One of the most common misconceptions in SEO is the belief that Domain Authority (DA) is a factor Google uses to rank websites. This confusion often leads businesses and site owners to chase a single DA score without fully understanding how Google's algorithm evaluates multiple factors, including technical SEO, content depth, and authoritative backlinks.
Many assume DA influences a website’s performance because it visually resembles a search engine ranking score, but this is not how Google actually works.
In this page, we'll clearly answer whether Domain Authority affects your Google rankings and how you should actually think about DA in your SEO efforts, especially when analyzing search engine result pages and your website’s domain authority and ability to compete.
Understanding your DA can still help you interpret your SEO performance more effectively, but it is never used as a direct Google signal.
Domain Authority is a third-party metric, developed by Moz. It's not part of Google's official algorithm and has no direct ranking factor value.
Here's what you need to know:
Google has never confirmed using any external scores like DA, Domain Rating (DR from Ahrefs), or Authority Score (from Semrush).
Google uses its own evaluation methods based on hundreds of ranking factors, including real backlink profiles, external links pointing from reputable sites, content quality, user experience, and trust signals.
DA is designed to predict rankings — not to influence them.
So while higher DA scores often correlate with strong rankings, it's not a direct cause.
While Moz uses complex machine learning algorithms, we know some of the key elements that influence your domain authority score.
Moz developed Domain Authority as a predictive tool — a way for SEOs and businesses to estimate the ranking strength of the entire domain using domain authority metrics.
DA helps estimate how strong your link profile is compared to a target domain or competitor site when measuring true authority.
The idea was simple:
If a domain has many high-quality backlinks, natural backlinks, linking root domains, and consistent activity, it's more likely to rank well for competitive search terms.
Domain Authority offers a relative comparison, not an absolute guarantee. It’s most helpful when comparing websites, understanding domain history, or estimating how many other domains are linking to you.
If you want to analyze deeper metrics like toxic links, domain age, trust, or authority signals, Moz even provides its own Link Explorer within its SEO tools ecosystem.
If you want to understand deeper metrics that Google cares about, we recommend exploring: Is E-E-A-T Important for Google Rankings?
There are a few reasons:
Correlation looks like causation
High DA sites often rank well, but that's because both DA and Google favor quality links, trust signals, and strong seo health — not because Google uses DA itself.
Moz is a trusted brand
Many beginners assume that since Moz is reputable, DA must be a key factor in ranking — but it's purely an external model created for SEO experts and marketers.
Lack of SEO education
Many articles claim that “increasing DA helps you rank higher,” without explaining the real relationship between DA, other ranking factors, search intent, and Google’s crawling systems.
At Ideas to Reach, we believe in transparent, real-world SEO education, not shortcuts.
Not at all. Even though Google doesn't use DA, the metric still provides valuable insights.
DA reflects key SEO factors that do matter, including:
Quality of your backlinks
Quantity and diversity of referring domains
Overall strength of your site's link profile
In this sense, improving the things that boost your DA often aligns with better SEO practices.
A strong Domain Authority score also helps you understand how efficiently search engines evaluate your site during search crawling, because it reflects your website’s ability to attract quality signals across the web.
While a higher domain authority doesn’t influence Google’s algorithm directly, it often correlates with better search rankings when supported by other factors like relevant content and authoritative root domains pointing to your site.
Publishing a new blog post or earning mentions from credible sources, even from an active Twitter user sharing your content or the content on the quora — can gradually improve your calculated domain authority over time, strengthening your site’s overall trust and visibility.
For instance:
Building backlinks (which boosts DA) improves your site's real trust with Google
Creating blog posts and link-worthy content (which boosts DA) increases user engagement
Improving site authority (which boosts DA) often leads to higher keyword rankings in Google search results and higher organic traffic.
Instead of using DA, Google focuses on:
Link quality and relevance
Website trustworthiness (as part of E-E-A-T principles)
Content expertise and user value
Brand signals across the web
Inbound links from authoritative domains
How well content satisfies the user's query
Google's systems are designed to evaluate individual pages and domain holistically like page authority, not just by external links but by how helpful and trustworthy the content is.
Want to know how often you should refresh content for maximum SEO impact? See our guide: How Often Should You Update Your Website
While Google doesn't use DA, it does use factors like:
Backlink quality and quantity
Content depth and relevance
User experience (UX) and page load speed
Mobile-friendliness
Security (HTTPS)
Internal linking domain links
Behavioral signals (bounce rate, time on page)
Improving these areas naturally leads to stronger domain authority calculated overtime because domain authority measures how trustworthy your site looks based on backlinks pointing from linking domain links and topical relevance.
DA becomes valuable when you:
In other words:
Benchmark against competitors: Who has stronger domain authority important for your niche?
Qualify backlink prospects: Is it worth getting a backlink in the form of any guest posting opportunity from this site?
Track your website's growth: Are your SEO efforts leading to website authority and visibility over time?
Think of it as one tool among many — useful, but not definitive.
Our approach follows the logic explained in: Blue Ocean Strategy in SEO – Win Without Fighting for It
No. Rankings depend on content relevance, topical authority, search intent, and page-specific signals — not just domain strength
Not true. DA updates periodically. An SEO company or marketing team often needs weeks or months to reflect improvements.
Incorrect. You can rank for long-tail and low competition keywords even with low DA i.e., under 20, especially if you have strong on-page SEO and answer the user’s query well.
Learn how to select the right battles in our blog: Master the Art of Keyword Research
Don't obsess over DA.
Use it as a health indicator, not a final goal.
Focus on real ranking factors: content quality, link trust, user experience.
Track your DA along with traffic, rankings, and conversions — not in isolation.
Remember:
Authority isn't built by chasing scores. It's built by serving users better than anyone else.
When you align your efforts to that principle, both your real SEO and your Domain Authority tend to improve — even if Google never looks at DA.
Previous page: Domain Authority vs Page Authority: Key Differences Explained
