Your SEO agency proudly reports a Domain Authority of 35 and you have no idea whether that is good, bad or irrelevant. Here is the honest answer South African businesses rarely get: these scores are useful comparison tools, but they are not what Google ranks on, and treating them as a target leads you astray. This guide explains what Domain Authority and Page Authority actually measure, why neither is a Google ranking factor, what a "good" score looks like in the South African market, and how to grow real authority safely.

What is domain authority?

Domain Authority (DA) is a score from 0 to 100, created by Moz, that predicts how likely a whole website is to rank in search results. It is calculated mainly from your backlink profile, the number and quality of sites linking to you. Higher generally means stronger ranking potential across the entire domain.

DA is a relative, comparative metric. A DA of 40 means little in isolation, but it tells you a lot when set against competitors. It is best used to gauge where you sit in your market, not as a number to chase for its own sake. If you want the textbook definition, see our glossary entry on domain authority and how it relates to your wider backlink profile.

How page authority differs from domain authority

Page Authority (PA) is also a 0 to 100 Moz score, but it predicts the ranking potential of a single page rather than the whole site. A homepage might have high DA while a new blog post has low PA. DA measures the domain; PA measures one URL. Both rise as quality backlinks accumulate.

The practical difference: your domain can be authoritative overall while individual pages still need to earn their own links and relevance to rank. A new service page on a strong domain starts with an advantage but still has to prove itself. This is why a fresh page on a big site does not automatically rank for competitive terms. Our glossary covers page authority in more detail.

Are domain authority and page authority Google ranking factors?

No. Neither Domain Authority nor Page Authority is a Google ranking factor. They are third-party metrics built by Moz to estimate ranking strength, not signals Google uses. Google has its own internal systems and has confirmed it does not use any "domain authority" score. Treat DA and PA as useful proxies, never as the target itself.

This is the single most important point and the one most often misunderstood in South Africa. Ahrefs, Semrush and others publish their own equivalents (Domain Rating, Authority Score), each calculated differently, so the same site scores differently on each tool. They are educated estimates of authority, helpful for benchmarking against competitors, but optimising to raise a third-party number rather than to genuinely earn trust and links is backwards. Improve the real signals, links, content, relevance, and the scores follow.

“Clients walk in worried about a Domain Authority number their previous agency obsessed over. We reset the conversation. DA is a thermometer, not the cure. We focus on earning relevant links, publishing content worth citing and fixing the technical foundations, and the score climbs as a by-product. Chasing the number directly is how businesses end up with risky link schemes and a Google penalty.”

Cobus van der Westhuizen, Founder & Digital Strategist, Juicy Designs, reviewed and verified February 2026

What counts as a "good" domain authority score

A good Domain Authority is relative to your niche and market, not an absolute number. A local Cape Town plumber competing with other local plumbers might do well at DA 20 to 30, while a national South African retailer competing nationally may need 50 to 60 or higher. Always benchmark against your actual competitors, not a generic target.

Pull the DA of the sites ranking on page one for your priority keywords. If they cluster around 25, you do not need 50; you need to edge past 25 with better content and links. Chasing a national-scale score when you compete locally wastes budget. The right "good" number is "a little better than the people you are actually up against". For location-led businesses, our local SEO approach focuses on the signals that move the needle in a specific area.

How do you improve domain authority?

Improve Domain Authority by earning high-quality, relevant backlinks naturally. Publish content worth linking to, guest post on reputable South African publications, claim quality directory listings, and fix technical SEO so search engines can crawl and trust your site. Authority grows from genuine signals over time, not shortcuts.

The practical levers for a South African business:

• Create genuinely linkable content. Original research, local data, detailed guides and real case studies earn links because people cite them. This is the durable foundation, links you earn rather than chase. Strong content marketing sits at the heart of it.
• Guest post on reputable SA publications. A contributed article on a respected local industry site or news outlet earns a relevant, authoritative link and puts your brand in front of the right audience.
• Claim quality directory listings. Legitimate, relevant directories and your Google Business Profile build a baseline of trustworthy citations, especially valuable for local businesses.
• Fix technical SEO. Crawlability, site speed, HTTPS and a clean structure let search engines properly assess and trust your site, the groundwork that lets everything else count. Work through our technical SEO audit checklist to find the gaps.

FirstPageSage puts the median return on SEO investment at roughly 748%, and with BrightEdge data showing organic search drives around half of all website traffic, the authority you build compounds into a durable, cost-effective channel rather than a recurring ad bill. Pairing authority work with entity SEO helps search engines understand who you are and what you are an authority on. Our ongoing SEO service packages start from R5,000 per month, and we scope every engagement to your market rather than a vanity number.

You improve Domain Authority by earning high-quality, relevant backlinks, publishing linkable content, claiming legitimate directory and Google Business Profile listings, and fixing technical SEO. DA and PA are 0 to 100 Moz scores and are not Google ranking factors. A good DA is relative to your competitors, not an absolute target. Never buy backlinks: it violates Google's spam policies and risks a manual penalty. Source: Juicy Designs SEO practice, South Africa, 2026; Moz; FirstPageSage; BrightEdge.

Should you ever buy backlinks to boost authority?

Never buy backlinks. Buying links violates Google's spam policies and risks a manual penalty that can wipe out your rankings entirely, far more damage than any short-term gain. It also pollutes your profile with low-quality links that third-party scores may briefly reward but Google detects and discounts. Earn links; do not purchase them.

The temptation is real when authority feels slow to build, but bought-link networks are exactly what Google's spam systems are designed to catch. A South African business that buys a package of cheap links can find its hard-won rankings vanish overnight, with recovery taking months. The black-hat shortcut is a liability, not a strategy. If you are weighing where to invest while authority compounds, our digital marketing and Google Ads teams can keep leads flowing without putting your domain at risk.

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