What is Domain Authority?

Domain Authority is a third-party score (created by Moz; Semrush has a similar "Authority Score") that predicts how well a whole website is likely to rank, on a 1–100 scale. It's based largely on the quantity and quality of backlinks. It is not a Google ranking factor — Google doesn't use it — but marketers use it as a convenient shorthand to compare sites and gauge competitiveness. Treat it as a rough compass, not a target: a rising authority score usually reflects the real work (good content and earned links) that actually moves rankings.