Domain Authority
A score predicting how well a site will rank. Higher authority sites are more likely to be cited by AI.
What is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority is a metric created by Moz that estimates, on a scale of 1 to 100, how likely a domain is to rank in search results, based mainly on the quantity and quality of links pointing to it. Similar third-party scores exist under other names, such as Ahrefs' Domain Rating and Semrush's Authority Score. None of them is used by Google, which has stated it has no domain authority metric; they are predictions made by SEO tools from their own link indexes.
The scores are useful as rough comparisons between sites and as a way to prioritise link and mention opportunities, but they are easy to misread. They are relative, so a site's score can fall when other sites gain links; they are logarithmic, so moving from 20 to 30 is far easier than from 70 to 80; and they say nothing about topical relevance, which is what actually determines whether a site is a credible source on a given subject.
AI engines do not consult these scores. What they exhibit is a preference for sources that are well-established, widely referenced and consistent with other trusted sources on the topic. High-authority domains tend to have those properties, which is why they are cited often, but engines also cite niche sites, documentation and community threads when those are the best answer. Authority in the AI sense is topical and earned page by page.
Why it matters for AI search
Domain-level authority scores are a convenient proxy, but GEO decisions should not rest on them. The question that matters is whether engines treat the site as a credible source for the specific topic, which shows up directly in citation data. A modest-authority site with deep, accurate, well-structured coverage of a subject is regularly cited over a high-authority site with a thin page on it. Use the scores to triage outreach; use citation tracking to judge authority where it counts.
Related terms
Backlinks
Links from other websites to yours. Important for both SEO and AI authority signals.
Topical Authority
The perception that your site is an expert on specific topics. AI models prioritize topically authoritative sources.
E-E-A-T
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. Google's quality criteria that AI models also consider when evaluating content authority.
Source Attestation
The process by which an AI model verifies the authority and truthfulness of a source before citing it in an answer.
Frequently asked questions
Does Google use Domain Authority?+
No. Domain Authority is a Moz metric, and Google has said it does not have a domain authority score. Google's systems evaluate pages and sites using many signals, including links, but not any third-party score.
Do AI engines prefer high Domain Authority sites?+
They prefer sources that are established, widely referenced and consistent with other trusted sources, which correlates with high scores but is not the same thing. Engines regularly cite niche, lower-scored sites when they give the clearest answer on a specific topic.