Page Authority vs Domain Authority: What's the Real Difference in 2026?

If you have spent any time reading SEO reports or comparing websites, you have probably run into two numbers that look similar but mean different things: Page Authority and Domain Authority. Both were built by Moz, both run on a 1 to 100 scale, and both try to predict how likely something is to rank on Google. That overlap is exactly why so many site owners mix them up.

The short version is this: Domain Authority looks at your whole website, while Page Authority looks at one single page on that website. But the real value of these metrics comes from knowing when to use which one, what actually moves the needle, and how to avoid chasing a number that does not translate into real traffic. This guide breaks down both metrics in plain language, shows you how they are calculated, and gives you a practical plan for improving each one.

What Is Page Authority vs Domain Authority? (Quick Guide)

Domain Authority (DA) predicts how well your entire website is likely to rank across search results, based mainly on your site's overall backlink profile. Page Authority (PA) predicts how well one specific URL is likely to rank, based on the links pointing to that exact page.

Both scores are relative, not absolute. A DA of 35 might be strong for a niche blog and weak for an established retailer. Keep that context in mind as you read the rest of this guide.

What Is Domain Authority (DA)?

Domain Authority is a metric developed by Moz that estimates how likely an entire website is to rank in search engine results, measured on a 1 to 100 scale. A higher number generally means a stronger, more established site with a solid backlink profile behind it.

DA is not something Google publishes or confirms using. It is a third-party prediction built by studying real search results and reverse-engineering which site-level signals correlate with strong rankings. Because of that, DA works best as a comparative tool. Instead of asking "is my DA good," a more useful question is "how does my DA compare to the sites already ranking for the keywords I want."

New domains almost always start near the bottom of the scale, and DA tends to climb faster in the early stages than it does once a site is already well established. Moving from 10 to 20 is far easier than moving from 70 to 80, since the scale is logarithmic rather than linear.

What Is Page Authority (PA)?

Page Authority uses the same 1 to 100 scale as DA, but instead of scoring the whole domain, it scores one specific URL. It predicts how likely that individual page is to rank, based largely on the internal and external links pointing directly to it.

This is why PA can vary wildly across pages on the same site. A well-linked blog post might have a PA of 45 while a neglected page two clicks deep in the site structure sits at 12, even though both live under the same domain with the same overall DA. PA is the more precise lens when you are deciding which specific page deserves a fresh round of link building or a content refresh.

Page Authority vs Domain Authority: Key Differences

The distinction matters because a strong DA does not guarantee every page on your site will rank well, and a strong PA on one page does not automatically lift your entire domain. Think of DA as the reputation of your whole publication and PA as the reputation of one specific article inside it. A well-known magazine can still publish a mediocre, poorly linked article that struggles to rank on its own merits.

How Is Domain Authority Calculated?

Moz calculates DA using a machine learning model that looks at dozens of factors and compares them against sites that already rank well in search results. The main inputs include:

• Linking root domains, meaning the number of unique websites linking back to yours
• Total number of backlinks, including both quantity and diversity
• Link quality, since links from established, relevant sites carry more weight than links from low-value or spammy sources
• Spam signals, which can drag a score down even if the raw link count looks impressive

Because this model is retrained periodically, your DA score can shift even if nothing on your site has changed, simply because Moz adjusted the underlying algorithm. That is normal and not something to panic over.

How Is Page Authority Calculated?

PA follows a similar machine learning approach, but the scope narrows to a single URL. The main signals are:

• Backlinks pointing directly to that specific page, not the domain as a whole
• Internal links from other pages on your own site pointing to that URL
• Link quality and relevance, using the same weighting logic as DA

A page can outperform its own domain's DA if it has earned an unusually strong set of backlinks, which is common with viral posts, in-depth guides, or widely cited research pages. That is a normal outcome, not a sign that something is broken.

DA vs PA: Which One Should You Focus On?

The honest answer is that it depends on what decision you are trying to make.

Use Domain Authority when you are:

• Comparing your overall site strength against competitors before entering a new market or niche
• Evaluating whether a guest post or backlink opportunity comes from a generally trustworthy site
• Reporting on long-term SEO progress at the site level

Use Page Authority when you are:

• Deciding which blog posts or landing pages deserve a link building push
• Auditing why one page outranks another on the same topic within your own site
• Prioritizing which pages need a content refresh or additional internal links

Most experienced SEOs check both together rather than picking one over the other. A page with strong PA sitting on a domain with weak DA can still struggle against competitors, since search engines do weigh overall site trust alongside page-level signals. 

What's a Good DA and PA Score?

