Link Building
Domain authority
Domain Authority is Moz's proprietary 1–100 machine-learned score intended to predict the ranking ability of a domain from Moz link and search-result data.
What it means
DA is domain-level and relative to Moz's model and index. It is not Google PageRank, a site-quality certification or a percentage chance to rank. Moz can retrain the model and update its data, so historical comparisons require capture dates and should not be mixed with Ahrefs Domain Rating, Semrush Authority Score or Majestic Flow Metrics.
Why it matters
Provider and scope discipline prevents DA from becoming a universal purchasing threshold, a proxy for every page or a claim about Google's internal evaluation.
Example
A market comparison records DA for a defined competitor set on one date, but chooses a citation source from page relevance, evidence and relationship—not from DA alone.
Common mistakes
Do not omit Moz, call DA a Google metric, assign it to a page, compare it numerically across providers, treat 70 as twice 35, sell placements by threshold, infer trustworthiness or promise rankings.
How AYSA handles this
Signals reviewed
provider, Domain Authority, domain boundary, observation date, comparison set, Moz data context, first-party search evidence
Problem AYSA can identify
AYSA can identify missing Moz attribution, domain-versus-page errors, cross-vendor equivalence and DA presented as Google or quality certification.
Recommendation prepared
The report stores the metric with provider, boundary and date and requires page and relationship evidence before action.
Approval preview
The user sees DA, capture metadata, comparison set, source evidence, first-party search data and explicit limitations.
Execution
AYSA can store approved DA observations and prepare supported owned-site work; it cannot change Moz's model or guarantee performance.
Verification
Later captures are compared with dated model context and kept separate from Search Console outcomes.
Limits
Moz controls the model and index, score changes can reflect retraining, and DA does not guarantee quality, traffic or rankings.
Sources and further reading
- Moz — Domain Authority — First-party vendor methodology
- Google Search Central — Guidance on third-party SEO tools and advice — Official search documentation
- Google Search Central — Link best practices — Official search documentation
Written by Marius Dosinescu. Reviewed by AYSA SEO Editorial Team · 2026-07-28 00:00:00.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions
Is Domain Authority used by Google?
DA is a Moz metric; Google does not expose or endorse it as internal ranking data.
Can DA be compared directly with Domain Rating or Trust Flow?
No. Those providers use different datasets, models, scopes and meanings.
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