Free Domain Authority Checker: Compare Website Strength Side by Side
A free domain authority checker gives you a quick, comparable measure of how established and popular a website is. Our tool scores up to 10 domains at once on a 0–100 Authority Score built from public data: each site’s popularity rank in the Tranco research list of the top one million websites, its age from official registry records and its years of history in the Internet Archive. You can see who leads, what drives each score and what to do next.
This guide explains what domain authority is (and isn’t), how our score is calculated, how to compare your site with competitors and the practical ways to build real authority that helps you rank in Google and get recommended by AI assistants.
Key takeaways
- “Domain authority” is a third-party estimate; Google doesn’t use any authority score.
- Our score is transparent and built from public data, so it won’t match Moz DA, Ahrefs DR or Semrush AS.
- Compare your site with direct competitors, not with the whole web.
- Authority grows from relevant links, mentions, helpful content and a consistent brand.
What is domain authority?
“Domain authority” is a general term for how strong and trusted a website is likely to be in search. The phrase was popularised by Moz, whose Domain Authority (DA) metric predicts ranking ability from its link index. Other tools have their own versions: Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR), Semrush Authority Score (AS) and Majestic Trust Flow.
Does Google use domain authority?
No. Google doesn’t use Moz DA or any other third-party score. It evaluates many signals at the page and site level, including relevance, quality and links, as described in how Google ranks results. Authority scores are useful because the things they measure, such as links and popularity, tend to go with sites that rank well.
Why scores differ between tools
Every tool has its own data and formula. A site might be DA 35, DR 48 and AS 22 at the same time. None is “right”; they’re different rulers. Pick one and use it consistently to compare sites.
How to use the free domain authority checker
- Enter your domain and up to nine competitors, one per line.
- Run the check. We gather each domain’s popularity rank, registration age and archive history.
- Compare the scores in the ranked table, with a label for each site.
- Open “How this score works” to see each factor behind every score.
- Follow the suggestions to strengthen your own site.
How our Authority Score is calculated
We believe a score you can’t explain isn’t much use, so ours is fully transparent.
Popularity rank (the main factor)
The Tranco list is a research ranking of the top one million websites, created by academics to be harder to manipulate than single-source rankings. It combines several sources of traffic and link popularity, averaged over time. A site ranked in the top 10,000 is extremely popular; one ranked 900,000 is still in the top million worldwide. This factor drives most of the score.
Domain age
How long the domain has been registered, from official registry records. Age itself doesn’t make a site rank, but older domains have usually had more time to build content and links. Check age and expiry in detail with our domain age checker online.
Archive history
How many years the site has been captured by the Internet Archive. A long, continuous history suggests an active, established website.
Sites outside the top million
Most small business websites aren’t in the top million, so they don’t get popularity points. Their score comes from age and history only and is typically below 25. That’s normal and expected.
Example
A local plumber’s 8-year-old site with continuous archive history might score around 15–20, while a national plumbing directory in the top 50,000 scores far higher. The plumber should compare itself with other local plumbers, not the directory.
How to read your score
| Score | Label | Typical sites |
|---|---|---|
| 80–100 | Very strong | Major global brands, platforms and publishers |
| 60–79 | Strong | Large national brands and well-known niche publishers |
| 40–59 | Established | Popular sites with steady traffic and links |
| 20–39 | Growing | Established smaller sites and some niche leaders |
| 0–19 | New or small | Most local businesses, new sites and small blogs |
Relative, not absolute
The score is relative to the whole web, so what matters is the gap between you and the sites you compete with. If every competitor in your town scores 10–20, a score of 15 puts you right in the race.
Uses for a domain authority check
Competitor benchmarking
See how your site stacks up against the domains ranking for your keywords. A big gap tells you that winning harder keywords will take time and link building; a small gap means content and on-page work may be enough. Combine it with our free keyword difficulty checker to choose winnable keywords.
Vetting link prospects
Before pitching a guest post or accepting a link offer, check the site’s authority and history. Also check its spam signals with our website spam score checker; a high score on a spammy site isn’t worth having.
Evaluating domains to buy
Authority, age and archive history together help you value an aged or expired domain, and spot ones that were repurposed for spam.
Tracking progress
Re-check every few months. Because Tranco averages over time, changes are gradual, so treat it as a long-term indicator rather than a weekly metric.
How to increase your domain authority
Real authority comes from being genuinely useful and well known in your field. These are the strategies that work.
Earn relevant links
Links from relevant, trusted sites remain one of the strongest signals of authority. Create things worth linking to:
- Original research, surveys and data.
- Free tools, calculators and templates.
- Definitive guides that become the go-to resource on a topic.
- Expert commentary for journalists and industry publications.
Our off-page SEO services focus on earning links like these safely.
