Domain Authority (DA) predicts how well an entire domain is likely to rank in Google, while Page Authority (PA) predicts the ranking strength of one specific URL. Both are Moz metrics on a 0 to 100 scale, both are estimates rather than measurements, and neither is a metric Google itself uses to rank pages.
Domain Authority is a score Moz created to predict how likely an entire website is to rank in Google's search results, measured from 0 to 100. Moz builds it with a machine-learned model trained on its own link index, weighing signals such as the number and quality of referring domains and patterns tied to spam. The result is a single comparative number, not a direct read of how Google itself scores a site.
The word to hold onto is prediction. DA does not tell you how Google ranks your domain. It tells you how Moz's model expects your site to perform relative to every other site in its index. Because it is relative, a DA of 35 only means something when set beside the DA of the sites you actually compete with in search. Moz documents the full methodology in its own Domain Authority resource.
DA is also recalibrated over time as Moz updates its model or the web changes, so scores can shift slightly even when your own backlinks have not moved. That is normal behavior for a relative metric, and it is exactly why chasing a fixed DA target is the wrong goal.
Page Authority is Moz's prediction of how well one specific URL, rather than the whole domain, is likely to rank in Google, also scored from 0 to 100. Where DA looks at the entire domain's link profile, PA narrows the lens to the links pointing directly at that one page, plus a share of the authority flowing in from the rest of the site.
This is why PA can move independently of DA. A single blog post that earns links from major news sites or gets widely shared can carry a PA noticeably higher than the domain's own DA average. The reverse also happens: a thin, orphaned page on a strong domain can sit with a PA far below what the domain's DA would suggest. Moz explains the mechanics of both scores, along with page-level and domain-level distinctions, in the same Domain Authority resource that covers PA.
If you are trying to decide whether a specific page, either yours or a prospective link source, is actually strong, PA is the more precise number to check. Judging a page purely by its domain's DA can hide a weak, link-poor target hiding on an otherwise strong site.
The table below frontloads the practical contrasts. Read it as two lenses on the same link data, not as one metric being better than the other.
| Factor | Domain Authority (DA) | Page Authority (PA) |
|---|---|---|
| What it estimates | Predicted ranking ability of the whole domain | Predicted ranking ability of a single URL |
| Built by | Moz | Moz |
| Scale | 0 to 100, logarithmic | 0 to 100, logarithmic |
| Primary inputs | Domain-wide link signals plus the ranking model | That page's own links plus a share of domain strength |
| Best used for | Benchmarking a competitor's whole site | Judging one page's link strength or link-worthiness |
| Moves fastest when | New links raise the domain's overall link trust | New links point directly at that specific URL |
| Used by Google? | No | No |
The practical takeaway: PA moves faster and more locally than DA. Earn a handful of strong links to one article and its PA can climb noticeably while the domain's DA barely shifts, because DA reflects the whole link graph, not one page.
Both scores start from the same raw material, Moz's crawl of the web's links, but they apply it at different scopes. DA feeds domain-wide link signals into a machine-learned model trained to predict which sites tend to rank well. PA runs a similar approach but narrows the input to a single URL: the links pointing directly at that page, weighted by their own quality, blended with a portion of the domain's overall strength.
Neither score directly counts words, checks content quality, or looks at traffic. They are link-based estimates, which is exactly why a thin page can carry a decent PA if it happens to hold a few strong backlinks, and why a well-written page with zero links can score low despite being genuinely useful to readers.
Moz is not the only company selling this pair of scores. Ahrefs publishes Domain Rating (DR) alongside URL Rating (UR) as its own domain and page-level pair, built from a different link index and formula. We cover that comparison in full in Moz DA vs Ahrefs DR, and the short version is the same lesson as DA versus PA: compare a domain score to a domain score, and a page score to a page score, never across vendors.
No. Google has said publicly, on multiple occasions, that it does not use any third-party domain or page authority score in its ranking systems, and that includes Moz's DA and PA. DA and PA are Moz's own estimates, built to give SEOs something to measure since Google's actual scoring stays private. An estimate of a black box is not the black box itself.
This matters in practice because both scores are built entirely on links, and links can be bought or faked. If Google leaned on a public third-party score, that score would be trivial to manipulate. Google's own Search Central spam policies explicitly target link spam and scaled content abuse, which is a strong signal about what actually gets penalized: buying links to inflate a Moz score risks the rankings you are trying to protect.
There is real weight behind getting this right. Ahrefs analyzed roughly one billion pages and found that about 96% of them receive zero organic search traffic from Google, which is the outcome that actually matters, regardless of what a domain or page authority widget reads.
