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Ever looked at your Domain Authority (DA) score and thought, “Is this number actually important?” Moz invented Domain Authority to give marketers a way to benchmark their website’s likelihood of ranking. And sure, it can feel satisfying watching that score climb.
But here’s the truth: Google doesn’t use Domain Authority as a ranking factor. They’ve said so publicly. That score you’re chasing? It’s not even from Google.
So, what does that mean? Should you ignore DA completely?
Not exactly.
Your Domain Authority can reflect the technical health and backlink strength of your site—things that do influence rankings.
But obsessing over that number is a mistake, especially now. Google’s “Helpful Content Update” has made one thing crystal clear: quality content that answers real questions is what wins. Not scores. Not metrics. Real, human-first answers.
And that’s where many businesses go wrong. They get distracted by DA and miss the bigger picture—creating content people actually want.
In this article, you’ll get a clear-eyed view of what Domain Authority is, what it isn’t, and how you should really think about building trust with Google. By the end, you’ll know exactly how to stop obsessing over the wrong things and start focusing on what moves the needle.
What is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority (DA) is a metric created by Moz. It’s designed to predict how likely a website is to rank in search engine results compared to other websites. The score ranges from 1 to 100—the higher the number, the better your site might rank.
And that’s the keyword: might.
It’s important to understand that Domain Authority is not a ranking factor used by Google.
It’s not part of Google’s algorithm.
Moz built DA using its own data and machine learning to mimic how Google might view a site’s credibility based on backlinks and other factors. It’s like a weather forecast—it gives you an idea, not a guarantee.
So, if you’ve ever wondered why a site with a lower DA is outranking you, now you know: Google isn’t looking at your Domain Authority score. It’s looking at the real signals underneath it—like your content, backlinks, and how helpful your pages are.
How is Domain Authority Calculated?
Moz calculates Domain Authority using a mix of factors, but at the heart of it is one big thing: backlinks. Not just how many you have, but the quality and relevance of those links.
Think of it like this—if respected websites in your industry are linking to you, that’s a vote of confidence in your content.
Behind the scenes, Moz uses its own index of the web (kind of like Google’s, but smaller) to track who’s linking to who. Then, it runs all that data through a machine learning model that predicts how likely a site is to rank based on what it’s seeing.
Other elements that influence DA include:
- The linking root domains (how many unique websites are linking to you)
- The strength of those domains
- The number of total links (internal and external)
- Moz’s own internal metrics like MozRank and MozTrust
But again—it’s all based on Moz’s view of the web, not Google’s. And that’s an important distinction. You might have strong backlinks that Moz hasn’t picked up on yet, or you might lose a few and see your score drop even though your rankings haven’t changed.
Bottom line? DA can give you a rough benchmark. But it’s not the full story—and it shouldn’t be the only metric you’re tracking.
Is Domain Authority a Google Ranking Factor?
Short answer: no.
Google has made it clear—they do not use Domain Authority as a ranking factor. It’s not part of their algorithm. It’s not a signal they look at. It’s not even a metric they recognise internally.
So why do so many people still think it matters?
Because for a while, Domain Authority felt like a useful proxy. Back when Google was less transparent about how it judged a website’s reputation, marketers turned to DA as a way to gauge credibility. And to be fair, it can sometimes reflect real-world ranking power. If your DA is high, chances are you’ve got a solid backlink profile, and that does help with SEO.
But the landscape has shifted.
Google’s more focused than ever on content quality. Their Helpful Content Update was a loud signal: ranking isn’t about ticking off technical checkboxes or scoring well on third-party metrics. It’s about providing genuinely useful, people-first content.
That’s why you’ll often see websites with mediocre DA crushing it in the SERPs—because they’re answering real questions better than anyone else.
Moz created Domain Authority. So naturally, they’ll tell you it’s important. And yes, it has its place. But don’t confuse it with something Google actually uses. Think of DA as a tool—not a target.
The Role of Content Quality in SEO
You could have a slick website with fast load times, a tidy backlink profile, and a decent Domain Authority—but if your content isn’t helpful, you won’t rank.
Google’s Helpful Content Update changed the game. It put a spotlight on content that puts the user first. Not keyword-stuffed blog posts. Not generic fluff. Actual answers to real questions.
This is where the TAYA approach—They Ask, You Answer—comes in.
It’s simple: listen to what your audience is asking, then create clear, honest, in-depth content that answers those questions. That’s it.
It works because it’s aligned with what Google wants: helpful, relevant content that serves the reader’s intent.
We’ve seen it time and time again. Sites that ignore their Domain Authority and focus on helpful content often outperform those chasing scores.
Some don’t even pass Google’s Core Web Vitals—and they’re still dominating search rankings. Why? Because Google’s rewarding content that genuinely helps people. Period.
