Domain Authority (DA) scores a whole website on a 100-point scale; Page Authority (PA) scores a single URL on the same scale. Both are Moz estimates of how likely something is to rank, built mostly from links, and Google uses neither. DA tells you how strong a site is overall; PA tells you how strong one page is, which is the number that matters when you are choosing where a link should sit.
You hit this question when a link prospect or a checker tool shows two numbers side by side, DA 48 and PA 22, and you have to decide which one to believe. The short answer is both, because they are measuring different things.
What is the difference between DA and PA?
The difference is scope: DA measures the domain, PA measures the page. Everything else follows from that.
| Domain Authority (DA) | Page Authority (PA) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it scores | The whole domain (example.com) | One URL (example.com/guide) |
| Built from | Links to every page on the domain | Links to that URL, plus the domain's strength |
| Scale | 1 to 100, relative to the whole web | 1 to 100, relative to the whole web |
| Moves when | The site gains or loses referring domains | That page gains or loses links, or the site does |
| How fast it moves | Slowly; it reflects years of links | Faster; one strong link can lift it |
| Best used for | Sizing up a site or a competitor | Judging one page as a link source or a ranking rival |
| Used by Google? | No | No |
Both scores come from Moz, both run from 1 to 100, and both are built from the same link index. What is domain authority explains the domain-level score in detail; the rest of this page is about how the two interact.
What is page authority?
Page Authority is Moz's prediction of how well one specific page will rank, on the same 1 to 100 scale as DA. It is calculated from the links pointing at that URL, their quality, and the authority of the domain the page sits on. A page on a strong domain starts with an advantage, but a page with no links of its own will still score well below its domain.
That last point is the practical one. A site can have a DA of 60 while a two-week-old blog post on it sits at PA 15, because the post has inherited some domain strength but earned no links. The homepage of the same site might be at PA 65, above the domain score, because it collects most of the site's inbound links.
Why DA and PA disagree
They disagree because links are not spread evenly across a site. Most domains have a handful of pages that collect nearly all of the inbound links (the homepage, a few well-known guides, a tool) and hundreds of pages with none. DA averages the whole picture into one number; PA shows you the page you are actually looking at.
An example with invented numbers: a publisher with DA 45 has a homepage at PA 52, a popular statistics page at PA 44, and a routine news article at PA 18. A link from the statistics page is far more valuable than a link from the news article, even though a DA checker reports the same 45 for both. That is why does link position on a page matter and homepage links vs inner page links both end up pointing at the same lesson: the page the link lives on matters more than the domain it lives on.
Which matters more when you are choosing a link?
PA for the specific page, DA for the overall trust of the site, in that order. A link's ranking value flows from the page it sits on, not from the domain as a whole, and Google's own link guidance describes links as a signal for "determining the relevancy of pages" and discovering new ones. A page with no links of its own has little to pass on.
A workable checklist before you accept or trade a link:
- Is the page relevant to your topic? This outranks both scores.
- Does the page have traffic or links of its own? A PA well below the site's DA usually means neither.
- Is the site real? DA plus a look at organic traffic catches link farms that have inflated one number but not the other.
- Is the link in the body, followed, and surrounded by related text? How to vet a link swap partner covers the full check.
A DA 25 site with a PA 30 page that ranks and gets read is a better link source than a DA 55 site offering a spot on an orphaned page at PA 8.
Does Google use DA or PA?
No. Google has said this repeatedly about Domain Authority, and Page Authority is the same metric at page level. Search Engine Journal's record of those statements includes John Mueller saying in February 2020 that "we don't use domain authority at all in our algorithms" and in 2022 that "Google doesn't use it at all." In a 2020 interview he added that Google does have "some metrics that are more on a site level, some metrics that are more on a page level," which is the closest Google has come to confirming that it thinks about sites and pages separately. Google's own page-level link signal is PageRank, and it has never published a domain-level score.
So neither number is a ranking factor. Both are useful for comparison, and PA is the better proxy for the thing Google actually counts: links to a specific page.
How to raise page authority on a page that matters
Get links to that URL specifically, and link to it from your own strongest pages. Three steps:
- Internal links from your highest-PA pages. Your homepage and best-linked guides pass authority inward. Link from them to the page with a descriptive anchor; Google's guidance says good anchor text is "descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant." What are internal links in SEO covers the structure.
- External links that point at the page, not the homepage. Guest posts, resource page mentions and link trades all count more when the target is the page you want to rank.
- Make the page citable. A number, a tool or a definition that other writers need to reference earns links without outreach.
For step two, Backlinkster trades in-content links between site owners in related niches, and the link you submit must be an article URL on your own domain rather than the homepage, which is exactly where page-level authority is built. Each swap is verified by API.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between DA and PA? Domain Authority scores a whole domain; Page Authority scores one URL. Both are Moz metrics on a 1 to 100 scale built from links. DA tells you how strong a site is overall, PA tells you how strong one page is, and PA is the better guide to how much a link from that page is worth.
Which is more important, DA or PA? PA, when you are judging a specific page as a link source or a ranking competitor, because link value flows from the page. DA, when you are sizing up a site or a competitor overall. Relevance matters more than either.
Can page authority be higher than domain authority? Yes. A homepage or a widely cited guide often scores above its domain, because it collects most of the site's inbound links. The reverse is more common: most inner pages sit well below the domain score.
Does Google use DA or PA for rankings? No. Google has said at least seven times since 2016 that it does not use Domain Authority, and PA is the same vendor metric at page level. Google's own page-level link signal is PageRank. Use DA and PA to compare, not as targets.
What is a good page authority score? One at or above the PA of the pages ranking in the top five for your keyword. Like DA, it is relative. A new page on an established site often starts between 10 and 20 and rises as it earns links.
The bottom line
DA is the site, PA is the page, and neither is a Google number. When you are evaluating a link, look at the page first: its PA, its traffic and its relevance. When you are evaluating a competitor or a keyword, look at the domain. And when you want one of your own pages to rank, build links to that page, because that is the only thing either score was ever measuring.
Related: What is domain authority? · Is a domain authority of 20 good? · Domain Authority vs Domain Rating · Homepage links vs inner page links · What is PageRank? · How to vet a link swap partner