There is no universal good DA or PA, because both are relative scores that only mean something next to the sites and pages already ranking for your keyword. A DA or PA of 25 can dominate a low-competition niche, while the same number would be weak in a cut-throat one. That said, here are rough bands practitioners use as a sanity check, never as a fixed target:
| Band | Rough read (DA or PA) |
|---|---|
| 0 to 20 | New or thin link profile, normal for a young site or page |
| 20 to 40 | Established, competitive in many niches |
| 40 to 60 | Strong, competitive in most niches |
| 60 to 80 | Authority level, hard to reach and hold |
| 80 to 100 | Rare, mostly major brands, news, and platforms |
Two reality checks matter at the top of the scale. Because the scale is logarithmic, moving from 70 to 80 is far harder than moving from 20 to 30. And Moz notes that only a small number of sites on the entire web ever reach a DA close to 100, which is why "hit DA 70" is the wrong kind of goal. The right question is always "what score do the pages already ranking for my keyword have, and how do I close that gap."
You do not need a paid Moz subscription to glance at either score.
For anything beyond a spot check, pull the underlying referring-page list rather than trusting the headline score alone. The list of who actually links to a page tells you more than a single 0 to 100 number ever will.
When we manage link building for clients, we watch the page-level authority of the exact pages we want to rank, not just a domain-wide widget. That page-first focus is part of how Software Testing Stuff added more than 10,000 monthly organic visits and how Zluri grew organic traffic by 45%, by earning links to the individual pages that needed them rather than chasing a domain score in the abstract. Tools built for exactly this kind of prospecting are covered in our link building tools roundup.
The biggest mistake is treating either score as a ranking factor. A few more traps to avoid:
What is the difference between domain authority and page authority? Domain Authority (DA) predicts how well an entire domain is likely to rank in Google, while Page Authority (PA) predicts the ranking strength of one specific URL. Both are Moz metrics on a 0 to 100 scale, and a site can carry a modest DA while one page on it holds a much higher PA, or the reverse.
Is domain authority or page authority more important? Neither is inherently more important, because they answer different questions. DA is useful for benchmarking a whole site against competitors, while PA is more useful when you are judging whether one specific page can rank or is worth a link, since Google ranks pages, not domains as a block.
Does Google use domain authority or page authority as a ranking factor? No. Google has stated publicly that it does not use any third-party domain authority score in its ranking systems, and that includes both Moz metrics. DA and PA are Moz's own estimates, built from Moz's link index, not signals Google consumes directly.
What is a good page authority score? There is no universal good PA, since it is a relative score that only means something next to the pages already ranking for your target keyword. As a rough guide, many competitive first-page results carry a PA somewhere in the 40 to 60 range, but a much lower PA can still rank in a low-competition niche.
Can a page have a high Page Authority while its domain has a low Domain Authority? Yes. A single page can earn strong direct links and outperform its own domain's average, giving it a PA noticeably higher than the site's DA. This is common on forums, news sites, and blogs where one article goes viral or earns press coverage the rest of the domain never gets.
How do you check Page Authority for free? The Moz Link Explorer and the free MozBar browser extension both show PA for any URL, alongside DA for the domain it sits on, with a limited number of free lookups per month before a paid plan is required.
Do DA and PA update at the same time? Yes. Moz recalculates both scores together on its own index refresh cycle, roughly monthly, so DA and PA for a given domain and page tend to move on the same schedule. That differs from Ahrefs, whose Domain Rating and URL Rating update continuously as its crawler finds new links.
Are Domain Authority and Page Authority the same across every SEO tool? No. DA and PA are proprietary Moz metrics built from Moz's own link index and model. Ahrefs, Semrush, and Majestic each publish their own authority scores using different data and formulas, so a DA of 40 is not directly comparable to a Domain Rating of 40 or a Semrush Authority Score of 40.
Does a higher Domain Authority or Page Authority guarantee higher rankings? No. Both scores are estimates of link-based authority, not a Google ranking factor, so a page with a strong PA can still rank poorly if it does not match search intent or lacks genuinely helpful content. Treat DA and PA as one input alongside relevance, content quality, and real organic performance.
How often should I check my Domain Authority and Page Authority? Checking monthly is usually enough, since Moz's index refresh means the numbers rarely move meaningfully week to week. Focus on the trend over several months and on organic traffic and rankings, since those are the metrics that actually reflect business results.
Stop treating DA and PA as scoreboards and start treating them as instruments. Use DA to benchmark a whole competitor site, use PA to judge one specific page, and check both against your real rivals rather than round-number goals. Then connect every authority reading back to organic traffic and rankings, because that is the scoreboard Google and your revenue actually agree on.
If you want a clear picture of where your authority, links, and rankings actually stand, get a free SEO audit from Rankite and we will show you what to fix first.
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