So, instead of asking “How do I improve my Domain Authority?” the better question is “How do I become the best answer on the internet for the questions my buyers are asking?”
That mindset shift makes all the difference.
Technical Factors Affecting Website Performance
Even though Google doesn’t use Domain Authority as a ranking factor, many of the things that can improve your DA also happen to be good for SEO. Think of them as indirect signals—technical foundations that support your content and overall credibility.
Here are a few technical elements that matter:
- Page speed: A slow site frustrates users. Google knows this. Faster sites tend to perform better in rankings.
- Mobile-friendliness: With the majority of traffic now on mobile, your site needs to look and work great on small screens.
- Secure connection (HTTPS): It’s a trust signal. Google expects it. Users look for it.
- Crawlability and indexation: If Google can’t easily crawl and index your pages, they won’t rank—no matter how good the content is.
- Structured data: Helps search engines understand your content and can lead to rich results in the SERPs.
Now, improving these technical factors can positively affect your Domain Authority score, especially if they make your site more appealing to link to or easier for bots to analyse. But again, these improvements are valuable even if DA never existed. They’re part of good SEO hygiene—important for both users and search engines.
So yes, the technical stuff still matters. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that optimising your Core Web Vitals or cleaning up broken links will move the needle on its own. That only works when it’s paired with genuinely helpful content.
Practical Steps to Enhance Your Website’s Authority
If you want to improve your site’s authority—whether that’s your Domain Authority score or just how trustworthy you appear to Google—there are three areas to focus on: content, links, and technical health.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
1. Create genuinely helpful content
This is your foundation.
Focus on answering real questions your audience is asking (TAYA style). But how do you know which questions your buyers are asking?
Begin by brainstorming a list of keywords that are directly related to your business. These are called “seed” keywords, and they serve as the foundation of your research.
For instance, if you’re an RTO, keywords to consider might include “online course nsw” or “Certificate III in Business.”
Then you’ll want to do some research using tools and data. There are several tools that can help you expand your questions list and find the most relevant keywords for your business:
- Google Keyword Planner (Free): Provides keyword ideas and shows search volume and competition levels
- SEMrush (Paid): More advanced tools that offer in-depth keyword research, including competitor analysis, keyword difficulty, and traffic potential
Here is how you can go about keyword research in SEMrush.
Navigate to the Magic Keyword Tool to search for phrases your audience is looking for and add your seed keyword in, making sure to select the country your business operates in.
Then, click on the ‘Questions’ tab. This will change all the keyword searches and filter them by the questions that users are asking related to this keyword.
This gives you a grasp of what questions your buyers have. Use the volume column and KD% column to determine which are worth answering first. Generally, you’ll aim for topics that have a higher volume and a lower KD% (which indicates a lower difficulty for ranking).
These keywords then become a part of your question list, and just like that, you have a list of questions to answer with blog content.
When you write your content, you’ll want to make sure your blogs are SEO optimised. If you can produce 2-3 SEO optimised blogs every month, your traffic will likely climb, regardless of any other factors.
2. Earn high-quality backlinks
Not all links are equal. You don’t need thousands—you need relevant, high-authority sites linking back to you. That usually happens when you create something worth sharing:
- Original research
- In-depth guides
- Thought leadership content
- Free tools or templates
Outreach helps, but value is what gets you on people’s radar. At the end of the day, it comes back to producing helpful content.
3. Fix technical issues
You don’t need a perfect score on every SEO audit tool, but do make sure:
- Your site loads fast
- It’s mobile responsive
- You’re using HTTPS
- Pages are indexed correctly
- There are no major crawl errors
These things don’t boost Domain Authority directly, but they make your site stronger overall—and that makes it easier to rank and attract links.
4. Stay consistent
Authority doesn’t spike overnight. It builds gradually as you publish more helpful content, earn trust, and grow your digital footprint. DA might go up as a result—but even if it doesn’t, you’ll still see better rankings and more traffic if you’re doing the right things consistently.
So, What’s Next?
Domain Authority can be a useful pulse check—but it’s not the heartbeat of your SEO strategy.
It’s a third-party metric created by Moz to estimate how likely your site is to rank. And while it draws on real SEO signals like backlinks, it’s not something Google uses. In fact, obsessing over DA can distract you from what actually drives results: helpful content and solid technical foundations.
You don’t need a high DA to rank well. You need to answer your audience’s questions better than anyone else. You need to build trust through valuable content. And you need a website that’s easy to use and technically sound.
So next time you see your Domain Authority score, don’t panic—or celebrate. Take it as a loose indicator, not a verdict. Focus on what matters: building a site people trust and content they want to read.
That’s what gets you noticed by Google. Not a number on a dashboard.
If you want to truly improve your SEO, check out our ultimate guide to ranking higher in 2025.
