What Is Domain Authority and How Can You Improve It?

Hello!

Google’s On-Page SEO efforts alone are rarely enough to secure top rankings. The search engine evaluates more than 200 ranking signals when determining a page’s position in the SERPs, making it nearly impossible to optimize for every factor.

Even so, one of the most influential ranking elements remains within reach: domain authority. From Google’s perspective, domain authority reflects a website’s reputation as a trusted source within its niche. Strong domain authority signals to the algorithm that your content is high-quality and relevant, which can lead to improved rankings. Weak authority, by contrast, limits visibility.

Before exploring how domain authority influences rankings and how to strengthen it, let’s clarify what it actually is.

What is domain authority?

Domain authority is a predictive ranking score developed by the SEO software company Moz. It estimates how likely a website is to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). Scores range from 1 to 100, with higher values indicating stronger ranking potential.

Moz calculates domain authority using more than 40 signals, including the number of root domains and the total volume of inbound links. Websites with large quantities of high-quality backlinks, such as Wikipedia, typically achieve the highest scores. New sites with few or no backlinks usually start with scores of 1 or 2.

The metric is logarithmic, meaning it becomes progressively harder to improve your score as it rises. Moving from 20 to 30, for example, requires more effort than advancing from 70 to 80. In addition, a site’s domain authority can decline even without losing backlinks if higher-authority domains (such as Facebook) receive substantial new links, because Moz caps the maximum score at 100.

Ultimately, every domain’s authority score is relative to the highest-authority sites in Moz’s index.

What is a good domain authority score?

Moz describes domain authority as a comparative metric. A “good” score depends on the authority levels of the sites you compete against in the SERPs. The objective is not necessarily to reach the absolute highest score, but to surpass your direct competitors.

You can check your domain authority with MozBar, Moz’s free Chrome extension. The tool also provides page-level authority metrics and helps evaluate the strength of competing domains.

How do you improve your domain authority?

1. Audit your link profile
2. Create compelling content
3. Earn high-quality links

1. Audit your link profile

Google favors diverse, natural link profiles that include backlinks from a wide range of reputable websites. Tools such as SEMrush Backlink Checker and Moz’s Link Explorer make it easy to analyze your current backlink profile and identify opportunities for improvement.

2. Create compelling content

Google’s algorithms consider user-engagement signals such as organic traffic, time on page, bounce rate, and return visits. The most effective way to improve these metrics—and thereby support domain authority—is to publish high-quality, engaging content that attracts and retains a loyal audience. Valuable content also tends to earn organic backlinks from other sites in your industry.

3. Earn high-quality links

Backlinks from domains with strong authority remain one of the most powerful drivers of domain authority growth. One proven approach is Backlinko’s skyscraper technique: identify top-ranking content, create a superior version, and reach out to sites already linking to the original article.

In 2026, Backlinko applied this method to an article about Google’s 200 ranking factors. They contacted 160 websites and secured 17 backlinks—an 11 percent success rate. Although the number may appear modest, many of the linking domains possessed high authority, resulting in a 110 percent increase in organic traffic within two weeks.

Another reliable tactic is to invite authoritative sites to link to your best content when the topic is genuinely relevant to their audience.

Building domain authority is a long-term endeavor. While results are not immediate, consistently auditing your link profile, publishing outstanding content, and earning high-quality backlinks will gradually strengthen your site’s authority, improving Google rankings and organic traffic over time.

Thank you!
Join us on social media!
See you!