Stop Obsessing Over Domain Authority (Here's What Matters Instead)

“We need to increase our Domain Authority to 50.”

“This backlink is great—it’s from a DA 70 site!”

“Our DA dropped from 42 to 41. What did we do wrong?”

I hear this constantly. And every time, I cringe.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Domain Authority (DA) is a made-up metric by Moz that has zero direct impact on your Google rankings.

Let me explain why you should stop obsessing over it, and what actually matters.

What Domain Authority Actually Is

Domain Authority is a score (1-100) created by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines.

Key word: Predicts.

It’s Moz’s attempt to estimate a site’s ranking potential based on their backlink data and algorithm.

It is NOT:

• A Google ranking factor
• Used by Google in any way
• A guarantee of ranking success
• Something Google cares about

It IS:

• A proprietary metric created by a third-party SEO company
• Based on Moz’s (smaller) backlink index
• Updated monthly based on Moz’s crawl
• Useful for comparing sites relative to each other

Analogy: It’s like Yelp reviews for websites. Helpful for comparison, but not what determines if a restaurant actually serves good food.

Why SEOs Obsess Over DA (And Why They’re Wrong)

Reason 1: It’s A Simple Number

Humans love simple metrics. “DA 50” is easier to understand than “comprehensive analysis of topical authority, backlink quality, content depth, and user engagement signals.”

Problem: Simple ≠ accurate.

SEO is complex. Reducing it to one number is lazy.

Reason 2: Easier to Sell

“We’ll increase your DA from 30 to 40” sounds more concrete than “We’ll improve your site’s overall SEO health.”

Problem: You can manipulate DA without improving actual rankings.

How? Buy links from high-DA sites. DA goes up. Rankings? Often unchanged or worse.

Reason 3: Moz’s Marketing Worked

Moz successfully convinced the SEO industry that DA matters. It’s mentioned in every SEO tool, every report template, every pitch deck.

Problem: Popularity ≠ validity.

Why Domain Authority Is Misleading

Problem 1: It’s Based on Moz’s Link Index (Not Google’s)

Moz has a smaller, less complete backlink database than Google.

What this means:

• Moz might miss links Google sees
• Moz might count links Google ignores
• DA score is based on incomplete data

Real example:

Site A:

• DA: 45
• Google rankings: #1 for 50 competitive keywords

Site B:

• DA: 62
• Google rankings: #8-15 for same keywords

Site B has higher DA but worse rankings. Why? Because DA measures Moz’s perception, not Google’s.

Problem 2: DA Can Be Manipulated

You can game DA without improving SEO.

How to artificially inflate DA:

1. Buy links from high-DA sites
2. Build links from PBNs with high DA
3. Use link schemes (tiered link building)

Result: DA increases. Google rankings? Potentially penalized.

I’ve seen:

• Sites with DA 60+ get manually penalized
• Sites with DA 25 ranking in top 3 for competitive terms
• DA drop from 50 to 35 with zero ranking impact

Problem 3: DA Changes Constantly

Moz recalculates DA monthly based on their index update.

Your DA can drop because:

• Moz’s index changed (not your site)
• Competitor gained links (raising the bar)
• Moz’s algorithm changed

None of these affect Google rankings.

I’ve had clients panic over DA drops while their Google traffic increased 40%. The two metrics are weakly correlated at best.

Problem 4: It Ignores Content Quality

DA measures backlinks. That’s it.

What DA doesn’t measure:

• Content quality
• User experience
• Mobile-friendliness
• Page speed
• Topical authority
• E-E-A-T signals
• Search intent match

All of which Google DOES measure.

You can have high DA and terrible content. You won’t rank.

What Google Actually Uses (Instead of DA)

Google doesn’t have “Domain Authority.” But it does evaluate:

1. PageRank (Internal, Not Public)

Google still uses PageRank internally—but it’s more sophisticated than the old 1-10 score.

What it measures:

• Link quality (not just quantity)
• Relevance of linking sites
• Link placement and context
• Trust flow through link graph

Key difference from DA: Google’s actual algorithm, not a third-party estimate.

2. Topical Authority

Google’s version:

• Do you publish comprehensive content on a topic?
• Do authoritative sites in your niche link to you?
• Are you mentioned in industry contexts?
• Do users engage with your content?

Example:

Site A (general blog):

• DA 50
• Writes about SEO, cooking, travel, fitness
• Surface-level coverage

Site B (niche SEO blog):

• DA 35
• Only writes about technical SEO
• Deep, expert-level coverage

Result: Site B ranks better for SEO topics despite lower DA.

