How to Improve Domain Authority: 11 Proven Steps + Tools

Quick Summary

How to Improve Domain Authority is a common question for anyone trying to boost their site’s visibility in search. Domain Authority (DA), developed by Moz, is a score from 1 to 100 that estimates how likely your website is to rank in search engine results. While it’s not a direct Google ranking factor, it’s still a reliable benchmark for understanding your SEO strength compared to competitors. The higher your DA, the more credible and trustworthy your site tends to appear.

To improve your domain authority, start by building high-quality backlinks from reputable websites. That usually means publishing content that’s genuinely helpful, link-worthy, and relevant. On top of that, make sure your site’s technical SEO is dialed in, fix crawl errors, improve page speed, and ensure everything works smoothly on mobile. Strengthen your internal linking so authority flows across your pages, and audit your backlink profile regularly to spot (and disavow) any toxic or irrelevant links. DA doesn’t improve overnight, but with consistent, strategic SEO efforts, your rankings, and visibility, will grow over time.

What Exactly is Domain Authority?

Domain Authority (or DA) is a metric developed by Moz, one of the leading SEO software companies. It’s designed to predict how likely a website is to rank on search engines compared to other sites. The score ranges from 1 to 100 – the higher your DA, the stronger your site’s perceived authority.

Moz calculates this score based on a bunch of factors, but the main one is your backlink profile – how many sites link to you, how trustworthy those sites are, and how relevant they are to your niche.

It’s important to know that DA isn’t a ranking factor used by Google, but it’s still a useful way to benchmark your site’s SEO strength. Also, keep in mind: DA is relative. So instead of chasing a perfect 100, the goal is to build a higher score than your direct competitors.

And just to clear up confusion – Domain Authority measures your whole website’s strength, while Page Authority looks at the ranking potential of a single page. Both are helpful, but they tell you different things.

What’s Considered a Good Domain Authority Score?

There’s no universal “good” score because it totally depends on the niche. But just to give you a sense:

• 1-20: New site, very little link equity
  
• 21-40: Decent, you’ve got some authority, but there’s room to grow
  
• 41-60: Strong, competitive in most niches
  
• 61-100: High authority, big brands, media sites, industry leaders
  

If your top competitors are all sitting around 45-55, then shooting for a DA in that range makes sense. But if they’re at 25, and you’re at 20, you’re not far behind. Use DA as a way to understand your position, not as a goal in itself.

How is Domain Authority Calculated?

Moz uses a few factors to calculate DA, though the exact formula changes from time to time. Here’s what goes into it:

• Linking root domains, how many unique sites link to you
  
• Total backlinks, overall volume of links (though more doesn’t always mean better)
  
• MozRank and MozTrust, which consider link quality and trustworthiness
  
• The authority of the sites linking to you
  

It’s all run through a machine learning model that compares your site to thousands of others. So yeah, it’s a bit of a black box, but the main idea is simple: better backlinks = higher DA.

Also, it’s logarithmic, which means the higher your score, the harder it is to keep climbing. Going from 10 to 20 is much easier than jumping from 60 to 70.

You can check your current DA using:

• Moz Link Explorer
  
• Ahrefs (they use Domain Rating, but it’s a similar concept)
  
• SEMrush or Ubersuggest
  
• Even browser extensions like MozBar can give you a quick glance

Also Read: Off-Page SEO Checklist

How to Improve Domain Authority: The Real Work Begins

Now let’s get into the practical stuff. These are the steps that, over time, help you move the needle on DA. No hacks or shortcuts here, just the stuff that actually works if you do it consistently.

Step 1: Create Content That Attracts Links

It sounds obvious, but the easiest way to earn backlinks is to publish things that people want to link to.

We’re talking:

• Long-form guides
  
• Research-backed articles
  
• Infographics or charts
  
• Templates, checklists, or calculators
  

Basically, if someone is writing about a topic and they need a stat, an explanation, or a visual to support their point, your content should be the one they choose. That’s how you earn natural backlinks, which are worth way more than ones you have to beg for.

