Domain Authority
SEOAlso: DA · Domain Rating · DR · Site Authority
Quick definition
Domain Authority is a score created by third-party SEO tools to estimate how well a website is likely to rank in search engines based on its backlink profile. It is not a metric Google uses or publishes. Moz calls their version Domain Authority (DA). Ahrefs calls theirs Domain Rating (DR). Both scores measure similar things using different methods and produce different numbers for the same site.
How it varies across Australia
Domain Authority scores across Australian businesses vary widely by age, industry and how aggressively the site has earned or built links. Newer businesses typically sit in the lower range of the scale regardless of how well their site is otherwise built. Established publishers and government domains sit at the higher end. The more useful signal is whether the score is trending up over time relative to direct competitors.
See acquisition performance patterns across Australian industries →The main third-party authority scores
Moz's score from 1 to 100. Based on the number and quality of backlinks pointing to the domain.
Scale: 1-100Ahrefs' version of the same idea. Different crawler, different weighting. Often produces a different number for the same site than Moz DA.
Scale: 0-100Ahrefs' page-level equivalent of DR. Measures link authority of a specific URL rather than the whole domain.
Scale: 0-100Moz's page-level equivalent of DA. Useful for comparing the strength of a specific page, not the whole domain.
Scale: 1-100What it actually means
Google does not publish a domain score. It never has. Domain Authority is what third-party SEO tools built to fill that gap, and it has been misread ever since.
Moz created Domain Authority in the early 2010s as a way to estimate how a site's backlink profile would influence rankings. Ahrefs built Domain Rating using the same concept and their own link index. Both numbers sit on a logarithmic scale, which means the difference between a score of 20 and 30 is much smaller than the difference between 70 and 80.
The score is a proxy metric. It correlates with ranking ability because strong backlink profiles genuinely help rankings. But that correlation is not causation, and the score is not what Google measures. Google's actual signals include PageRank (which it no longer publishes publicly), content quality, technical health, user behaviour signals and hundreds of other inputs that no third-party tool has access to.
The correct way to use Domain Authority is as a competitive compass. If your DA is 22 and a competitor is at 48, closing that gap requires a sustained backlink-building programme. If your DA is growing slowly and your organic traffic is growing faster, the traffic signal is the one to believe.
Treating DA as a goal is where businesses go wrong. Agencies have built entire reporting frameworks around DA improvement. The problem is that DA can rise without rankings improving, and rankings can improve without DA moving much. The metric is an input to thinking, not an output to optimise.
Domain Authority is a proxy for a proxy. Useful for direction, dangerous as a goal.
How it shows up
Domain Authority shows up wherever competitive SEO analysis happens. Link prospecting tools surface DA to help prioritise which sites are worth getting a backlink from. Content briefs reference it to gauge how authoritative a competing domain is. Pitches and proposals use it to benchmark where a client currently sits.
It also shows up in client reporting, usually as a vanity metric dressed up as progress. A DA of 32 climbing to 38 over six months looks like evidence of work being done. Whether any of that work moved rankings is a separate question the DA number cannot answer.
The most honest use is directional comparison: your domain versus the top three ranking competitors on a target keyword cluster. If they all sit well above you on DA and DR, that is a signal you have backlink work to do before competing for those terms.
The Australian context
Australian businesses often compare their Domain Authority against US or UK benchmarks and assume they are weak. The Australian web is smaller, which means the reference pool of linking domains is smaller. A DA of 35 for an Australian financial services firm is not the same competitive position as a DA of 35 for a US firm in the same category.
The more useful comparison is always domestic: how does your score sit relative to the Australian competitors ranking for the same terms? Tools like Ahrefs and Moz both allow competitor-level filtering. Use that, not global industry averages that were built on a US-dominated link graph.
Where people get this wrong
Related terms
Common questions
Is Domain Authority a Google ranking factor?
No. Domain Authority is a score created by Moz. Domain Rating is created by Ahrefs. Google does not use either. Google's own link-quality signals, including PageRank, are internal and not published. DA and DR correlate with rankings because backlinks genuinely matter, but the score itself is not what Google measures.
Why is my DA different in Moz versus Ahrefs?
Moz and Ahrefs crawl different portions of the web and use different formulas to calculate authority. It is normal for the same site to score differently across tools. Neither is more correct. Pick one tool for consistent benchmarking and compare competitors using the same source.
How do I increase my Domain Authority?
By earning more high-quality backlinks from relevant, authoritative sites. DA is a lagging indicator of your backlink profile. Content that attracts links, digital PR, partnerships and fixing broken inbound links all move the needle over time. There are no shortcuts that hold up.
What Domain Authority should I target for my Australian business?
The target is relative, not absolute. Find the domains ranking first-page for your key terms and check their DA. That is your relevant benchmark. A score that beats your competitors on the terms you want to rank for is sufficient. Chasing a number without that context is wasted effort.
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About New Rebellion
New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.
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