What is domain authority, and how do you increase it?

Last updated 13 October 2026 · By the XKey team

Where does the term come from?

"Domain Authority" was made popular by the SEO company Moz, and other tools have their own versions with different names. They all work the same way: they look at which websites link to a site, and how strong those linking websites are themselves, then turn that into one number. XKey's free domain authority checker uses Common Crawl's public map of the web, which ranks every website by how central it is in the web's links.

How is XKey's domain authority worked out?

XKey's score comes from Common Crawl's public web graph: billions of links between websites, collected from a crawl of the web and refreshed every few months. Common Crawl ranks every website by harmonic centrality – roughly, how close a site is to every other site through chains of links. The most central site on the web scores 100, and the score falls on a logarithmic scale, so moving from 20 to 30 is far easier than from 70 to 80. Sites with no ranking fall back to a score based on how many different websites link to them.

Because the data is public, the score can't be bought or influenced by paying us, and you can check any site – yours, a competitor's or one you're thinking of asking for a link. Our guide to DA vs DR and other authority scores explains how this compares with Moz, Ahrefs and Semrush.

Does Google use domain authority?

No. Google has said it doesn't use any third-party authority score, and these numbers are estimates made by SEO tools, not by Google. But Google does use links as a major signal, so a site with strong, relevant links usually has a higher score and tends to rank more easily. Treat the score as a thermometer, not a goal.

What is a good domain authority score?

There's no universal good score – it's relative. A local plumber with a score of 15 can easily out-rank national sites with 60 for "plumber in Preston", because relevance and distance matter more for local searches. What matters is how you compare with the sites ranking for your searches. Put your site and your top competitors into the domain authority checker to see the gap.

How do I check my domain authority?

1. Open the domain authority checker and paste your site and up to 99 others, one per line.
2. Click any site in the results to see the websites that link to it in the backlink checker.
3. Check again every few months: the link data is refreshed quarterly, so the score moves slowly.

How can I increase domain authority?

Only by earning links from websites that are themselves trusted. There are no shortcuts that last.

• Get the links you're already owed – suppliers, trade bodies, accreditations, local groups you support.
• Find competitors' links you don't have – the link gap in the backlink checker lists sites that link to a competitor but not to you.
• Publish something worth linking to – real prices, a local guide, a checklist, your own data.
• Get in the local news with genuine stories.

Our guide to getting backlinks the honest way has twelve ideas.

What should I avoid?

Anything sold as "increase your DA fast": bought links, link packages, private blog networks and mass directory submissions. They can raise a tool's score for a while, but Google's spam systems are built to ignore or penalise exactly these links, and you can't easily undo the damage.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my domain authority 0?

The data found no other websites linking to yours. That's normal for a new site. A handful of good links from suppliers, trade bodies and local groups is the place to start.

Why do different tools give different scores?

Each tool crawls a different part of the web and uses its own formula. Compare sites using the same tool, never one tool's score with another's.

How long does it take to increase domain authority?

Months rather than weeks. The link data behind most scores is refreshed every few weeks or months, and good links are earned gradually.

Why did my domain authority go down?

Usually because a site that linked to you removed the link or dropped out of the latest crawl, or because other sites grew faster. Small moves between updates are normal – compare with your competitors rather than chasing the number.

Is domain authority the same as page authority?

No. Domain authority describes the whole website. A single page also gains strength from links to that page, which is why a strong guide on a small site can out-rank a weak page on a big one.