How to Increase Your Domain Authority: 15 Proven Tactics

To increase your Domain Authority, earn more links from relevant, trusted websites, from as many different domains as you can. Domain Authority is Moz's 1 to 100 estimate of backlink strength, so it goes up when the links behind it get stronger.

There's no setting that raises DA overnight. Most sites see real movement over 3 to 12 months. Below are 15 tactics in priority order, plus the shortcuts that waste money or put the site at risk.

How Domain Authority increases

Domain Authority increases when Moz's model sees a stronger link profile on your domain than before, relative to everyone else. Three inputs drive most of that change:

1. More unique linking domains. 10 links from 10 sites count for more than 50 links from 1 site.
2. Stronger linking domains. A link from a well-linked site carries more weight than one from a site nobody links to.
3. Fewer spam signals. Links from link farms and hacked sites add little and can make the whole profile look manipulated.

Because DA is relative, your score can also drop when competitors grow faster. Keep that in mind when you check progress. Our guide to what Domain Authority is explains the model in more detail.

Link-building tactics that increase Domain Authority

These 6 tactics produce most of the gains for most sites.

1. Earn links from many unique domains. Track "referring domains" as your main link KPI. Raw link counts can be padded by sitewide footer links that add almost nothing.
2. Choose relevance over raw authority. A DA 35 site in your exact niche usually sends more useful traffic and topical signal than a DA 70 site about something unrelated.
3. Publish linkable assets. Original data, free tools, templates and calculators earn links on their own. Reporters and bloggers cite sources; give them one.
4. Reclaim unlinked brand mentions. Search for your brand name and product names. Sites that mention you without a link are the easiest people to ask.
5. Fix broken backlinks with 301 redirects. If a linked page was moved or deleted, redirect the old URL to the closest live page. Google explains redirects in its redirects documentation.
6. Answer journalist and expert requests. Expert quote platforms and niche podcasts often link back to the people they quote.

Technical fixes that protect Domain Authority

Technical problems don't lower DA directly. They waste links you've already earned.

7. Keep HTTPS valid everywhere. An expired certificate or mixed http/https versions splits links across duplicate URLs and scares visitors off.
8. Pick one canonical version of each page. Use canonical tags and redirects so links don't spread across www, non-www and parameter versions. Google's canonical URL guide covers the details.
9. Clean up spammy backlinks. Watch for sudden spikes of links from unrelated foreign-language sites or link farms. Check your Spam Score every few months.
10. Keep important pages crawlable. Broken internal links, orphan pages and stray noindex tags stop authority from reaching the pages that need it.

Content and site-growth tactics

Content doesn't raise DA by itself. It gives other sites a reason to link to you.

11. Publish steadily for a long time. A site that adds useful pages every month for 2 years builds more links than one that publishes 50 posts in week 1 and stops.
12. Build strong internal links. Link from your most-linked pages to the pages you want to rank, so authority earned by one page reaches the rest.
13. Go deep on a narrow topic. Sites that cover one subject thoroughly get cited as references more often than sites that cover everything thinly.
14. Update and re-promote old winners. Refresh a post that already earned links with new data, then tell the people who linked to it.
15. Build real relationships in your niche. Partners, suppliers, customers and event organizers often link to businesses they work with.

Domain Authority tactics that don't work

These shortcuts cost money and can add risk for little or no lasting gain.

• Buying links in bulk. Google's link spam policy lists buying or selling links for ranking purposes as a violation. Cheap packages also tend to raise your Spam Score.
• Large-scale link exchanges. "Link to me and I'll link to you" across dozens of unrelated sites is also listed in Google's link spam policy.
• Private blog networks (PBNs). They can lift DA for a while, and the links can be devalued or trigger action once detected.
• "DA boost" services. Many sell links from sites built to look strong on third-party metrics. Check the traffic of the linking sites before paying for anything.

How long it takes to increase Domain Authority

Most sites need 3 to 12 months of steady link building to see a clear DA increase. New links have to be crawled by Moz first, and the scale is logarithmic, so each point costs more as you go up.

A new site going from DA 1 to DA 15 is common in its first year. Going from DA 40 to DA 50 can take several years. If you're starting from zero, read our guide on Domain Authority for new websites.

Why increasing Domain Authority matters

Increasing Domain Authority matters because the links behind it help you compete for harder keywords. A higher score means you can target terms your competitors already rank for, and new pages tend to rank faster.

DA itself is a report card. The real benefit comes from the links, traffic and trust that produce the score.

Track your progress

Check your DA, PA, DR and Spam Score once a month with our free DA PA checker. Compare against the sites ranking above you with the domain comparison tool to see the size of the gap. If your score falls, our guide on why Domain Authority drops helps you find the cause.

Frequently asked questions

How can I increase my Domain Authority fast?

There is no safe fast method. The quickest legitimate wins are reclaiming unlinked mentions and redirecting broken pages that already have links.

Does content increase Domain Authority?

Not directly. Content increases DA when it earns links from other domains.

Do internal links increase Domain Authority?

No. DA counts links from other domains. Internal links help spread authority to individual pages, which can raise their Page Authority.

Why did my Domain Authority not change after building links?

Moz may not have crawled the new links yet, or competitors grew at the same pace. Give it 4 to 8 weeks before judging.

Conclusion

To increase your Domain Authority, earn relevant links from many trusted domains and stop wasting the links you already have. Technical fixes and steady content help those links count.

Skip bought links and DA boost services. Measure monthly, compare with competitors and give each change a few months to show.