There is no universal "good" number for either metric, since both are comparative rather than absolute. That said, general benchmarks look roughly like this:

• 0 to 20: Typical for brand-new sites or pages with little to no backlink history
• 20 to 40: Common for growing blogs, small businesses, and niche sites
• 40 to 60: Solid mid-tier authority, often seen in established niche publishers
• 60 to 80: Strong authority, typical of well-known industry sites
• 80 to 100: Reserved for major brands, large publishers, and household-name domains

Rather than chasing a fixed number, compare your score against the sites currently ranking for your target keywords. If the top-ranking pages in your niche average a DA of 30, hitting 25 to 35 puts you in a realistic competitive range.

Does Domain Authority Affect Google Rankings?

No, not directly. DA and PA are third-party metrics built by Moz, and Google has repeatedly stated it does not use them as ranking inputs. Google's own documentation on how its search ranking systems work describes a combination of automated processes used to decide what appears in search results, and third-party authority scores like DA are not part of that process.

The reason DA still correlates with rankings is indirect: both DA and Google's actual ranking systems place heavy weight on backlink quality, so a site with strong DA usually also has the kind of link profile Google values. That correlation is useful for competitive research, but it is a proxy, not a cause.

DA vs PA vs DR vs Authority Score (Avoiding the Confusion)

Since Moz popularized the concept, other SEO platforms built their own versions, which is where a lot of the confusion in search results comes from:

• Moz Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA): The original metrics, described in detail in Moz's own beginner's guide to Domain Authority
• Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR): A comparable domain-level score focused specifically on external backlinks. You can read more about how it is calculated in Ahrefs' explanation of its Domain Rating metric
• Semrush Authority Score: A compound metric that factors in backlinks, organic traffic, and spam signals together

None of these numbers are interchangeable. A site with a DA of 40 will not necessarily show a DR of 40 on Ahrefs, since each company weighs its inputs differently. When comparing your site to a competitor, always use the same tool for both sides of the comparison.

How to Check Your Domain Authority and Page Authority (Free Tools)

Checking both scores takes seconds with the right tool. If you want a quick, free way to pull DA and PA for any site or page, SEO Site Checker's free Domain Authority checker gives you both numbers along with related backlink data in one lookup.

For a deeper walkthrough of how to read and act on the results, our domain authority checker guide covers what each section of the report means and how to benchmark it against competitors in your niche.

When checking scores, a few habits make the data more useful:

• Check monthly rather than daily, since scores update on a rolling basis and daily fluctuations rarely reflect real changes
• Compare against three to five direct competitors, not just one
• Track the trend over time rather than fixating on a single snapshot

How to Improve Domain Authority and Page Authority

Both metrics respond to the same underlying strategy: earn better links and clean up the technical and content issues holding your site back.

Build quality backlinks. Focus on relevant, trustworthy sites rather than volume alone. A handful of links from respected sources in your industry will move DA and PA further than dozens of low-quality directory links. Our guide on link building tips walks through 23 practical tactics for earning links naturally.

Strengthen internal linking. Since PA is influenced by internal links as well as external ones, linking from your strongest pages to newer or underperforming ones can lift their individual scores without any outside link building at all.

Publish content worth linking to. Original research, in-depth guides, and genuinely useful tools tend to earn links organically, which is far more sustainable than manual outreach alone.

Clean up technical SEO. Broken links, orphaned pages, and slow load times can quietly undermine both DA and PA. Strengthening your off-page SEO foundation alongside your on-site technical health gives both metrics more room to grow.

Remove or disavow toxic links. A backlink profile full of spammy, unrelated, or purchased links can actively drag your scores down. Periodic audits help catch these before they cause lasting damage.

Be patient. Both DA and PA update on a delay and reflect trends over months, not days. Consistent, steady link building beats short bursts of aggressive outreach followed by long gaps of inactivity.

Common Mistakes When Using DA/PA

A few habits tend to undercut the value of these metrics rather than support it.

Treating DA as a vanity metric. A high DA feels good to report, but if it is not translating into rankings or traffic, it is not doing its job. Always tie the number back to actual business outcomes.

Ignoring PA on money pages. It is common to pour link building effort into blog content while ignoring the product or service pages that actually drive revenue. Those pages deserve PA attention too.

Buying links purely to inflate scores. Purchased or manipulative links can temporarily boost DA or PA, but they carry real risk of penalties and rarely hold up over time. Sustainable growth beats a short-term spike every time.

Key Takeaways

Domain Authority reflects the strength of your entire website, while Page Authority zooms in on a single page. Neither one is a Google ranking factor on its own, but both are genuinely useful for benchmarking your site against competitors and deciding where to focus your link building effort. Use DA for big-picture strategy and competitive research, use PA to prioritize which individual pages deserve the most attention, and check both regularly rather than fixating on a single snapshot.

If you want to see exactly where your site and your top pages currently stand, run a free check with SEO Site Checker's Domain Authority checker and use the results to guide your next round of content and link building work.

