---
title: "What is Domain Authority (Domain Rank)? Definition & Examples | Kitbase"
description: "A relative score estimating how much trust and ranking power a domain carries, based on its backlink profile."
canonical: https://kitbase.dev/glossary/domain-authority
---

[Home](/) [Glossary](/glossary) Domain Authority (Domain Rank)

Backlinks

# What is Domain Authority (Domain Rank)?

A relative score estimating how much trust and ranking power a domain carries, based on its backlink profile.

Domain authority (sometimes called domain rank or domain rating, depending on the tool) is a relative score — typically on a fixed scale — estimating how much trust and ranking power a domain carries, derived mainly from the size and quality of its backlink profile. It's a predictive proxy, not a metric any search engine publishes or officially endorses; different tools calculate their own version and the numbers aren't directly comparable across them.

The score is useful for quick prioritization: a new backlink from a domain with high authority is generally worth more attention than one from a domain with very low authority, and a rising domain authority score over time is a reasonable proxy for a growing, trusted backlink profile.

Domain authority should be read alongside relevance, not instead of it. A high-authority domain linking to you from a completely unrelated topic is worth less than a moderate-authority domain that's a close topical match — the score describes general trust, not fit for your specific category.

## Example

Two new backlinks appear in the same week: one from a domain with an authority score of 82, one from a domain scoring 15. The high-authority link gets flagged for immediate outreach follow-up, while the low-authority one is left in the queue rather than ignored outright, since it's still a genuine third-party link.

## Related Terms

[

Referring Domain

A distinct external website that links to yours, counted once regardless of how many individual pages or links it contains.

](/glossary/referring-domain)[

Backlink

A link from another website pointing to yours, treated by search and AI engines as a signal of trust and relevance.

](/glossary/backlink)[

Link Graph

A complete map of a domain's backlink profile from an external index, including links that never send any traffic.

](/glossary/link-graph)[

Competitor Gap Analysis

Finding domains that link to your competitors but not to you, ranked as a prioritized outreach list.

](/glossary/competitor-gap-analysis)

## Find your backlinks with Kitbase

Detect new backlinks from real referral traffic, recover links pointing at dead pages, and find the domains AI engines cite so you know where to earn more.

[Explore Backlinks](https://docs.kitbase.dev/backlinks)