Free Domain
Authority Checker

What is Domain Authority?

Domain Authority (DA) is a score from 1 to 100 created by Moz. It predicts how likely a website is to rank in search results compared with other websites. A higher score means a stronger link profile and a better chance to compete for the same keywords.

DA is a comparison metric, not a Google ranking factor. Google does not use it. Its value is in benchmarking: put your score next to the sites that already rank for your keywords and you can see how big the authority gap is and how much link building it may take to close it.

How to check Domain Authority with this tool

1. 1Type a domain such as example.com in the box above. You can paste a full URL too; the tool uses the domain part.
2. 2Click Check DA. No account is needed.
3. 3Read the Domain Authority, Page Authority, referring domains, and backlinks on the result page.
4. 4Repeat the check for 3 to 5 competitors that rank for your main keywords and compare the numbers.

What the DA checker shows

Every check pulls live metrics from the Moz API and shows them on a result page with its own link, so you can save it or send it to a client.

• Domain Authority (DA): Moz's 1 to 100 score for the whole domain.
• Page Authority (PA): the same kind of score for the homepage of the domain you entered.
• Referring domains: how many unique websites link to the domain. Moz calls these linking root domains.
• Backlinks: the total number of external links Moz has found pointing to the domain.
• Extra metrics such as spam score appear on the result page only when the data source returns them.

What is a good Domain Authority score?

There is no universal good score, because DA is relative. A DA of 30 can be strong in a local niche and weak in finance or software. As a rough guide used across the SEO industry:

• 1 to 20: new or small websites with few links. Every new domain starts at 1.
• 21 to 40: growing websites with a modest link profile, common for local businesses and young blogs.
• 41 to 60: established websites that can compete for many mid-competition keywords.
• 61 to 80: strong websites with large, diverse link profiles.
• 81 to 100: major brands, news sites, and platforms with links from across the web.

The number that matters most is the DA of the pages ranking for your target keywords. If the top results sit around 40 to 50, aiming a little above that range is a realistic goal.

How Moz calculates Domain Authority

Moz uses a machine learning model built on its Link Explorer index. The biggest inputs are the number of linking root domains and the quality of those links, compared against how websites actually rank across thousands of search results.

The scale is logarithmic, so it is much easier to move from 20 to 30 than from 70 to 80. Because the score is relative, your DA can also drop when other websites gain links faster than you, when you lose links, or when Moz updates its model, even if you changed nothing on your site.

When to use a Domain Authority checker

• Benchmark your site against the competitors that rank for your keywords.
• Vet guest post and link building prospects before you spend time on outreach.
• Check an expired or aged domain before you buy it.
• Report authority progress to clients month by month.
• See whether a lost ranking lines up with a drop in links or referring domains.

Domain Authority vs Domain Rating vs Authority Score

3 SEO tools publish their own authority score. They measure a similar idea with different link indexes and formulas, so the numbers will not match.

• Domain Authority (DA) by Moz: predicts ranking ability on a 1 to 100 scale using Moz's link index.
• Domain Rating (DR) by Ahrefs: measures the strength of a domain's backlink profile on a 0 to 100 scale.
• Authority Score (AS) by Semrush: combines link data with organic traffic estimates.

Compare sites with the same metric only. To check the DR of many domains at once, use the Bulk DR Checker.

How to increase Domain Authority

• Earn links from many different relevant websites. New referring domains move DA more than extra links from sites that already link to you.
• Publish content people want to cite: original data, detailed guides, tools, and templates.
• Use digital PR, partnerships, podcasts, and real business listings to get mentioned and linked.
• Audit your backlink profile and deal with spammy links that add risk instead of value.
• Strengthen internal linking so authority flows to the pages you want to rank.
• Be patient. DA follows real link growth and usually changes over months, not days.

Common Domain Authority myths

• Myth: DA is a Google ranking factor. Fact: Google does not use it; it is a Moz prediction metric.
• Myth: DA is the only metric that matters. Fact: rankings also depend on content, search intent, technical SEO, and Page Authority.
• Myth: DA is fixed. Fact: it moves with your links, your competitors' links, and Moz model updates.
• Myth: buying links raises DA safely. Fact: paid link schemes break Google's spam policies and can hurt real rankings.

Data source and limits

Domain Authority, Page Authority, referring domains, and backlinks come from the Moz API. Moz builds them from its own crawl of the web, so they are estimates and can differ from what Google sees.

Each check covers 1 domain. Numbers can differ slightly from other Moz tools for a short time after an index update. DA is a domain-level score, so checking a deep URL still returns the score of its domain.

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