If you have spent any time reading SEO reports or comparing websites, you have probably run into two numbers that look similar but mean different things: Page Authority and Domain Authority. Both were built by Moz, both run on a 1 to 100 scale, and both try to predict how likely something is to rank on Google. That overlap is exactly why so many site owners mix them up.

The short version is this: Domain Authority looks at your whole website, while Page Authority looks at one single page on that website. But the real value of these metrics comes from knowing when to use which one, what actually moves the needle, and how to avoid chasing a number that does not translate into real traffic. This guide breaks down both metrics in plain language, shows you how they are calculated, and gives you a practical plan for improving each one.

What Is Page Authority vs Domain Authority? (Quick Guide)

Domain Authority (DA) predicts how well your entire website is likely to rank across search results, based mainly on your site's overall backlink profile. Page Authority (PA) predicts how well one specific URL is likely to rank, based on the links pointing to that exact page.

Both scores are relative, not absolute. A DA of 35 might be strong for a niche blog and weak for an established retailer. Keep that context in mind as you read the rest of this guide.

What Is Domain Authority (DA)?

Domain Authority is a metric developed by Moz that estimates how likely an entire website is to rank in search engine results, measured on a 1 to 100 scale. A higher number generally means a stronger, more established site with a solid backlink profile behind it.

DA is not something Google publishes or confirms using. It is a third-party prediction built by studying real search results and reverse-engineering which site-level signals correlate with strong rankings. Because of that, DA works best as a comparative tool. Instead of asking "is my DA good," a more useful question is "how does my DA compare to the sites already ranking for the keywords I want."

New domains almost always start near the bottom of the scale, and DA tends to climb faster in the early stages than it does once a site is already well established. Moving from 10 to 20 is far easier than moving from 70 to 80, since the scale is logarithmic rather than linear.

What Is Page Authority (PA)?

Page Authority uses the same 1 to 100 scale as DA, but instead of scoring the whole domain, it scores one specific URL. It predicts how likely that individual page is to rank, based largely on the internal and external links pointing directly to it.

This is why PA can vary wildly across pages on the same site. A well-linked blog post might have a PA of 45 while a neglected page two clicks deep in the site structure sits at 12, even though both live under the same domain with the same overall DA. PA is the more precise lens when you are deciding which specific page deserves a fresh round of link building or a content refresh.

Page Authority vs Domain Authority: Key Differences

The distinction matters because a strong DA does not guarantee every page on your site will rank well, and a strong PA on one page does not automatically lift your entire domain. Think of DA as the reputation of your whole publication and PA as the reputation of one specific article inside it. A well-known magazine can still publish a mediocre, poorly linked article that struggles to rank on its own merits.

How Is Domain Authority Calculated?

Moz calculates DA using a machine learning model that looks at dozens of factors and compares them against sites that already rank well in search results. The main inputs include:

• Linking root domains, meaning the number of unique websites linking back to yours
• Total number of backlinks, including both quantity and diversity
• Link quality, since links from established, relevant sites carry more weight than links from low-value or spammy sources
• Spam signals, which can drag a score down even if the raw link count looks impressive

Because this model is retrained periodically, your DA score can shift even if nothing on your site has changed, simply because Moz adjusted the underlying algorithm. That is normal and not something to panic over.

How Is Page Authority Calculated?

PA follows a similar machine learning approach, but the scope narrows to a single URL. The main signals are:

• Backlinks pointing directly to that specific page, not the domain as a whole
• Internal links from other pages on your own site pointing to that URL
• Link quality and relevance, using the same weighting logic as DA

A page can outperform its own domain's DA if it has earned an unusually strong set of backlinks, which is common with viral posts, in-depth guides, or widely cited research pages. That is a normal outcome, not a sign that something is broken.

DA vs PA: Which One Should You Focus On?

The honest answer is that it depends on what decision you are trying to make.

Use Domain Authority when you are:

• Comparing your overall site strength against competitors before entering a new market or niche
• Evaluating whether a guest post or backlink opportunity comes from a generally trustworthy site
• Reporting on long-term SEO progress at the site level

Use Page Authority when you are:

• Deciding which blog posts or landing pages deserve a link building push
• Auditing why one page outranks another on the same topic within your own site
• Prioritizing which pages need a content refresh or additional internal links

Most experienced SEOs check both together rather than picking one over the other. A page with strong PA sitting on a domain with weak DA can still struggle against competitors, since search engines do weigh overall site trust alongside page-level signals.  

What's a Good DA and PA Score?

