What is a good domain authority score?

Domain authority ranges at a glance

Here's how we read the Moz scale in day to day work. These bands match the ratings shown in our checker, so a score you look up will line up with this table.

One thing this table can't capture: the scale is logarithmic. The gap between 50 and 60 is far bigger than the gap between 10 and 20, so don't read the bands as equal steps. Our guide to what domain authority is explains why.

Good DA by type of website

A plumber in a mid sized town and a national news site are not playing the same game. Here's what we'd consider a healthy, competitive score for common kinds of sites. These are working ranges from checking a lot of domains, not official Moz numbers.

Set a target from your competitors, not the scale

The best way to find a good DA for your site takes about ten minutes. Search your main keyword, note the top ten domains, and look up each one. Our domain authority checker shows each score with Page Authority and Spam Score, so you can spot weak results fast.

Write down the lowest, median and highest DA on page one. Your realistic goal is to beat the median. Once you're there, content quality, search intent and on-page work decide the order far more than a few DA points.

To speed this up, paste all ten domains into the bulk checker and sort the table by DA. You'll see the spread in one view and can export it to compare again next month.

When a high domain authority is a warning sign

A big number isn't always good news. DA can be inflated with link schemes, and sellers know buyers love high DA. These patterns make us suspicious of a site no matter how high its score:

• High DA, high Spam Score: a Spam Score above 60% next to a DA of 50 or more usually points to manipulated links.
• High DA, low Trust Flow: if Trust Flow is under half of Citation Flow, lots of links are flowing in from low trust sources.
• High DA, few referring domains: a DA of 40 built on 60 linking domains is unusual and often artificial.
• High DA, no traffic: if the site barely ranks for anything, its links aren't doing what the score suggests.
• High DA, young domain: a six month old domain at DA 50 needs explaining.

Each of these shows up in our report, so a single check tells you whether a high score looks earned. For a closer look at the risk signal, read our spam score guide.

A good DA for guest posting and link building

When you're judging a site as a link source rather than a competitor, the question changes. You don't need the highest DA you can find. You need a real site, in your topic, whose links look earned.

In practice we'd happily take a link from a relevant DA 25 site with a low Spam Score and steady traffic over a DA 60 site that publishes on every topic under the sun. The first sends trust and sometimes visitors; the second is often part of a link selling operation and can disappear, or hurt you, later.

What about page authority?

Page Authority follows the same 1 to 100 scale for single pages. Moz suggests a good PA usually lands between 30 and 70 depending on the industry, but the same rule applies: compare the pages you're competing with. A new article on a DA 60 site may start at PA 15 and still rank, because the domain's strength lifts it.

We cover when to look at PA instead of DA in our page authority guide.

How long it takes to reach a good score

Honest answer: longer than most people expect. With steady, real link earning, a new site often reaches the low 20s within a year. Getting into the 40s commonly takes two to three years of consistent content and outreach. Nothing legitimate gets you from 10 to 50 in a month.

If you want the practical plan, how to increase domain authority walks through the work that reliably moves the number, in the order we'd do it.