Step 2: Get Backlinks from Authority Sites

Getting links from reputable websites is still one of the strongest signals you can send to Google, and it plays a huge role in improving your DA.

There are a few solid methods for this:

• Guest posting on relevant blogs or media
  
• PR outreach, pitching stories or content to journalists
  
• Broken link building, finding dead links and offering your content as a replacement
  

Tools like BuzzSumo can help you find content that’s been widely linked to in your space, and Hunter.io is great for finding the right contact info for outreach. If you want to get media mentions, signing up for HARO (Help a Reporter Out) can land you some high-quality links too.

You don’t need hundreds; just a few high-authority links can shift your DA in the right direction.

Step 3: Audit Your Existing Links

Before you go building new links, it’s a good idea to look at what’s already pointing to your site. Not all backlinks are helpful. Some can actually drag down your site’s authority.

Run a link audit using Moz, Ahrefs, or SEMrush. Look for:

• Links from low-quality or irrelevant domains
  
• Spammy sites you don’t recognize
  
• Massive spikes in backlinks that don’t seem natural
  

Cleaning up your link profile is a smart move, especially if your DA hasn’t moved in a while despite your content and SEO being solid.

Step 4: Disavow Toxic Backlinks (If Needed)

If your audit turns up a bunch of suspicious or outright spammy links, you may want to disavow them.

This just means telling Google: “Hey, we don’t trust these links and don’t want them counted.” You use Google’s Disavow Tool for this; it’s a bit technical, but manageable.

It’s not something you should use lightly. But when there’s clear evidence of harmful links (like adult content, gambling sites, or link farms), cleaning that up can prevent penalties and keep your DA on track.

Enroll Now: Advanced Digital Marketing Course

Step 5: Tighten Up On-Page SEO

Even though DA is mostly about backlinks, your on-page SEO still matters, a lot. If your content is hard to read, confusingly structured, or poorly optimized, it won’t earn or keep links.

Key areas to check:

• Title tags and meta descriptions are well-written and keyword-aligned
  
• H1s, H2s, and H3s are structured logically
  
• Keywords are placed naturally
  
• Alt text is used on images
  
• Internal links are pointing to related content
  

WordPress users usually rely on plugins like Yoast or RankMath to stay on top of this. They’re not perfect, but they’ll catch most of the basics.

Also Read:  Types of SEO

Step 6: Improve Technical SEO and Site Health

This part’s a little less glamorous, but it really does move the needle, especially if you haven’t done a cleanup in a while.

Make sure:

• Your site loads quickly
  
• You’ve got a working XML sitemap
  
• Broken links and redirects are fixed
  
• Pages are mobile-friendly
  
• There are no crawl errors in Google Search Console
  

A tool like Screaming Frog can help you find all the messy technical stuff that slows down your site or confuses search engines.

Fast, healthy websites don’t just rank better, they also earn more backlinks, because people are more likely to share and link to something that actually works.

Also read: All Advantages and Disadvantages of SEO

Step 7: Make UX and Mobile Friendliness a Priority

Google has made it crystal clear: if your site doesn’t work well on mobile, you’re going to fall behind. And even beyond rankings, poor mobile UX leads to high bounce rates, which means fewer backlinks and less organic growth.

Here’s what to focus on:

• Responsive design that adjusts to different screen sizes
  
• Readable font sizes
  
• Clickable (and visible) CTAs
  
• Minimal intrusive popups
  

This isn’t just about passing some test. It’s about making sure people can actually engage with your content, no matter what device they’re using. That’s what keeps them on your site, and coming back.

Step 8: Strengthen Internal Linking Strategy

A lot of people obsess over backlinks and forget about the power of internal links. But honestly, this is one of the easiest wins if you have a decent amount of content already published.

Think of your site like a web. If one strong page is connected to five others, it passes on some of that strength. But if your pages are all just floating alone, you’re not helping Google (or your visitors) understand how your content connects.

We’ve noticed sites that use topic clusters, basically a main “pillar” post linked to several related pieces, tend to rank better over time. It makes your site architecture cleaner and helps distribute link equity more evenly. And it improves time-on-site too, because people stick around longer when they can easily explore related info.

