The honest answer: there is no universally "good" Domain Authority score, because DA is a comparative metric — it only means something next to the scores of the sites you compete with. A DA of 25 is excellent for a neighbourhood bakery and catastrophic for a national retailer. First, what DA actually is (and isn't). Domain Authority is a 1-100 score invented by Moz that predicts ranking ability, mostly from the quantity and quality of links pointing at a domain. Ahrefs' Domain Rating (DR) and Semrush's Authority Score are competing versions of the same idea. Critically: Google does not use DA, DR, or any third-party authority score. Google's own systems evaluate links, but no Google ranking factor called "domain authority" exists. Treat these scores as a thermometer built by a bystander — useful, approximate, and not the thing itself. With that caveat, here are working benchmarks for 2026: - DA 1-10: new sites and sites with essentially no backlinks. Every site starts here. - DA 10-20: typical small local business with a few citations and directory links. Perfectly viable for winning low-competition local searches. - DA 20-30: a solid local business that has earned some real links — local news mentions, association memberships, supplier pages. In most Canadian local markets, this is competitive. - DA 30-50: strong regional players, established niche publishers, and businesses that have invested in content and PR for years. - DA 50-70: major industry publications, large companies, well-known national brands. - DA 70+: CBC, Wikipedia, major newspapers, universities. Not a realistic or necessary target for a business. The only benchmark that matters: open the search results for the queries you want to win and check the authority scores of the pages holding positions 1-5. If they cluster at DA 30-40 and you're at 15, you've found a real gap worth closing. If you're at 35 and they're at 30, your problem isn't authority — it's content, relevance, or technical health. Three practical warnings from years of audits: 1. Don't chase the number. DA can be inflated with spammy links that add zero ranking power (and can attract penalties). We regularly see DA-40 sites with toxic profiles that rank worse than clean DA-20 sites. When a link vendor sells "DA 50+ guest posts," the score is usually manufactured. 2. Page-level beats domain-level. A specific, excellent, well-linked page on a modest domain routinely outranks a generic page on a powerful domain — especially for local and long-tail queries. This is precisely how small businesses beat directories and national brands. 3. Expect slow movement. DA uses a logarithmic scale: going from 10 to 20 might take months of legitimate link earning; 40 to 50 can take years. A realistic trajectory for a local business doing consistent digital PR and content is 5-10 points a year in the early stages. So use authority scores the way we do in audits: as a competitive gap detector and a trend line to check quarterly — never as a KPI in itself. Leads, rankings for money keywords, and organic revenue are the scoreboard; DA is one gauge on the dashboard.