Search marketers talk about Domain Authority every day, but confusion still lingers. You hear numbers tossed around—30, 50, 70—without context. That leads to wrong goals and wasted effort. You need a clear, practical way to judge what “good” looks like for your website, your niche, and your competitors.
This guide gives you that clarity with current benchmarks, a simple scoring framework, and step-by-step ways to raise your score the right way. In this article, you will learn what Domain Authority means, how it’s calculated, what ranges qualify as good, and exactly how to improve it.
What Domain Authority Actually Measures
Domain Authority (DA) predicts how likely a domain or subdomain is to rank in search compared to other sites. It runs on a 1–100 scale. As your link profile grows in quality and breadth, your DA tends to rise. Because the scale is logarithmic, moving from 10 to 20 feels easier than moving from 50 to 60. That’s by design: higher tiers demand stronger, broader, and cleaner link equity.
DA is not a Google ranking factor. Treat it as a comparative yardstick. Benchmark your domain against the sites that already rank for your target keywords. When your DA is consistently higher than theirs, you typically enjoy easier ranking potential, assuming strong content and technical health.
How Domain Authority Works Behind the Scenes
Modern DA uses machine learning against a massive link index. The model looks for patterns that correlate with pages and domains that win rankings. While the exact recipe evolves, four inputs matter most:
- Distinct linking root domains. Many unique, relevant websites that link to you signal authority better than many links from one site.
- Link quality. Links from strong, trusted, topically relevant sites outweigh large piles of weak links.
- Link profile breadth. Coverage across varied, reputable sources—news, industry blogs, universities, associations—usually moves the needle.
- Cleanliness. Fewer spammy links and a lower risk profile help the model trust your domain.
Expect periodic recalculations. As the index discovers new links and retires old ones, scores shift. That’s normal.
So, What Is a “Good” Domain Authority? A Practical Answer
“Good” depends on your competitive set. Still, industry-wide benchmarks help set expectations for U.S. sites:
- DA 1–9: New or dormant sites. Most brand-new domains sit here for weeks to months.
• DA 10–24: Small sites with early traction. Local businesses and new blogs commonly land here.
• DA 25–39: Growing sites that publish consistently and earn occasional mentions.
• DA 40–59: Strong mid-market presence. Many established SaaS, agencies, and media brands live here.
• DA 60–79: National or category leaders with deep, clean link profiles.
• DA 80–100: Internet giants, mainstream media, and platforms.
For most small to mid-size U.S. businesses, DA 40–60 is a realistic “good” target. It signals a robust link profile that can compete for valuable, mid-to-high difficulty keywords. In very competitive niches like personal finance, consumer tech, or national news, you often need 60+ to win the hardest SERPs. In local service markets, 30–40 can already be “good,” especially if competitors sit in the 20s.
Use the Competitor Gap, Not a Magic Number
The smartest way to define “good” is to compute your competitor gap:
- Pick 25–50 priority keywords.
- Record the DA of the top five ranking domains for each keyword.
- Compute the median DA across that sample.
- Subtract your current DA.
If the median sits at 37 and you’re at 31, your gap is six points. Your short-term goal is to exceed that median by five to ten points. That cushion offsets normal monthly fluctuations and gives your best content room to rank.
Recent, Real-World Benchmarks U.S. Teams Use in 2025
- Local service SERPs (plumbers, dentists, HVAC, real estate): Median winning DA often lands between 25 and 45.
• B2B SaaS mid-tail terms: You frequently see winners in the 40–60 band.
• Health, finance, and tech head terms: Leaders skew 60–85+, and editorial giants dominate head queries.
• E-commerce category pages: National retailers push 60–80, while niche boutiques win on depth, UX, and topical authority even in the 30–50 range.
Treat these as directional. Always sample your own SERPs.
Why Good DA Still Matters (Even Though It’s Not a Ranking Factor)
You don’t rank because your DA rose; you rank because you earned trust through links and topical depth. DA mirrors that trust. Teams use DA to:
- Track link-building progress with a single, stable number.
