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Most people understand domain authority in a completely wrong way.
That’s why this page’s content is different from other Google results.
We rely on our recent research of thousands of domains using several SEO tools and years of personal experience in the SEO industry.
Let’s spend a minute debunking the common myth first and then explore the reality.
What Actual Domain Authority Is NOT.
True Domain Authority is not a metric used by any SEO tool, such as Moz DA, Ahrefs DR, and others.
This misunderstanding has its roots in the trademarked term “Domain Authority,” introduced by the SEO tool Moz in 2004.
Back then, the number of backlinks was the primary indicator of a website’s ability to rank high on Google. The more backlinks and “better” they were, the higher the expected website ranked on Google. (Use Xamsor’s free backlink checker to view the number of backlinks and referring domains.)
Use this free backlink checker tool to view backlinks for any website.
In other words, backlinks were the ticket for higher Google rankings.
But this doesn’t work in 2024. Google has changed its algorithm, and rankings are no longer as dependent on backlinks.
Let me prove it. As of September 2024, my website ranks #5 for “Moz DA checker.”
It’s a high-volume and high-competition keyword.
Xamsor.com has 46 (forty-six!) backlinks, while all the other leaders on the SERP for this keyword have between 50K and millions of backlinks.
So we successfully compete with websites having several millions of times more backlinks!
We have plenty of opposite examples. When domains with “high authority” and tons of backlinks have zero traffic and don’t rank for a single word. I’ll show how it works in a minute.
The point is that the SEO industry’s inertia is huge.
The misleading information remains widely accessible, “helping” to keep the myth alive. Let me quote Moz’s website:
The domain authority still “predicts” how likely a website will rank on Google. But only in one place – on Moz’s website. The reality is different.
The Domain Authority Tools and Metrics.
Backlinks-based authority measurement was good for another era of SEO that ended more than a decade ago with Google’s Penguin Update in 2012.
Back then, Google dramatically changed the importance of ranking factors, de facto removing backlink profiles as a main ranking factor.
Instead, they increased the influence of high-quality content and user engagement metrics. Many sites relying solely on backlinks lost up to 100% of their traffic.
However, backlinks-based domain authority metrics like Moz DA and Ahrefs DR didn’t change much. They are still marketed directly or subtly as a metric that predicts a site’s ability to rank on Google.
Here’s a reality in 2024:
What Is Actual Domain Authority?
True Domain Authority is a website’s ability to deliver relevant information to its audience through search engine results and LLM tool responses.
If Google, Bing, ChatGPT, Perplexity, or any other platform serves your content and links to your website in response to user queries related to your business, then your website is authoritative.
It’s no longer a single metric but a set of measurable parameters.
A website has True Domain Authority if:
- It ranks high on search engines and gets traffic from them.
- In its target countries and areas.
- For the topics and keywords relevant to its business.
Again—it ranks and is relevant from topical, geo, and business perspectives.
No ranks = no authority. Full stop. It’s not about backlinks anymore.
Good links may help a website become authoritative, but they are supplemental, like vitamins in a balanced diet. They can be nice to have but cannot replace the core essence.
And here we are coming to the final reality check, that I promised earlier. “High-authority but zero traffic” cases.
A “Helpful” Case Study
If you are not convinced and consider returning to the “traditional” way of measuring Domain Authority using SEO tools metrics, let me show you something.
This is a site that was affected by Google’s March 2024 Helpful Content update. Post-Google update, the site went from millions of organic visits a month to near zero traffic.
The site’s domain authority metrics—Ahrefs DR and Moz DA, were stable since these metrics are completely based on backlinks. It didn’t matter whether the traffic was growing, declining, or even disappearing. Ahrefs DR ranged between 69 to 71 in this period, and Moz DA went from 66 to 67!
The metrics that were supposed to “predict” how well a site ranks do not react when the site is going through a rollercoaster traffic ride.
The Semrush AS metric (orange line) is closer to reality since it factors in rankings as part of the scoring process. This metric can be useful for quickly evaluating website authority, but determining topical and geographic relevance still requires additional research.
Bottomline.
The SEO industry should stop using domain authority as a “predictor” metric and instead treat it as a “reflector” metric that shows a website’s current standing.
Users should never rely on a single metric from SEO tools to measure domain authority. Instead, they should focus on rankings, organic traffic, and the website’s topical and geographic relevance.