Understanding Domain Authority and How to Increase It
Domain authority predicts how well a site can rank in search results. Moz scores every domain from 1 to 100 based mainly on the quantity and quality of links pointing to it. A score of 30 might keep you buried on page three, while 60 or higher often puts you in the first page conversation for competitive terms.
What the Score Actually Tracks
The metric looks at linking root domains first. One strong link from a relevant, high-trust site carries more weight than dozens of low-value directory submissions. Total link count and the authority of those linking pages come next. Spam signals, such as sudden unnatural link spikes, drag the number down.
- Linking root domains: 200 clean ones usually beat 2,000 spammy ones.
- Link diversity: mix of .edu, .gov, news, and industry blogs performs better than repeats from the same networks.
- Anchor text distribution: exact-match anchors on every link can trigger filters instead of lifts.
Why Scores Often Stall
Many sites stay stuck because they chase volume over relevance. A local plumber who buys 500 blog comments sees almost no movement. Thin content that earns no natural links also keeps the number flat. Technical issues like duplicate pages or slow load times compound the problem by reducing crawl efficiency.
Consider two sites in the same niche. Site A earns three links from established trade publications after publishing original research. Site B adds 40 new links from low-quality guest post farms. Site A’s domain authority rises three to five points within months. Site B stays nearly unchanged.
Steps That Raise Domain Authority
- Audit your current backlinks and remove or disavow the toxic ones first.
- Create content that answers specific questions your target audience searches, then promote it directly to relevant sites instead of blasting it everywhere.
- Reach out to 10 to 15 authoritative sites per quarter with a clear pitch that shows why your resource fits their readers.
- Fix on-site problems that prevent crawlers from seeing your best pages, such as broken internal links or missing schema.
- Track changes every 60 days rather than weekly, since domain authority updates lag behind real link acquisition.
One mid-sized e-commerce store followed this sequence and moved from 28 to 47 in 14 months by earning 18 new links from industry blogs and fixing 200 internal link issues. The ranking gains appeared on 12 target keywords within the same period.