If nothing else, go back and link newer blog posts to older ones, and vice versa. Keep people (and crawlers) moving through your content.

Step 9: Share Your Content Where People Actually See It

Okay, publishing great content is step one. But just hitting “publish” and walking away? That’s where most content dies.

Promoting your content, especially in places where your audience already hangs out, can lead to natural backlinks, more engagement, and higher visibility overall. This includes:

• Posting on LinkedIn or Twitter (especially if you’re in B2B)
  
• Sharing in niche communities or Slack groups
  
• Answering relevant questions on Quora or Reddit
  
• Emailing your list (if you’ve got one)
  
• Encouraging peers to share your stuff if it’s genuinely useful
  

Don’t expect every post to blow up, but consistent sharing compounds over time. Sometimes a blog doesn’t gain traction until weeks or months later, one good share or mention can change everything.

Also Read: Backlink Profiles

Step 10: Create a Link-Building Calendar (and Stick to it)

Link-building can feel random if you don’t systemize it. You do some outreach here, a guest post there, then forget about it for three months. That’s pretty common, we’ve seen it happen even with big teams.

Instead, try putting together a simple link-building calendar. Nothing fancy, even a shared Google Sheet can work. Plan monthly actions like:

• Reaching out to X new websites
  
• Submitting 1-2 guest posts
  
• Pitching for expert roundups
  
• Running a broken link campaign
  
• Following up with old outreach contacts
  

Tools like Notion, Trello, or Airtable are great for keeping things organized, especially if you’re managing multiple outreach threads. You don’t have to be aggressive, but being consistent really does make a difference over time.

Step 11: Monitor Your DA Progress and Keep Tweaking

Last step: track your Domain Authority growth, but don’t obsess over every little fluctuation.

DA isn’t something you need to check every week. Every 30 to 45 days is a good cadence. That gives you enough time to see the impact of your efforts without getting caught up in the noise.

And here’s the real value: when you see improvement, go back and figure out what actually worked. Was it a specific blog post that got shared a lot? A guest post on a big site? An SEO fix that improved crawlability?

Keep doing more of what moved the needle, and cut back on what didn’t. This part is never really “done,” but if you’re watching closely, you’ll know where to focus next.

Also Read: How to do an SEO Audit

Real Examples of Sites That Grew Their Domain Authority

Here are a few familiar names that saw real DA growth by sticking to the basics (and doing them really well):

• Backlinko, Built authority by creating massive, evergreen guides that became go-to resources for SEO pros.
  
• Ahrefs Blog, Their content consistently uses real data and examples, which makes it super linkable and regularly cited in other blogs.
  
• Neil Patel, Grew his domain to DA 80+ with relentless publishing, smart guest posting, and a huge content footprint across multiple channels.
  

You’ll notice the common thread here isn’t hacks or shortcuts, it’s consistency, relevance, and content people actually want to reference.

Best Tools to Help You Improve Domain Authority

Here are some tools worth bookmarking if DA growth is on your radar:

• Moz Link Explorer – for checking your current DA and backlink profile
  
• Ahrefs – great for backlink analysis, content gaps, and competitor insights
  
• SEMrush – helpful for audits, keyword tracking, and authority scores
  
• Ubersuggest – more beginner-friendly, solid for quick audits
  
• Google Search Console – a must for checking crawl issues and indexing
  
• Screaming Frog – powerful crawler to catch technical SEO issues
  

You don’t need to use all of these, by the way. Pick the ones that match your level and budget, and stick with them.

Also read: The Difference Between On-Page and Off-Page SEO

Key Takeaways

• Domain Authority is a directional metric, not a final scorecard.
  
• The best way to grow it is to earn legit backlinks, publish link-worthy content, and keep your site technically solid.
  
• Internal links, mobile usability, and strategic content promotion all add up.
  
• Track your DA every month or so, but focus more on actions than analytics.
  
• It’s a long game. But the payoff, higher rankings, more traffic, more trust, is well worth it.

Also read: Types of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

FAQs: How to Improve Domain Authority