Domain Authority is a proprietary score developed by Moz that attempts to predict a website's ranking potential on a scale from 1 to 100. It's calculated using dozens of factors, primarily the number and quality of inbound links pointing to your domain. A new site starts near zero, while sites like Wikipedia or government domains sit above 90. DA is logarithmic—jumping from 20 to 30 is easier than moving from 70 to 80. You can't directly increase DA because it's a third-party metric, not a Google ranking factor. Google uses its own internal authority signals. That said, the actions that improve DA also improve actual search rankings: earning backlinks from sites with strong link profiles, publishing content that naturally attracts links, and avoiding spammy or low-quality link sources. Focus on links from relevant, editorially-given sources—industry publications, local news, universities, or niche blogs with real audiences. At Ottawa SEO Inc., we treat DA as a rough benchmark for comparing sites in the same niche or tracking progress over months, not a target in itself. If you're at DA 15 and a competitor sits at DA 35, you likely need 50–100 more quality links to close that gap, depending on their profile. We prioritize link velocity and diversity: a mix of contextual editorial links, local citations, and digital PR placements. Watch out for inflated DA from spammy link schemes. A site can have DA 40 but rank poorly if its links come from PBNs or irrelevant directories. Conversely, a DA 25 site with tight topical relevance and clean links often outranks a DA 50 site with a messy profile. Check your DA monthly using Moz's free tool or Link Explorer, but spend your energy on earning links that drive referral traffic and rankings, not chasing the score itself.