Domain authority: what it is and how to increase it

Domain authority is a number that predicts how strong your website is compared to other sites, usually on a scale from 0 to 100. It is handy for benchmarking yourself against competitors, but be careful: it is not an official Google metric. In this article you will read what it actually is, why you should take it with a pinch of salt, and how to increase it.

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What is domain authority?

Domain authority, often shortened to DA, is a score invented by SEO tools such as Moz to estimate the strength of a domain. The higher the number, the more likely it is that a site will rank well according to the tool. It is largely based on the quality and the number of backlinks pointing to your site.

Different tools have their own version, with their own name and their own calculation, but the idea is always the same: a single number between 0 and 100 that sums up your authority. Important to know: it is an estimate of that number, not a measured truth. Two tools can give the same site a different score, precisely because they are models and not facts.

It is a tool metric, not a Google metric

This is the biggest misconception, and we repeat it deliberately: Google does not use domain authority. Google has confirmed repeatedly that there is no internal “domain authority” score that determines rankings. DA is the product of an external company that crawls the public web and builds a prediction on top of it. It often correlates with ranking well, but correlation is not an algorithm factor.

So use it as a compass, not as a goal. It is useful for benchmarking against competitors: am I higher or lower than whoever sits above me in the search results? But never chase the number itself. In practice we see companies optimising for months for a figure that never touches their revenue. Chase leads instead.

How is domain authority calculated?

You do not need to know the exact formula, but it helps to understand the building blocks. Most models look mainly at your link profile: how many unique referring domains link to you, how strong those domains are themselves, and whether the links look relevant and natural.

Two things are crucial to understand. First, the scale is logarithmic: going from 20 to 30 is far easier than going from 70 to 80. The higher you climb, the more strong links each extra point costs. Second, the number is relative. If the whole web builds more and stronger links, your score can drop even though your own link profile has not got worse. You simply slip down the ranking.

DA versus real authority

Domain authority tries to approximate real authority, but it is not the same thing. Real authority means that people, journalists and other sites trust your brand and refer to it spontaneously. The number is merely an attempt to capture that trust in a single figure, and it looks almost exclusively at links.

What the number does not see: your brand awareness, your unlinked brand mentions, the quality of your content, your conversion rate or how happy your customers are. A site can have a DA of 40 and still be the market leader with a full sales pipeline, while another site with DA 60 is packed with thin content that converts nobody. So steer on real signals and use DA only as a rough indication.

How do you really increase your authority?

Because the number leans mainly on links, you raise it the same way you build real authority. There is no trick: a higher number is the consequence of real work, not the other way around. See also our guide on how to increase domain authority.

Earn strong, relevant links

Quality over quantity. One link from an authoritative site in your niche does more than dozens of links from random directories. In practice, targeted outreach to relevant parties works better than broad lists. Read how we approach link building. The common mistake: buying links in bulk, which can lift the number short term but leaves you vulnerable in the longer run.

Create content worth linking to

Sites do not link to a product page, they link to something useful: original research, a practical guide, a statistic nobody else has. That is what you call a linkable asset. Without link-worthy content, every outreach is a fight. Look at which linkable assets you can build.

Use digital PR

The most scalable way to build real authority is digital PR: a story or data study that journalists want to pick up, with a natural link back to the source. This earns you links from strong editorial domains that you would never get with cold outreach. It takes more preparation, but the links are more durable.

Clean up bad links

A profile full of spammy links drags you down and can weigh heavily during a tool recalibration. Track down toxic backlinks and consider disavowing them with Google if cleaning up fails. The mistake we often see: people ignore their existing profile entirely and only keep adding.

Build patiently

Authority grows over months, not days. Do not expect a jump after a single campaign. Measure your progress with a backlink gap analysis against your competitors instead of staring at the absolute number.

Common mistakes

• Steering on the number instead of on leads. A high domain authority without leads is worthless. The number is a means, not a goal. Look at leads, conversions and revenue; how to measure that you can read in SEO reporting.
• Confusing DA with page authority. A strong domain does not guarantee that a single page ranks. See the difference in page authority.
• Panicking over a drop. Tool updates recalibrate the model; a drop rarely means your site has got worse.
• Chasing quantity over quality. A hundred weak links do not outweigh a few strong, relevant ones, and they increase your risk.
• Comparing different tools with each other. DA from tool A is not equal to the metric from tool B. Track your trend over time within a single tool.

Why you should not steer on the number

Look at what counts: leads, conversions and revenue. We see companies chasing a pretty figure while their revenue stands still. Authority supports your findability, but it pays no bills by itself. That is why we steer on leads, and use authority scores only to see where the gap with competitors sits.

From stronger authority to more leads

Domain authority is not a goal in itself. The goal is more leads. A stronger domain helps you rank, and ranking only pays off once your site converts its visitors.

That is how a strong SEO approach at Gom Nederland delivered 400% more daily visitors within 66 days.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good domain authority?

There is no universally “good” number, because the scale is relative. What counts is your score relative to the competitors sitting above you for the keywords that bring you leads. If you are well below them, there is room to build authority. If you are level or higher, your gain probably lies elsewhere, for example in content or conversion.

Can I increase my domain authority quickly?

No, not in a healthy way. Because the scale is logarithmic and authority leans on earned links, you are talking about months of work. Quick jumps almost always come from bought or spammy links, and those leave you vulnerable over time instead of stronger.

Why is my domain authority dropping when I did nothing wrong?

Usually because of a recalibration of the tool model, or because competitors built strong links faster. The number is relative, so you can slip without your own link profile getting worse. Focus on your trend over a longer period, not on weekly fluctuations.

Do you want to genuinely build your authority?

We compare your link profile with your competitors and build your authority safely, aimed at leads, not at a vanity metric.

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