Get listed where your customers look
Reputable industry directories, trade associations, local chambers of commerce and supplier “where to buy” pages are some of the easiest relevant links to earn. They also send referral visitors and confirm your business details. Avoid paid directories that list anyone; choose ones a real customer would actually use.
Turn unlinked mentions into links
Search for your brand name to find articles and pages that mention you without linking. A short, polite email asking the author to add a link to the relevant page often works, because you’re helping their readers find the source.
Build your brand and mentions
Being talked about matters, even without a link. Mentions in news, podcasts, industry lists and reviews build recognition with people and with AI systems. AI assistants are more likely to recommend brands that are widely and consistently mentioned across trusted sources.
Publish helpful content consistently
Cover your topic thoroughly with useful, accurate content. Each strong page earns its own links and makes your site the obvious authority on the subject. Check your drafts with our content quality checker.
Strengthen internal linking
Link related pages together with descriptive anchor text so authority flows from your strongest pages to the ones you want to rank. Google’s guide to link best practices covers crawlable links and anchor text.
Fix broken links and lost authority
Links to pages that now return 404 waste the value they carry. Redirect old URLs to the closest relevant page, and fix broken internal links with our broken link checker.
Build a consistent entity
Use the same business name, description and logo everywhere: your website’s Organization schema with sameAs links, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn and directories. Create the schema with our free schema markup generator.
Domain authority myths
“Higher DA always means higher rankings”
Not true. Pages from lower-authority sites regularly outrank stronger sites when they’re more relevant and helpful for a specific search, especially for long-tail and local queries. Look at almost any niche search and you’ll find small specialist sites ranking above household names.
“You need DA 50 to rank”
There’s no threshold. Many sites with modest scores rank well for focused, niche keywords. What you need is to be stronger and more useful than the specific pages you’re competing against.
“Chasing a score is the goal”
A score is a diagnostic. The goal is traffic, leads and sales. Activities that only raise a metric without bringing visitors or customers aren’t worth the effort.
Page authority vs domain authority
Authority also exists at page level. A strong page on a weaker site, for example a widely linked guide, can rank above weaker pages on stronger sites. When you analyse competitors, look at both the domain and the specific ranking page: its links, depth and how well it targets the keyword.
Our score vs Moz DA, Ahrefs DR and Semrush AS
| Metric | Built from | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| SEO Return Authority Score | Tranco popularity rank, registry age, Internet Archive history | Free, no sign-up |
| Moz Domain Authority | Moz link index and machine-learning model | Limited free checks, then paid |
| Ahrefs Domain Rating | Strength of a site’s backlink profile in Ahrefs’ index | Limited free checks, then paid |
| Semrush Authority Score | Links, organic traffic and spam signals | Limited free checks, then paid |
Link-index metrics see backlinks in detail but depend on how much of the web each company crawls. Our score uses independent public data and explains every factor, which makes it a good free first look. For detailed link audits, a paid link index adds value.
Authority in AI search (GEO)
AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity tend to recommend brands they encounter often in trusted sources. A brand that appears consistently in industry publications, reviews, directories and well-linked guides is more likely to be named in an AI answer than a brand with a single website and few mentions. In other words, the same work that builds domain authority (being cited, linked and discussed) also builds visibility in generative search. Our guide to AI SEO for small business explains how to get started, and our ChatGPT and GEO services can do it for you.
Worked example: comparing local competitors
A dental clinic runs the free domain authority checker on its own domain and five clinics that rank for “dental implants” in its city. The results:
- Two large dental groups score 34 and 29: they’re in the top million thanks to many locations and press coverage.
- Three independent clinics, including our clinic, score between 11 and 17, with domains aged 6–14 years.
What the clinic learns
It’s competitive with the independents already, so better content, reviews and local SEO can move it above them. Overtaking the groups for the broad keyword will take longer, so it targets specific long-tail searches such as “same-day dental implants” and “dental implants cost” in the meantime, while earning local press and partnerships to grow authority.
What it does next
It publishes an honest implant cost guide with real prices, asks happy patients for reviews, gets listed with the national dental association, and sponsors a local event that links back to its site. Six months later, it re-runs the comparison to track progress.
Domain authority checklist
- Compared your site with 5–9 direct competitors.
- Understood what drives each score.
- Chosen keywords that fit your site’s current strength.
- Planned linkable content and outreach.
- Fixed broken links and redirected old URLs.
- Built consistent brand information and schema.
- Scheduled a re-check in three to six months.
Related free SEO tools
- Domain age checker online: registration dates, expiry and history.
- Website spam score checker: 25 risk and trust signals.
- Free keyword difficulty checker: find keywords you can win.
- Broken link checker: recover lost link value.
- Who is hosting this website: see any site’s technical setup.
Ready to compare sites? Use the free domain authority checker above.