Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs). Scores range from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a greater likelihood of ranking.
DA is calculated by evaluating multiple factors, including linking root domains and the total number of backlinks, into a single DA score. It's a comparative metric, meaning it's most useful when comparing your website's strength to competitors or tracking your progress over time. It's important to remember that DA is a third-party metric from Moz and not directly used by Google in its ranking algorithms.
While Google doesn't use DA, the factors that contribute to a high DA (like a strong backlink profile and overall site health) are indeed factors that Google considers for ranking. Therefore, improving your DA often correlates with improving your actual SEO performance. For instance, if your DA is 45 and a competitor's is 60, it suggests they have a stronger overall backlink profile and are likely to rank better for competitive keywords. Your goal would be to build more high-quality backlinks and improve your site's overall authority to close that gap.