What Are High Domain Authority Backlinks?

A high domain authority backlink is a link from a site whose Moz Domain Authority is high, commonly 50 or above on the 1 to 100 scale. It shows the site has many strong links pointing at it, not that your link is relevant, read, or counted by Google, so check traffic and topic first.

Picture the offer in your inbox: "DA 70 guest post, $150, dofollow." The number looks like a bargain, and you cannot tell whether the site is a real publication or an old domain with nothing on it. This page is about telling those apart.

What counts as a high domain authority backlink?

There is no official threshold, but most SEOs treat DA 50 and above as high and DA 70 and above as rare. The scale is non-linear. Moz's own line, quoted by PPC Land, is that "climbing from 20 to 30 is considerably easier than climbing from 70 to 80," so a DA 70 site has far fewer peers than a DA 30 one. If you are unsure how the number is produced, how is domain authority calculated walks through the inputs.

What the label does mean: the linking domain has many distinct sites linking to it. What it does not mean: that the page carrying your link inherits that strength. A link buried on page nine of a forum thread on a DA 80 site is not a DA 80 link.

Are high DA backlinks worth it?

Yes when the page is relevant and read, and much less so when the score is the only thing going for it. Three reasons the number overstates the value:

Google does not use it. Search Engine Journal's report on John Mueller's 2018 AMA concluded that "site/domain authority does not exist as a metric that is in use at Google." DA is a proxy, and a proxy can be gamed.
Price tracks traffic more than the score. PressWhizz analysed 22,703 paid placements in July 2026 and found sites with more than 100,000 monthly organic visits sold for roughly 218% more than sites under 1,000 visits, while authority's influence was "surprisingly limited until the very top end". Sellers know traffic is the real asset.
High DA sellers are scarce. In Ahrefs' outreach to 450 sites across nine niches, only 12.6% were willing to sell a link, at an average of $361.44 (Ahrefs). The study is a few years old, but the shape holds: the sites worth having rarely sell.

How to judge a high DA backlink in five checks

Run these in order and stop at the first failure.

Is the page indexed? Search the exact URL in Google. Unindexed pages pass nothing.
Does the site have traffic? A DA 60 domain with 200 monthly visits is often an expired domain with old links. Ask for a traffic estimate.
Is it on topic? A link from a site your customers read beats one from a site about something else, even at lower DA.
Is the link in the body of an article? In-content links sit among real text. Footer, sidebar and author-box links are weaker. Which backlink is best ranks the placements.
Does the site sell links openly? Google's spam policies list "buying or selling links for ranking purposes" as link spam unless the link carries rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". A site with a visible price list for dofollow links is a risk, however high its DA.

High DA or relevant: which link wins?

A relevant DA 35 link usually beats an irrelevant DA 70 link. Take an example with invented numbers: a project-management SaaS gets a link from a DA 38 blog read by operations managers and a link from a DA 72 lifestyle site that publishes anything for a fee. The first sends visitors who might sign up and tells search engines the site belongs in its topic. The second sends no one and sits among dozens of unrelated outbound links. Pick the first, then try to land both honestly.

Where to get high DA backlinks without paying for them

Earned links from high-authority sites are slow, and each route trades effort for odds:

Original data or a tool that journalists and bloggers cite. High effort, high ceiling.
Expert quotes to reporters covering your topic.
Guest articles pitched to a gap in a real publication's archive. See how to write a guest post that gets accepted.
Link exchanges with real site owners at a similar level. The 1-for-1 swap is the least glamorous and most repeatable route. On Backlinkster each swap is verified by API and the link must be an article URL on the member's own domain.

High-authority free backlinks (DA 50+) lists specific platforms and tactics for the free route.

Frequently asked questions

What DA is considered high? Most practitioners call 50 and above high and 70 and above exceptional. Because the scale is non-linear, compare against the sites ranking for your keyword rather than a fixed cut-off.

Do high DA backlinks improve rankings? They can, when relevant and editorial, but the DA figure itself is not a Google signal. The link's page, topic and placement decide the effect.

Is a DA 90 link always better than a DA 50 link? No. A DA 90 site with a thousand outbound links on the page passes little to each. A focused DA 50 article that links to you once can do more.

How much does a high DA backlink cost? Paid guest posts averaged $164 across 22,703 placements in PressWhizz's July 2026 data, and higher-traffic sites cost more. Paid links should be tagged sponsored, which changes what you are buying. See how much guest posting costs.

Can I get high DA backlinks for free? Yes, through editorial outreach, data-led content and link swaps. It takes weeks, not days, and no honest source can promise a specific DA.