3. Content Quality Signals

What Google measures:

• Content depth and comprehensiveness
• Originality (not copied/AI-generated)
• Expertise signals (author credentials)
• Freshness and updates
• User engagement (CTR, dwell time, bounce rate)

DA measures: None of this.

4. User Experience Signals

What Google cares about:

• Core Web Vitals
• Mobile usability
• Safe browsing (no malware)
• HTTPS security
• Intrusive interstitials

DA measures: None of this either.

What to Focus On Instead

Metric 1: Organic Traffic

Why it matters: Actual results, not predictions.

How to track: Google Analytics, Google Search Console

What to measure:

• Total organic traffic trend
• Traffic to target pages
• Traffic from target keywords

Benchmark: Month-over-month and year-over-year growth

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Metric 2: Keyword Rankings

Why it matters: Direct measure of visibility for target terms.

How to track: Google Search Console, rank tracking tools

What to measure:

• Rankings for primary keywords
• Average position trends
• Ranking distribution (how many top 3, top 10, etc.)

Warning: Don’t obsess over individual keyword fluctuations. Watch overall trends.

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Metric 3: Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Why it matters: Shows how compelling your search results are.

How to track: Google Search Console → Performance report

What to measure:

• Average CTR for top queries
• CTR by position (are you underperforming for your ranking?)

Improvement tactics:

• Better title tags
• Compelling meta descriptions
• Schema markup for rich snippets

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Metric 4: Backlink Quality (Not Quantity)

Why it matters: Quality links from relevant sites actually help.

How to evaluate quality:

Good backlink:

• From topically relevant site
• Editorially given (not paid/exchanged)
• Within content (not footer/sidebar)
• From page with real traffic
• Contextually relevant

Bad backlink:

• From unrelated site
• From link farm/PBN
• From footer/sidebar
• From page with no traffic
• Spammy anchor text

Tool: Ahrefs or SEMrush for backlink analysis (focus on DR/AS, not DA)

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Metric 5: Referring Domains (Diversity)

Why it matters: Links from 100 different sites > links from 1 site (even if that site has high DA).

What to track:

• Total referring domains (growing?)
• Quality of new referring domains
• Lost referring domains (broken links, removed content)

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Metric 6: Branded Search Volume

Why it matters: Shows brand awareness and authority.

How to track: Google Trends, Google Search Console

What to measure:

• Branded search volume trend
• Branded vs. non-branded traffic ratio

Why it’s better than DA: Real user behavior, not estimated metric.

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Metric 7: Business Metrics

Why it matters: SEO exists to drive business results.

What to track:

• Leads from organic search
• Revenue from organic traffic
• Customer acquisition cost (organic vs. paid)
• Conversion rate by landing page

This is what actually matters. Not DA. Not rankings. Business results.

When DA Is Actually Useful

I’m not saying DA is completely useless. It has specific, limited applications:

Use Case 1: Quick Competitor Comparison

Scenario: You’re researching a new niche. You want a rough sense of competitor strength.

DA helps here:

• Competitor 1: DA 25 (probably easier to compete with)
• Competitor 2: DA 60 (probably harder to compete with)

Caveat: Rough estimate only. Check actual rankings to confirm.

Use Case 2: Link Prospect Filtering

Scenario: You have a list of 500 potential link prospects. You need to prioritize.

DA helps here:

• Filter out very low DA sites (< 10-15)
• Prioritize medium-high DA sites (30-60)

Caveat: Always manually evaluate. A DA 25 site in your exact niche beats a DA 60 general news site.

Use Case 3: Reporting to Non-SEO Stakeholders

Scenario: Your client/boss doesn’t understand SEO but wants “a number.”

DA helps here:

• Easy to understand
• Compares to competitors
• Shows general progress

Caveat: Always include real metrics (traffic, rankings, conversions) in reports. DA should be supplementary, not primary.

The Bottom Line

Domain Authority:

• ✅ Useful for rough comparisons
• ✅ Helpful for link prospecting
• ✅ Easy to explain

But it’s NOT:

• ❌ A Google ranking factor
• ❌ A predictor of ranking success
• ❌ Something to optimize for
• ❌ A replacement for real metrics

Stop asking:

• “How do I increase my DA?”
• “What’s a good DA for my industry?”
• “Why did my DA drop?”

Start asking:

• “Is my organic traffic growing?”
• “Am I ranking for target keywords?”
• “Are my conversions from SEO increasing?”
• “Am I building high-quality, relevant backlinks?”

The truth: I’ve seen sites with DA 20 outrank sites with DA 70 because they had better content, better UX, and more topical authority.

Focus on what Google actually measures. Not what Moz estimates.

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