Ahrefs bases DR solely on the backlink profile of a website and the pages that make it up. The backlink profile and DR score are rated on both the quantity and the quality of backlinks to your website.
Authority Score by Semrush
Another scoring tool, this time from Semrush, focuses on backlinks, traffic, and organic search data and analysis. Therefore, a website’s Authority Score is a holistic overview of its quality.
PageRank by Google
PageRank is, in a way, a wildcard in this selection as although it is an SEO tool and one of the most important ones, it is not one that the public or even SEO specialists can use themselves.
It used to be public, but Google removed it to prevent people from relying on getting their Page Rank score higher rather than focusing on the quality of the content on their websites. So, even though Page Rank is still a huge determinant of where your website will be on SERPs, it cannot be checked.
The same criteria still apply, though, to ensure that your website scores highly with PageRank, and these have mostly to do with the number and quality of backlinks and the likelihood that they will be clicked on.
How Content and Backlinks Work Together
Your content and backlinks should work in sync. Without strong content, there’s nothing for other websites to link to. Without relevant backlinks, even the best content may remain unseen.
If you're serious about increasing your domain authority, focus on content that attracts attention naturally. That includes guides, industry insights, useful tools, FAQs, and articles that answer the real questions your audience is asking. Each piece should be optimised around a clear topic, with thoughtful structure, relevant internal links, and trustworthy external links where needed.
The more authoritative domains that reference your work, the more domain authority you’ll build. A single link from a high-ranking site can carry far more weight than dozens of poor-quality ones. Your ongoing link-building strategies should aim to earn those links by offering real value, not just by chasing numbers.
Monitoring your link profile is just as important as building it. Use SEO tools to keep track of which root domains are linking to your site, what pages they’re linking to, and whether those links are boosting or harming your visibility.
Tracking and Comparing Domain Authority
Your domain authority score should always be considered in context. What counts as a good domain authority varies by industry. For example, a score of 35 might be high in a local service market, while in a national e-commerce sector, it could be relatively low.
The point isn’t to chase a magic number. Instead, use domain authority metrics to compare your own website against competitors and track progress over time. Having a higher Domain Authority can discourage competitors from targeting the same keywords you rank for. Combine this with metrics like organic traffic, search traffic, bounce rate, and conversion rate to build a full picture of how your SEO strategy is performing.
Also consider keyword difficulty, if you're trying to rank for high-competition keywords, you’ll need a higher domain authority to stand a chance. Use this to shape your content planning, backlink goals and technical improvements.
How Approved Business Can Help You
At Approved Business, we use a combination of SEO tools, including those above, to gain a complete picture of your current domain and page authority and can help you improve it with our SEO services. Click here to get a free SEO checkup and book a discovery call to help you understand it.