• Qualify outreach prospects by looking at their own authority range.
• Size up SERP difficulty beyond pure keyword volume.
• Communicate progress to non-SEOs with a simple graph that trends upward as your authority grows.
The Four Levers That Actually Move DA
You lift DA by earning better links across more high-quality, relevant root domains while keeping your profile clean and your site crawlable. Focus here:
1) Publish Link-Worthy Assets
Create content people want to cite. High-earning formats include original data studies, industry benchmarks, interactive calculators, free tools, visual explainers, and comprehensive “how-it-works” guides. Niche glossaries, vendor landscapes, and annual reports also attract organic links if you keep them up to date. One excellent evergreen asset beats ten average blog posts.
2) Build Repeatable, Ethical Outreach
Outreach scales authority when it respects relevance and quality. Prioritize sites your audience already reads. Offer unique value—not generic pitches. Tie every pitch to a specific insight, dataset, or visual asset. When you publish a report, plan a mini-campaign: targeted journalist lists, expert roundups, partner quotes, and social cut-downs that push attention toward your asset.
3) Win Digital PR Moments
PR earns high-authority links fast. Time your releases around seasonal interest or newsjacking opportunities. Provide quotable stats, short expert commentary, and a clean press kit on-site. Keep your “About” and “Media” pages ready with leadership bios and product one-pagers so journalists can verify your legitimacy at a glance.
4) Strengthen Internal Linking and Technical Foundations
A clean architecture helps crawlers find, evaluate, and surface your best pages. Use descriptive anchor text, surface your cornerstone resources from key hubs, and give important pages multiple internal paths. Keep site speed fast on mobile, fix broken links, adopt HTTPS everywhere, and make sitemaps and robots rules straightforward. Authority without crawlability leaks value.
Setting Targets: The Tier-by-Tier Path
Here’s a sensible progression for U.S. brands:
- From DA 0–10 to 20–25: Ship one standout asset and pitch 50–100 laser-relevant prospects. Build five to ten high-quality, on-topic links from unique domains. Strengthen internal linking from your homepage and category hubs.
• From DA 20–25 to 30–35: Add one net-new evergreen asset and one refresh of your best piece. Land 10–15 editorial links over a quarter. Target partner, association, and university resource pages where relevant.
• From DA 30–35 to 40–45: Launch a small digital PR campaign anchored on new data. Secure coverage from niche trade media. Add structured internal links to your money pages and build topic clusters around them.
• From DA 40–45 to 50+: Move beyond one-offs. Establish a quarterly research cadence, build media relationships, and diversify link sources. Improve UX signals—faster pages, clearer navigation, stronger page experience—so new authority translates into rankings.
Quality Beats Quantity: How to Judge Link Prospects
Ignore raw link counts. Evaluate prospects with three questions:
- Relevance: Would your customers realistically read this site?
- Authority and trust: Does this site itself earn links from reputable, editorial sources?
- Placement value: Will your link sit in the main editorial content, with meaningful, descriptive anchor text, on a page that gets crawled and seen?
If a site fails any one of these, pass. A few high-quality wins outperform dozens of low-value placements—and protect your DA from volatility.
Avoid These Common DA Mistakes
- Chasing a universal number. You only need to beat your real competitors.
• Buying mass links. It risks penalties and rarely moves DA long-term.
• Ignoring anchor text. “Click here” everywhere wastes context.
• Neglecting internal links. Without them, your best pages stay invisible.
• Measuring DA alone. Pair it with organic traffic growth, non-brand rankings, and revenue from search.
Building Topic Authority That Compounds DA Gains
DA rises fastest when your site looks unmistakably expert on a focused domain of knowledge. Map your topics into clusters:
- Pick three to five core themes tied to products or services.
- For each, create one definitive cornerstone guide.
- Surround each cornerstone with 6–12 supporting articles that answer adjacent, specific questions.
- Link supporting articles to the cornerstone and cross-link laterally where it helps the reader.
- Refresh quarterly with new data, examples, and visuals.
