Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that aims to predict a website’s ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). DA ranges from one to 100, with higher scores indicating a greater likelihood of achieving higher rankings. However, DA has been criticized as a flawed metric that is often misused by marketers and abused by bad actors in the industry.

The concept of DA is similar to the “error” metric in baseball, which measures what an observer thinks should have been accomplished. This metric was created for an earlier era of the game when conditions and circumstances were different. Similarly, DA was developed for a different time when extensive lists of popular websites were needed.

Despite growing awareness of the limitations of DA, it continues to be used as a key performance indicator (KPI) by some marketers. Many SEO experts have pointed out that DA doesn’t necessarily correspond to improvements in other real KPIs, such as organic channel growth.

A brief history of Moz’s Domain Authority reveals that it was first released in 2006 by Moz co-founder Rand Fishkin and his team of SEO experts. Initially, DA was based on link metrics like MozRank and MozTrust, as well as factors like domain age, link profile size, and content quality. In 2019, Moz introduced the second version of the algorithm, developed by Russ Jones, which relied more on their own Link Explorer product.

One issue with DA is that it evaluates domains instead of individual webpages, unlike Google’s PageRank. Google has repeatedly stated that they don’t consider authority at the domain level. While some signals are assessed at the domain level, authority is not one of them. Moz’s Page Authority is another metric they offer that aligns more closely with PageRank but doesn’t receive as much attention as DA.

Another flaw of DA is its weak correlation with Google rankings. Statistical analysis has shown that DA doesn’t strongly correlate with actual search engine rankings on Google. Engagement with webpages, rather than DA, has been found to have a greater influence on rankings.

In conclusion, Domain Authority is a flawed metric that is often misused and abused in the industry. It was developed for a different time and doesn’t align with Google’s approach to ranking websites. Despite its limitations, DA continues to be used as a KPI by some marketers. However, it is important to reassess the role of DA in SEO efforts and consider other more relevant metrics for measuring success in search engine rankings.