There is no universal "good" number for either metric, since both are comparative rather than absolute. That said, general benchmarks look roughly like this:

• 0 to 20: Typical for brand-new sites or pages with little to no backlink history
• 20 to 40: Common for growing blogs, small businesses, and niche sites
• 40 to 60: Solid mid-tier authority, often seen in established niche publishers
• 60 to 80: Strong authority, typical of well-known industry sites
• 80 to 100: Reserved for major brands, large publishers, and household-name domains

Rather than chasing a fixed number, compare your score against the sites currently ranking for your target keywords. If the top-ranking pages in your niche average a DA of 30, hitting 25 to 35 puts you in a realistic competitive range.

Does Domain Authority Affect Google Rankings?

No, not directly. DA and PA are third-party metrics built by Moz, and Google has repeatedly stated it does not use them as ranking inputs. Google's own documentation on how its search ranking systems work describes a combination of automated processes used to decide what appears in search results, and third-party authority scores like DA are not part of that process.

The reason DA still correlates with rankings is indirect: both DA and Google's actual ranking systems place heavy weight on backlink quality, so a site with strong DA usually also has the kind of link profile Google values. That correlation is useful for competitive research, but it is a proxy, not a cause.

DA vs PA vs DR vs Authority Score (Avoiding the Confusion)

Since Moz popularized the concept, other SEO platforms built their own versions, which is where a lot of the confusion in search results comes from:

• Moz Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA): The original metrics, described in detail in Moz's own beginner's guide to Domain Authority
• Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR): A comparable domain-level score focused specifically on external backlinks. You can read more about how it is calculated in Ahrefs' explanation of its Domain Rating metric
• Semrush Authority Score: A compound metric that factors in backlinks, organic traffic, and spam signals together

None of these numbers are interchangeable. A site with a DA of 40 will not necessarily show a DR of 40 on Ahrefs, since each company weighs its inputs differently. When comparing your site to a competitor, always use the same tool for both sides of the comparison.

How to Check Your Domain Authority and Page Authority (Free Tools)

Checking both scores takes seconds with the right tool. If you want a quick, free way to pull DA and PA for any site or page, SEO Site Checker's free Domain Authority checker gives you both numbers along with related backlink data in one lookup.

For a deeper walkthrough of how to read and act on the results, our domain authority checker guide covers what each section of the report means and how to benchmark it against competitors in your niche.

When checking scores, a few habits make the data more useful:

• Check monthly rather than daily, since scores update on a rolling basis and daily fluctuations rarely reflect real changes
• Compare against three to five direct competitors, not just one
• Track the trend over time rather than fixating on a single snapshot

How to Improve Domain Authority and Page Authority

Both metrics respond to the same underlying strategy: earn better links and clean up the technical and content issues holding your site back.

Build quality backlinks. Focus on relevant, trustworthy sites rather than volume alone. A handful of links from respected sources in your industry will move DA and PA further than dozens of low-quality directory links. Our guide on link building tips walks through 23 practical tactics for earning links naturally.

Strengthen internal linking. Since PA is influenced by internal links as well as external ones, linking from your strongest pages to newer or underperforming ones can lift their individual scores without any outside link building at all.

Publish content worth linking to. Original research, in-depth guides, and genuinely useful tools tend to earn links organically, which is far more sustainable than manual outreach alone.

Clean up technical SEO. Broken links, orphaned pages, and slow load times can quietly undermine both DA and PA. Strengthening your off-page SEO foundation alongside your on-site technical health gives both metrics more room to grow.

Remove or disavow toxic links. A backlink profile full of spammy, unrelated, or purchased links can actively drag your scores down. Periodic audits help catch these before they cause lasting damage.

Be patient. Both DA and PA update on a delay and reflect trends over months, not days. Consistent, steady link building beats short bursts of aggressive outreach followed by long gaps of inactivity.

Common Mistakes When Using DA/PA

A few habits tend to undercut the value of these metrics rather than support it.

Treating DA as a vanity metric. A high DA feels good to report, but if it is not translating into rankings or traffic, it is not doing its job. Always tie the number back to actual business outcomes.

Ignoring PA on money pages. It is common to pour link building effort into blog content while ignoring the product or service pages that actually drive revenue. Those pages deserve PA attention too.

Buying links purely to inflate scores. Purchased or manipulative links can temporarily boost DA or PA, but they carry real risk of penalties and rarely hold up over time. Sustainable growth beats a short-term spike every time.

Key Takeaways

Domain Authority reflects the strength of your entire website, while Page Authority zooms in on a single page. Neither one is a Google ranking factor on its own, but both are genuinely useful for benchmarking your site against competitors and deciding where to focus your link building effort. Use DA for big-picture strategy and competitive research, use PA to prioritize which individual pages deserve the most attention, and check both regularly rather than fixating on a single snapshot.

If you want to see exactly where your site and your top pages currently stand, run a free check with SEO Site Checker's Domain Authority checker and use the results to guide your next round of content and link building work.