What is the Moz Domain Authority (DA)? Quick facts.
Moz pioneered domain authority metrics in 2004 to forecast how effectively websites rank on search engines like Google. Moz DA primarily evaluates a site's backlink strength.
The DA calculation has evolved over the years to incorporate additional parameters. DA is measured on a scale from one to 100. A new, unknown website without Google rankings and few or no backlinks receives a DA of 0.
Websites like YouTube.com, which has 25 million referring domains and 46 million ranking keywords, achieve a DA of 100. Most sites fall between these extremes based on link strength and SERP performance.
The DA score distribution follows a logarithmic pattern. Most sites score below DA 10, with only a handful reaching DA 90+. Improving from DA 8 to 10 is significantly easier than moving from DA 78 to DA 80.
How is Moz Domain Authority calculated?
- Moz uses a machine-learning Algorithm that provides the "best fit" between its link data and the search rankings. Over the years, Moz has added several new factors to its DA calculation to improve accuracy and reflect the site's standing in Google's eyes.
- Change in recent years - The most significant change in recent years came in 2019 when Moz added several factors and made notable changes to its calculation. Moz calls this a "Domain Authority 2.0" update.
- Moz mentions - In their whitepaper, Moz mentions that the updated DA calculation factors in:
- Backlinks
- Number of linking root domains (referring domains)
- Spam score
- Link quality
How is Moz DA different from its competitors?
- Moz DA is the first domain authority tool ever. Moz was the pioneer in developing the domain authority metric.
- For years, DA was the leading industry metric and the benchmark for other authority metric tools. Many business users and partners (Ubersuggest, for example) use Moz API to source data.
Is Moz DA the best domain authority metric?
Not really. It was the best for a long time, until approximately 2017. But since then, other tools such as Semrush and Ahrefs have overtaken Moz DA with their own domain authority metrics.
The key issues with Moz DA are unstable crawling speed and how easily the DA can be manipulated based on research.
Based on analysis, Semrush AS is the most reliable authority metric. You can check Semrush AS for free.
Do's and Don'ts of using Moz DA
- Don't read the Domain Authority score in isolation. It doesn't mean much.
- Do compare your site's DA with competitor sites, provided they are all non-manipulated sites.
- Do compare your site's DA today to its DA before. This will help you track its progress.
- Don't aim for a perfect DA 100 score. Authority takes years to build up. Rather, aim to move up the ladder slowly and gain higher scores than your competitors.
- Don't mistake DA for authority in Google's eyes. While Moz developed DA to do that, it is not a Google ranking factor. It is a proxy at best.