Domain Authority and Link Equity Are Not the Same Thing
Domain Authority (DA) is a third-party score, developed by Moz, that predicts how well a domain will rank in search results relative to competitors. It runs from 0 to 100 on a logarithmic scale and aggregates many signals — including the quantity and quality of inbound links — into a single number. DA is a diagnostic tool, not a Google ranking factor.
Link Equity is the SEO value passed from one page to another through a hyperlink. When a high-authority page links to your product page, it transfers a portion of its ranking strength to that destination. Link Equity is a direct input into Google's PageRank-derived algorithms. DA summarizes outcomes; Link Equity describes the mechanism that produces those outcomes.
How Each One Is Calculated
Domain Authority is calculated by Moz's proprietary algorithm. It pulls data from Moz's link index, counts the number of unique linking root domains, weighs the quality of those domains, and rolls everything into a single score. Because the calculation is proprietary and updated periodically, your DA score can change even when nothing on your site changes — simply because Moz recrawled the web and adjusted its index.
Link Equity flows through the structure of the web itself. Google's algorithm evaluates each linking page's own authority, the relevance of the linking page's content to the destination, the placement of the link (body copy vs. footer), the anchor text used, and whether the link carries a rel='nofollow' or rel='sponsored' attribute. A link from a niche-relevant editorial page passes more equity than a sitewide footer link from a high-DA domain.
The key mechanical difference: DA is a snapshot score assigned to a domain at a point in time. Link Equity is a continuous signal that flows dynamically as Google crawls and re-evaluates links across the web.
Where They Overlap — and Where They Diverge
DA and Link Equity overlap in one important way: both are heavily influenced by the same underlying asset — inbound links from authoritative sources. A domain that has earned many high-quality links will have a high DA score precisely because those links deliver substantial Link Equity to its pages. In that sense, DA functions as a rough proxy for the cumulative Link Equity a domain has received over time.
They diverge sharply in application. DA is domain-level; Link Equity is page-level. A site with DA 70 can have an individual product page with almost no Link Equity if that page has no internal links and no external links pointing to it. Conversely, a domain with DA 40 can have a specific category page that ranks for competitive terms because that page has earned strong, targeted external links.
Ecommerce operators make a strategic error when they use DA to evaluate a link prospect without checking the actual page-level authority of the linking page. A DA 60 site linking from a buried archive page passes far less equity than a DA 45 site linking from its homepage or a high-traffic editorial.
When to Use Each in Practice
Use Domain Authority when benchmarking your overall site against competitors, qualifying link prospects quickly, or tracking the general trajectory of your link-building program over months and quarters. DA gives you a fast signal: if a competitor consistently outranks you and their DA is 30 points higher, the gap is partly explained by the cumulative Link Equity their domain has absorbed.
Use Link Equity analysis when deciding which pages on your own site to prioritize with internal linking, when diagnosing why a high-value category or product page is underperforming, or when evaluating the precise value of a specific external link. Tools like Ahrefs' URL Rating or Moz's Page Authority surface page-level estimates that more accurately reflect the equity a specific page carries and can pass.
For an ecommerce site with thousands of SKUs, page-level Link Equity analysis is more operationally relevant than DA. A DA score tells you nothing about which product pages Google treats as authoritative. Internal link audits that redistribute equity from high-authority pages (homepages, top category pages) to high-converting but link-poor product pages directly improve rankings.
How They Interact in a Link-Building Campaign
When you earn a link from a high-DA domain, the actual SEO benefit depends on the Link Equity that specific page can pass. A guest post published on a DA 65 news site with hundreds of outbound links on the same page passes a small fraction of what a DA 55 trade publication passes when you are the sole external link in an editorial article.
Over time, accumulated Link Equity from multiple sources raises the perceived authority of your domain, which third-party tools will eventually reflect in a higher DA score. The causal chain runs in one direction: earning genuine Link Equity causes DA to rise, not the reverse. Chasing DA as a goal in itself, without attending to the quality and placement of individual links, produces inflated scores with limited ranking impact.
Actionable Takeaway: Audit Both Levels Before Any Link Decision
Before pursuing or evaluating any link opportunity, check both the domain-level DA and the page-level authority of the specific page that will host the link. A link prospect with DA 50 and a target page with high crawl frequency, few outbound links, and topical relevance to your products is worth more than a DA 70 prospect linking from a low-traffic archive page with dozens of outbound links.
Inside your own site, run a quarterly internal link audit. Identify pages that have accumulated external Link Equity — typically your homepage, top category pages, and any editorial content that has earned press coverage — and ensure those pages link directly to your highest-priority product and category pages. This internal redistribution of Link Equity is one of the few SEO levers you control entirely, with no dependence on third-party outreach.