What is domain authority?
Domain authority is a 0–100 score that estimates how likely a whole website is to rank in search, higher means stronger overall ranking power.
In plain English
It's a third-party metric (Moz's DA, or free equivalents like Open PageRank), not a Google ranking factor itself. It's built largely from the quantity and quality of backlinks. Use it to compare sites and track your trend over time, not as an absolute truth.
Why it matters for AI search
A higher-authority domain is more likely to be trusted, and named, by AI engines, which favour sources with established reputation and link equity when choosing who to cite.
Frequently asked
No, DA is a third-party estimate. Google has no single “authority score,” but it does weigh site-level trust signals that DA approximates.
Earn quality backlinks, publish authoritative content on your core topics, and fix technical issues, it rises as a byproduct of doing SEO well.
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