How to Increase Domain Authority (And What Won't Move It)

Domain authority is a third-party estimate of how strong a domain's inbound link profile is, not a Google metric, so "increasing" it means one thing: being linked from more distinct domains that the vendor rates. The levers in order are distinct referring domains first, the quality of those domains second, and everything else close to a rounding error. On-page work, posting frequency, site speed and social shares do not move it, because none of them is an input. In the Revised directory, as of 14 September 2026, the 2,102 listings that score 65 or more on the Revised Score have a median of 50 to 100 referring domains, against 10 to 50 across all 11,255 listings. That gap is the whole mechanism.

There are two honest routes from here. Earn links over months on the domain you have, or start on a domain that already has them.

What is domain authority actually measuring?

It is a vendor's model, and the vendor says so. Moz, who coined the term, defines it like this:

Domain Authority® (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz. It predicts how likely a website is to rank on search engine results pages (SERPs) compared to competitors. The score ranges from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating a greater ability to rank. Unlike Google's ranking algorithms, Domain Authority is not a direct ranking factor.

And on how it is computed:

Moz calculates Domain Authority using a machine learning algorithm that evaluates multiple factors, primarily focusing on backlink data.

Google's position is the more useful half. Its March 2024 core update post answers the question "What ranking signals does a site have?" and ends with this:

Please note: some third-party services provide "reputation" or "authority" scores for sites. These don't correspond to any of Google's own signals nor come from Google.

Google's ranking systems guide adds the part people skip, that ranking is mostly not a site-level contest at all:

Our ranking systems are designed to work on the page level, using a variety of signals and systems to understand how to rank individual pages. Site-wide signals and classifiers are also used and contribute to our understanding of pages.

So a vendor score is a proxy for one input, measured by a third party who cannot see the algorithm. Raising the proxy is still worth doing, because the thing it proxies is real. Google's own guide lists PageRank among its core ranking systems and says it "continues to be part of our core ranking systems". Links matter. The number is just somebody's reading of them.

What actually raises the number?

In order, with the honest weight on each.

More distinct referring domains. This is most of the score in every vendor's model. Ten links from one site is close to one link. One link each from ten sites is ten. If you only track one metric, track referring domains, and read referring domains vs backlinks for why the two counts diverge so far.

The quality of the linking domains. A link from a site that is itself widely referenced moves the number more than a link from a site nothing points at. This is why directory submissions and footer links do nothing: the linking domains have no strength to pass. Google lists "low-quality directory or bookmark site links" in its link spam policy examples.

Whether the link passes ranking credit. A link marked rel="sponsored", rel="ugc" or rel="nofollow" is treated differently. Google's own rel attribute documentation says links carrying these values "will generally not be followed". Vendor scores handle them inconsistently, which is one reason two tools disagree on the same site.

Topical relatedness. Weakly modelled by the vendors and strongly relevant to whether the link helps you rank. Worth caring about for the second reason rather than the first.

Time. Scores are recomputed on a crawl cycle. A link earned today shows up when the vendor next crawls the page holding it, which can be weeks.

What does not move it?

This is the shorter and more useful list.

The pattern is that everything on that list is work you control, and the score is a measurement of what other people did. That is uncomfortable and it is the reason the metric is worth anything at all.

How long does it take?

There is no published figure, and the honest answer is a range. A new domain starting from nothing needs a first link before the number leaves the floor, then dozens of distinct domains before it reaches the middle of the scale. Practitioners generally describe that as months to years of sustained work, and anybody offering you a timetable is guessing.

The scale makes it worse at the top. Moz is explicit that there is no target number:

There's no universally "good" DA score since it's a relative metric. A score of 30 might be excellent in one niche but low in another.

Read your competitors' referring-domain counts instead of chasing a number. That is a free check, and checking backlinks for free walks through it.

Using the Revised directory for this

The second honest route is starting on a domain that already has the links. Practically:

1. Open the high authority expired domains hub. It holds every listing with a Revised Score of 65 or more, which was 2,102 listings as of 14 September 2026, with a median of 50 to 100 referring domains.
2. In Quality, raise Referring domains rather than the score. Distinct domains are the lever this whole page is about, and the score is a summary of them.
3. Still in Quality, set Spam signal to the low band. Across the directory 84% of listings pass that screen, and on the authority hub it is 78%, because a high link count and a bad history correlate.
4. In History, set Age to five years or more, or use the aged domains hub, which had 409 listings with a median of 100 to 250 referring domains.
5. Read the Linked by column before revealing. Who links a domain tells you more than how many do.
6. Check any domain you already own with the domain authority checker and the backlink checker first, so you know what gap you are trying to close.

Filtering and sorting are free signed in or not. A plan buys reveals.

One condition. The references on an old domain were about a subject, and Google's expired domain abuse policy covers domains repurposed "primarily to manipulate search rankings by hosting content that provides little to no value to users". A domain whose subject is not yours has a number and no use. What Google's policy says is the verbatim text.

Neither route transfers anything. An old domain's links are links, they are already pointing at it, and a site you build on it starts with them. It does not inherit rankings, traffic or a score.

FAQ

How do I increase my domain authority fast? You do not. The score is mostly a count of distinct referring domains, and earning those takes months. The only fast version is starting on a domain that already has them.

What is a good domain authority score? There is no absolute answer. Moz says it is a relative metric and that 30 "might be excellent in one niche but low in another". Compare against the sites ranking for your terms.

Does domain authority affect Google rankings? Not directly. Google says third-party authority scores "don't correspond to any of Google's own signals nor come from Google". Links do affect ranking, and the score is a third party's estimate of them.

Will publishing more content raise my domain authority? Only if the content earns links from new domains. Volume by itself is not an input to any vendor score.

Do nofollow links increase domain authority? Inconsistently, and less than followed links. Google documents that links marked nofollow, sponsored or ugc "will generally not be followed", and vendors treat them differently from one another.

Can I buy domain authority? You can buy links that move a vendor's number, which is a policy violation Google names explicitly and does not move your rankings in the direction you want. Buying a domain that already has earned links is a different transaction.

If earning the links is the slow half and you would rather start further along, browse the Revised directory of expired domains with backlinks. Every listing shows its referring-domain band, the sources that link to it by name, and its spam screen before you reveal the name.