What Is Page Authority?
Page Authority (PA) is a score developed by Moz, the American SEO software company, to predict how well a single URL is likely to rank on search engine results pages. It is expressed as a logarithmic number between 1 and 100, where higher numbers indicate a greater ability to rank. Because the scale is logarithmic, moving a page from PA 20 to PA 30 is considerably easier than moving it from PA 60 to PA 70.
PA is calculated using Moz's own link index and a machine-learning model that factors in dozens of link-related signals. The most influential inputs are the number and quality of external backlinks pointing to the specific page, the authority of those linking pages (which itself depends on their own backlinks), and the relevance of the linking domains. On-page content quality, page speed, and technical SEO factors are not directly incorporated into PA, though they influence organic rankings through Google's own algorithm.
It is important to understand that Page Authority is not a Google metric. Google does not use PA in its ranking algorithm and has not confirmed any direct relationship between PA and search position. PA is best understood as a third-party approximation of a page's link strength, useful for comparing the relative competitiveness of pages targeting similar keywords. When evaluating a link opportunity, an SEO professional might check the PA of the linking page as one indicator of how much value that link could pass. When assessing SERP competition for a target keyword, comparing the PA of ranking pages to the PA of your own page gives a rough sense of how much link equity you need to build to become competitive.
Closely related is Domain Authority (DA), also a Moz metric, which applies the same concept to entire domains rather than individual pages. A page on a high-DA domain often starts with a PA advantage over a page on a low-DA domain, even before any links are built directly to that page, because internal link equity flows from the strong domain. This is why publishing content on established South African media properties such as Business Insider South Africa or Daily Maverick can produce faster ranking results than publishing identical content on a new site, even when the content quality is equal.
Page Authority In Practice
The scenario below is an illustrative example, not a Juicy Designs client result. The figures indicate the scale of effect that page authority work typically produces, so treat them as indicative rather than measured.
Picture a Pretoria-based accounting firm trying to rank its "tax practitioner services Pretoria" page. Using Moz's Link Explorer, the SEO team checks the PA of the pages currently ranking on page one for that query and might find a range of roughly PA 28 to PA 47. If their own page sits at around PA 21, that would suggest a gap in link equity that needs to be addressed.
The team could then identify three link-building opportunities: a listing and editorial mention from the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) website, a guest article in a regional business publication, and a mention in a Pretoria Business Hub directory. If each of these linking pages has a PA above 30, acquiring the three dofollow links would be expected to raise the firm's page PA into the competitive range for the target query, because the links originate from topically relevant, authoritative sources rather than generic directories.
After the links are acquired and indexed, the team would re-check PA over the following weeks using Moz. They could plausibly see the page climb from around PA 21 to something in the region of PA 31, alongside a shift from roughly position 14 to position 7 for their primary keyword. PA would not cause the ranking improvement directly, but the link equity that raised PA is the same equity that would contribute to the improved position in Google's results.
For South African businesses monitoring their SEO progress, tracking PA alongside Google Search Console impressions and clicks gives a fuller picture of authority development than rankings alone. PA changes slowly and with some lag relative to Moz's crawl schedule, so it is best reviewed monthly rather than daily. Comparing PA growth against competitor pages targeting the same queries helps prioritise which pages need additional link building effort.
FAQ
Is Page Authority a Google ranking factor?
No. Page Authority is a proprietary metric created by Moz and is not used by Google in its ranking algorithm. Google uses its own internal PageRank and a range of other signals. PA is useful as a proxy for evaluating link quality and competitive difficulty, but improving PA does not directly cause Google rankings to improve. Improving the underlying factors that raise PA, namely earning quality backlinks, does improve Google rankings.
What is a good Page Authority score for a South African business website?
Most new or mid-sized South African business websites fall in the PA 20-40 range. Established local brands with consistent link building activity often reach PA 40-55. Major South African media properties and large e-commerce sites tend to sit in the PA 55-70 range. Because PA is relative, what matters most is how your page compares to the pages you are competing with for a given search query, not the raw number itself.