As clusters mature, outreach becomes easier. Publishers recognize your brand as a reference source. Your hit rate rises. Your DA follows.
A Simple, Quarterly DA Improvement Plan
Month 1: Research and produce one linkable asset. Draft a targeted outreach list of 150 prospects across niche media, associations, and relevant blogs. Tighten internal links to your existing cornerstones.
Month 2: Launch outreach in waves. Offer exclusive embargoes to a few high-value publications. Publish a short executive commentary and an infographic or chart pack to make coverage easier.
Month 3: Refresh an older asset with new data. Publish a short follow-up (e.g., “mid-year update”). Expand your digital PR list. Review links earned, identify the best-performing pitches, and double-down.
Repeat next quarter. Track DA, linking root domains, referring traffic, non-brand keyword growth, and the share of links landing in core topic clusters.
When Lower DA Still Wins—and Why
You can outrank bigger domains if you dominate intent, nail topical coverage, and deliver superior UX. For mid-tail queries where searchers want depth and clarity, a laser-focused, well-structured page often beats a high-DA generalist. That’s why your content model matters as much as your authority model. Use DA to choose your battles wisely, then win those battles with exceptional relevance.
How Long Does It Take to Reach a “Good” DA?
Timelines vary with resources, content quality, and niche competitiveness. Typical ranges look like this:
- New U.S. local service site with steady publishing and ethical outreach: DA 25–35 in 6–9 months.
• Niche B2B SaaS with quarterly research reports and consistent PR: DA 40–55 in 9–15 months.
• Consumer brand breaking into national media: DA 60+ often requires multi-quarter PR cycles, partnerships, and sustained investment.
The bigger your ambition, the more you need repeatable systems, not one-off wins.
Measuring Progress Without Chasing Vanity
Create an authority dashboard you review monthly:
- Domain Authority and linking root domains (trend, not one datapoint).
• Percentage of links from topically relevant sites.
• Ratio of editorial in-content links to low-value footer/sidebar links.
• Growth in non-brand organic clicks.
• Rankings for five cornerstone pages tied to revenue.
If DA stalls but non-brand traffic rises and cornerstone rankings climb, you are still succeeding. Authority exists to support outcomes, not to become the outcome.
What Is a Good Domain Authority? The Bottom-Line Answer
A good DA is the score that beats the median of your ranking competitors by five to ten points for your target keyword set. For many U.S. small and mid-size brands, that means aiming for 40–60. In elite national markets, you often need 60+. In local niches, 30–40 can already be strong if your SERP shows modest authority.
Anchor your strategy in that competitor gap, build link-worthy assets, practice ethical outreach, and maintain a clean, crawlable site. Your DA will rise—and your rankings, traffic, and revenue will rise with it.
Quick FAQ: Straight Answers for Busy Teams
Is DA a Google metric? No. It’s a third-party predictive metric. Use it for comparisons and planning.
Does DA directly improve rankings? No. Better links and topical authority do. DA reflects those gains.
How often does DA change? Expect periodic recalculations aligned with index updates and model refinements. Month-to-month movement is normal.
Can I jump from 20 to 60 fast? Not sustainably. The scale is logarithmic. You need breadth, quality, and time.
Should I buy links to speed things up? No. It risks penalties and rarely produces lasting authority. Invest in assets and PR instead.
What if my DA drops suddenly? Check index changes, lost high-value links, technical issues, and spammy new links. Rebuild quality; don’t panic.
Is DA the only KPI I need? No. Pair it with non-brand organic traffic, revenue from search, and rankings for cornerstone pages.
Two-Step Action Plan You Can Start This Week
- Audit your SERPs. Gather DA for the top five domains across 25–50 priority keywords. Compute the median and your gap.
- Choose one linkable asset to ship in the next 30 days. Build a targeted outreach list. Draft three angles for journalists and three for partners. Put a review date on the calendar to assess links earned and refine your playbook.
Work that plan quarter after quarter. You’ll see the compounding effect that makes “good” DA both attainable and sustainable.