Glossary/SEO & Content/Domain Authority (DA)
SEO & Content
Domain Authority (DA)
A third-party score, from tools like Moz or Ahrefs' Domain Rating, predicting a site's ranking strength from its backlink profile.
By Brandon Mina·CEO, BrandPilot AI·Updated November 2026
Short answer
Domain Authority (DA) is a third-party score from Moz that predicts how well a website is likely to rank, based mainly on its backlink profile. Similar metrics include Ahrefs' Domain Rating. Google does not use these scores, but SEO teams use them to compare sites, evaluate link opportunities, and benchmark competitors.