Have you ever noticed a sudden drop—or unexpected rise—in your Domain Authority (DA) score and wondered what triggered it?
The truth is, DA scores are not static. They can change for reasons that have nothing to do with your website directly. In this guide, we’ll explain the key factors that cause DA fluctuations, when to worry (and when not to), and how to maintain long-term growth in Domain Authority.
Domain Authority is a predictive score developed by Moz to estimate your domain’s ability to rank in search engines. It’s based on over 40 signals, primarily focused on:
DA is logarithmic—meaning moving from 20 to 30 is much easier than going from 70 to 80.
One of the most frequent reasons for a DA score change is simply that Moz updated its algorithm or refreshed its backlink database. This can affect all websites at once, even if your site hasn't changed at all.
Moz crawls billions of web pages, and as it discovers new links or removes outdated ones, your score can adjust accordingly.
If your website received high-quality backlinks recently, your DA may go up. Conversely, if you lost authoritative links—due to page deletions or changes in other websites—your DA could dip.
It’s important to regularly audit your backlinks and remove spammy ones. Use the Google Disavow Tool: 2025 Guide to manage harmful links.
Because DA is a relative metric, your score may drop even if your site hasn’t worsened—simply because your competitors gained more quality links.
In a competitive niche, even small shifts in others’ backlink profiles can influence your DA rank in relation to theirs.
Link velocity refers to how fast your site is acquiring (or losing) links. A spike in low-quality links or a sudden halt in link-building efforts may signal to Moz’s algorithm that your domain momentum has slowed—leading to a score drop.
Consistent link building and outreach are key to maintaining growth.
If you’ve deleted old blog posts or landing pages that had earned valuable links, you might lose the authority they contributed. Broken links or improper redirects can also lead to loss of link equity.
Use internal link checks and set proper 301 redirects. Refer to the Internal Linking Guide to ensure authority flows through your domain.
Low-quality links from irrelevant or spammy websites can negatively affect your perceived authority. Moz’s algorithm might lower your DA if your link profile appears unnatural or manipulated.
Review new backlinks often and disavow poor sources. Regular hygiene can prevent long-term damage.
A slight dip (1–3 points) is common during Moz updates or competitor surges and is not a major concern.
However, take action if:
In such cases, it's worth reviewing technical SEO, link profile quality, and recent content performance. Use Does Your Content Fill or Kill? to evaluate if your value proposition is still strong.
Celebrate it—but don’t stop your efforts.
A higher DA gives your site more ranking potential, but remember that Google doesn’t use this score directly. Continue to:
Check How Often Should You Update Your Website to keep up with freshness signals.
Also, be patient. DA increases are gradual—and usually a reflection of sustainable SEO success.
DA scores are helpful for benchmarking, but they should not become your primary SEO goal. Traffic, conversions, and visibility matter far more.
Want to focus on what really improves rankings? Visit our SEO Services, explore Digital Marketing Services, or Contact us to grow with confidence.
And if you're tracking your authority the smart way, stay tuned with our Domain Authority Guide or browse the Blog where we go beyond metrics to what really moves your SEO forward.
