Page Authority

Definition

Page Authority (PA) is a proprietary metric developed by Moz that predicts how well a specific page will rank in search results, scored on a 0–100 logarithmic scale. Similar metrics exist from other vendors: Ahrefs's URL Rating (UR) and Semrush's Page Score. These scores are calculated from the page's backlink profile — number of linking domains, the authority of those domains, anchor text diversity — using algorithms that approximate how Google's PageRank works. Domain Authority (DA) is the same concept applied at the domain level rather than individual pages. Critically, PA/DA/UR are third-party estimates, not Google's own ranking signals. Google does not use Moz's Page Authority in its ranking algorithm.

Why it matters for SEO

Page Authority and Domain Authority are useful for competitive analysis and prioritisation — comparing your link profile against competitors, identifying high-DA pages that would be worth getting backlinks from, and measuring link-building progress over time. They are not useful as absolute targets ("we need DA 50") because the relationship between DA/PA scores and actual ranking is correlative, not causal. A DA 20 site can outrank a DA 60 site for specific queries with better on-page relevance and content quality. Use these metrics as relative benchmarks, not as goals in themselves.

How DeepSEOAnalysis checks this

The audit samples your external link profile and provides a relative authority estimate based on linking domain diversity and count. For a full backlink analysis with DA/PA scores, dedicated tools (Moz, Ahrefs, Semrush) are more accurate as they maintain their own crawl databases. The audit focuses on what you can directly improve: internal PageRank distribution via better site architecture and internal linking.

Useful tools and resources

• Full links audit