What is domain authority? And how is it calculated?

What is domain authority? And how is it calculated?

Domain authority is an important SEO metrics. It measures the competitive power with which a domain name pulls its competitors down in the search engine result. The metric is developed by Moz and its calculation is entirely determined by the Moz based on various ranking factors.

Domain authority is on the range of 100 ( logarithmic scale of 100 points). While zero (no rank) being the least ranked figure, 100 represents the domains on the top edge of domain authority. As domain authority increases, the competition becomes stiffer. This is apparent as the most established website are on top of the rank. As an example, it is easier to move domain authority from 10 to 20 than it is to increase the rank from 50 to 60

The metric was calculated in such a way as to give insight to the possible ranking position of the domain name. All other things being equal. That is why its calculation takes into consideration many ranking factors that search engine algorithms use to rank website in SERPs. For instance, Google, as  a search engine utilises hundreds of ranking factors in its algorithms to determine website position in the SERPs. Most of these factors are also considered in calculating domain authority.

Many online SEO guru do argue that website ranks in SERPs isn’t fully dependent on domain authority as seen on SERPs. Yes they are right because Moz’s engine that calculates domain authority doesn’t look into all Google ranking factors. This is ultimate business secret that has never been made known to the public.

In as much as the calculation of domain authority employs machine learning against Google algorithm to model how search engine results are generated in the best manner, the metric could be used to evaluate how a website ranks on Google search page. Below are some of the ranking factors embedded in domain authority.