What Is Page Authority? The Honest Answer for 2026

Page authority is a third-party score, developed by Moz, that predicts how well a single page might rank in search results. It runs on a 1 to 100 logarithmic scale. Moving from 40 to 50 takes more link strength than moving from 20 to 30. It is calculated mostly from backlink signals pointing at that one URL. In 2026, founders still confuse it with a Google ranking factor. It isn't one. It's a useful outside estimate, nothing more.

What Is Page Authority, Exactly?

Page Authority (PA) tries to answer one narrow question. How likely is this specific page to rank well, based on its link profile? Moz trained the score against real search results. It correlates with rankings. But it isn't part of how Google actually ranks anything. The score looks at the quantity and quality of links pointing to a single URL, not the whole domain.

The logarithmic scale matters more than people realize. Going from PA 1 to PA 20 is relatively easy. Going from PA 70 to PA 80 requires a disproportionate jump in link strength. Moz's own scale documentation confirms each higher band takes exponentially more link strength to climb (Moz). That's why comparing your PA to a massive publisher's PA rarely tells you anything useful. You're comparing different rungs on a curve, not a straight line.

Is Page Authority a Google Ranking Factor?

No. Google does not use Moz's page authority, and it never has. This is worth being blunt about, because a lot of SEO content dances around it. Google's own Search Central documentation describes the ranking signals it does use, including links. PA specifically is not one of them (Google Search Central). Moz built PA as a proxy metric. It's meant to correlate with how pages tend to perform, and it's calculated entirely outside of Google's systems.

That distinction changes how you should use the number. PA is a benchmark you check against competitors, not a lever Google pulls. If your PA jumps but your rankings don't move, that's not a bug. It just means the correlation didn't hold for that particular query.

How Does Page Authority Differ From Domain Authority?

Page authority and Domain Authority (DA) are both Moz metrics on the same 1 to 100 scale, but they measure different things:

• Page Authority: the ranking strength of one specific URL, based on links pointing directly at that page.
• Domain Authority: the ranking strength of an entire domain, aggregating link signals across every page on the site.
• A single blog post can carry a low PA even while sitting on a site with a high DA, because the post itself hasn't earned its own links yet.
• Conversely, a page on a small, low-DA site can still post a respectable PA if it has attracted strong links directly.

Think of DA as the reputation of the whole neighborhood. PA is the condition of one specific house. A nice house on a rough street can still sell for less than the street's average would suggest. A rundown house on a great street can coast on the block's reputation for a while.

Are There Other Metrics Like Page Authority?

Yes. Moz isn't the only vendor guessing at page-level strength. Ahrefs publishes URL Rating (UR), a comparable 0 to 100 score for a single page's backlink profile, calculated with Ahrefs' own data and formula (Ahrefs). Semrush has its own page-level score too. None of these numbers are interchangeable. A page can carry a PA of 35 and a UR of 22 at the same time. Each vendor crawls a different slice of the web and weighs links differently.

This is the part beginner guides tend to skip: there is no single "true" authority score for a page. There are several vendor estimates, each useful for its own purpose, none of them gospel.

How Do You Improve a Page's Authority?

Since PA is driven mostly by link signals, improving it means doing the unglamorous work of earning links, not gaming a number. Three levers actually move it:

1. Earn quality backlinks. Links from sites already trusted in your topic area carry more weight than a pile of low-quality directory links. A single citation from a respected industry site can outweigh dozens of weak ones.
2. Build strong internal links. Pages that get linked from other relevant pages on your own site, especially high-authority ones, pass some of that strength along. See our backlink building strategies guide for the tactics that actually earn links in 2026.
3. Fix on-page SEO fundamentals. A page with a clear structure, a focused topic, and content that satisfies the searcher's intent is simply more link-worthy. People don't link to confusing or thin pages, no matter how good your outreach is.

None of this is fast. According to Ahrefs' study of roughly one billion pages, top-three results tend to have several times more referring domains than lower-ranked pages for the same term (Ahrefs). Quality and relevance beat raw volume every time.

How Much Should Founders Actually Care About Page Authority?

Use PA as a rough benchmark, not a target to obsess over. Check it when you're sizing up competition for a keyword. Or track whether your link building trends in the right direction over months. Don't set a goal like "get this page to PA 40" and optimize for the number itself. That's optimizing for a proxy instead of the thing the proxy is trying to measure: real rankings, real traffic, real signal from actual searchers and the sites that link to you.

If you're writing content meant to earn links and rank on its own merit, a tool that forces real research matters more than any single authority score. It should also block weak, generic drafts before they ship. That's the actual bet behind Jack's SEO MCP: write from real search demand and a real business profile, not a vague number you're chasing for its own sake. See how it fits your stack on the pricing page.

Key Takeaways

• Page authority is Moz's 1 to 100, logarithmic score predicting one page's ranking potential from its link profile.
• It is not a Google ranking factor. Google has never used Moz's, Ahrefs', or any vendor's authority metric.
• PA measures a single page; Domain Authority measures an entire site.
• Ahrefs' URL Rating is a comparable but separately calculated metric, so PA and UR won't match.
• Improve it by earning real backlinks, building internal links, and getting on-page SEO right, not by chasing the number directly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is page authority a Google ranking factor?

Page authority is not a Google ranking factor. Moz built the metric as a third-party estimate trained to correlate with search results, not as something Google computes or consults. Google has confirmed multiple times that it does not use Moz's, Ahrefs', or any other vendor's authority score. Treat page authority as an outside guess at your standing, not a signal Google itself reads.

What is a good page authority score?

A good page authority score depends entirely on the competition for a given keyword. The scale is relative and logarithmic. A page with a PA of 30 can outrank a page with a PA of 50 if it has better content and more relevant links for that specific query. Instead of chasing a number, compare your page's PA to the pages currently ranking on page one for your target term.

How is page authority different from domain authority?

Page authority measures the ranking strength of one specific URL. Domain authority measures the strength of an entire website. A brand-new blog post on an established, high-authority domain often starts with a much lower page authority than the domain authority of the site it lives on. The individual page has not yet earned its own links.

Does Ahrefs have an equivalent to page authority?

Ahrefs' equivalent to page authority is called URL Rating (UR), a 0 to 100 score that estimates the strength of a single page's backlink profile. Like Moz's page authority, URL Rating is a proprietary third-party metric, not a Google signal. The two scores use different data and formulas, so a URL's PA and UR rarely match exactly.

How do I improve a page's authority?

Improving a page's authority mainly comes down to earning backlinks from other trusted sites, since link signals drive most of the score. Strong internal links from other pages on your own site pass additional weight. Solid on-page SEO also helps: clear headings, a focused topic, and content that satisfies search intent make a page more link-worthy in the first place. There is no shortcut that skips earning real links.