If you have spent any time researching SEO, you have almost certainly come across Domain Authority and Page Authority. These scores appear in countless tools, agency reports, and link-building pitches, and they are often treated as the ultimate measure of a website's strength. Yet many business owners are unclear about what the metrics actually represent, where they come from, and how much weight they deserve. Understanding Domain Authority and Page Authority properly helps you benchmark your site against competitors, evaluate link opportunities, and set realistic SEO goals without chasing vanity numbers.
How AAMAX.CO Helps Brands Build Real Authority
AAMAX.CO is a full-service digital marketing company offering web development, digital marketing, and SEO services to clients worldwide. Their team focuses on building genuine authority rather than simply inflating third-party scores. Through their SEO services, they analyse backlink profiles, identify high-quality link opportunities, create linkable content assets, and strengthen internal linking so authority flows to the pages that matter most. They also use authority metrics as one input among many when benchmarking competitors, helping clients understand where they stand and what it will realistically take to outrank rivals in their market.
What Is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority, commonly abbreviated as DA, is a metric developed by Moz that predicts how likely an entire website is to rank in search engine results compared with other sites. It is scored on a scale from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating a greater predicted ability to rank. The score is calculated primarily from the quantity and quality of linking root domains pointing to a site, combined with a machine learning model that compares link profiles against actual ranking data.
Other SEO platforms offer similar metrics under different names. Ahrefs has Domain Rating, Semrush has Authority Score, and Majestic has Trust Flow and Citation Flow. Each uses its own methodology, so the numbers are not interchangeable, but they all attempt to estimate the same underlying concept of site-wide link strength.
What Is Page Authority?
Page Authority, or PA, is Moz's equivalent metric for individual pages. It predicts how well a specific URL is likely to rank, again on a 1 to 100 scale. Page Authority considers the links pointing directly to that page along with signals inherited from the domain. A new blog post on a strong domain will usually start with a modest Page Authority, which then grows as it earns its own backlinks and internal links.
Page Authority is especially useful when comparing the specific pages that rank for a keyword. Two sites may have similar Domain Authority, but if one competitor's ranking page has attracted many strong links, it may be harder to outrank than its domain score suggests.
Are DA and PA Google Ranking Factors?
This is the most important point to understand: Domain Authority and Page Authority are not used by Google. They are third-party estimates created to approximate how search engines might value a site. Google uses its own internal signals, including links, relevance, content quality, and user experience, none of which are directly visible to outside tools.
That does not make the metrics useless. Because they correlate reasonably well with rankings, they are practical for comparison and trend tracking. The mistake is treating them as goals in themselves. Increasing your DA without improving relevance or content quality will not guarantee better rankings.
How Domain Authority Is Calculated
Moz's model evaluates dozens of factors, but the most influential are the number of unique linking root domains, the authority of those linking domains, and the overall quality and naturalness of the link profile. The score is logarithmic, meaning it is much easier to move from 10 to 20 than from 60 to 70. Scores are also relative, so they can fluctuate when the tool updates its index or when other sites in the web ecosystem gain or lose links.
What Is a Good Domain Authority Score?
There is no universal good score. A local bakery with a DA of 20 may dominate its local search results, while a national publisher may need a DA of 70 or more to compete. The meaningful benchmark is your direct competitors. Look at the sites ranking on the first page for your target keywords and compare their authority metrics with yours. If you are within a similar range, content and on-page optimisation may be enough to compete. If there is a large gap, you will likely need a sustained link-building effort.
How to Improve Domain and Page Authority
The most reliable way to raise authority is to earn high-quality backlinks from relevant, reputable websites. Effective approaches include publishing original research and data that others want to cite, creating comprehensive guides and useful tools, contributing expert commentary to journalists, building relationships within your industry, and producing guest content for respected publications.
Internal linking also matters, particularly for Page Authority. Linking from strong pages such as your homepage and popular articles to important service or product pages helps distribute authority throughout your site. Removing or fixing broken links ensures that equity is not wasted.
Avoid shortcuts such as buying links, participating in link schemes, or using private blog networks. These tactics may temporarily lift third-party scores, but they violate search engine guidelines and can lead to penalties that erase your organic visibility.
Using Authority Metrics Wisely
Use DA and PA as directional indicators. They are valuable for vetting potential link partners, spotting spammy sites, prioritising outreach targets, and tracking the long-term trend of your link-building efforts. Pair them with relevance checks, traffic estimates, and qualitative judgement. A link from a highly relevant niche site with modest authority can be more valuable than a link from an unrelated site with a high score.
Conclusion
Domain Authority and Page Authority are helpful shorthand for understanding the link strength of websites and pages, but they are predictions, not ranking factors. The smartest approach is to focus on what these metrics are trying to measure, namely genuine, relevant, high-quality links supported by excellent content. If you want a strategic partner to build that kind of authority, AAMAX.CO offers the expertise to help your website earn the trust of both search engines and your audience.
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