Does the site with the highest Domain Authority always win the top spot on Google? New to the metric? Read our honest guide to what Domain Authority is (and isn’t) first — the rest of this study builds on it. We analyzed 70 visible Google results across 10 competitive SEO keywords, pulled authority metrics for all 63 unique ranking domains, and the answer is blunt: the highest-DA domain won position #1 in only 1 out of 10 keywords. A site with DA 9 outranked YouTube (DA 100). A site with DA 16 outranked LinkedIn (DA 99). If you’ve been treating Domain Authority as a scoreboard for who deserves to rank, this data should change how you think about it.
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This is original research, not a literature review. Every number below comes from a dataset we collected and measured ourselves on October 7, 2026: 70 search results, 63 unique domains, with Domain Authority, Domain Rating, spam scores, and traffic estimates pulled for each one. Here’s what the numbers actually say about domain authority rankings — how well the metric predicts who actually takes the top positions.
DA vs Rankings Study: What We Did
Before the findings, the methodology — because a data study is only as good as its method, and we want you to be able to judge this one fairly.
We picked 10 competitive keywords in the SEO and link-building niche: “best backlink checker tools 2026,” “what are backlinks,” “how to get backlinks,” “link building strategies,” “guest posting for SEO,” “broken link building guide,” “domain authority checker,” “anchor text SEO,” “toxic backlinks,” and “dofollow vs nofollow.” These are keywords where ranking is genuinely contested — multiple established sites competing, not sleepy long-tails where anyone can win.
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For each keyword, we recorded the visible Google results as they appeared on October 7, 2026, and extracted the ranking domains. That gave us 70 result slots across 63 unique domains (some domains, like neilpatel.com and linkedin.com, ranked for multiple keywords). Then we pulled third-party SEO metrics for every unique domain: Domain Authority (DA, Moz’s 1–100 estimate of ranking strength), Domain Rating (DR, Ahrefs’ 1–100 estimate based on backlink profile strength), spam score, and estimated organic traffic. Confused by the two metrics? Our DA vs DR comparison breaks down exactly how they differ.
One important framing point before we go further: DA and DR are third-party estimates, not Google metrics. Google has never used Domain Authority in its ranking systems — it’s Moz’s model of how likely a domain is to rank, built from link data. DR is Ahrefs’ equivalent, weighted toward the strength of a domain’s backlink profile. Both are useful proxies, but neither is what Google actually measures. Google’s own documentation on how Search works describes ranking as the product of hundreds of signals — relevance, content quality, page experience, and many others — with no single authority number deciding anything.
That’s exactly what makes this study interesting. If DA were a reliable stand-in for “who deserves to rank,” the highest-DA domain should win position #1 most of the time. Within our sample, it doesn’t. Not even close.
The Highest DA Rarely Wins
Here’s the headline finding: across our 10 keywords, the domain with the highest Domain Authority held position #1 exactly once. In the other nine cases, a lower-authority domain outranked a higher-authority competitor for the top spot — sometimes by an enormous margin.
The examples are striking. For “how to get backlinks,” peplio.com (DA 34) ranks #1 while neilpatel.com (DA 90) sits below it — a 56-point authority gap overcome. For “broken link building guide,” clickdo.io (DA 9) outranks youtube.com (DA 100). Read that again: a single-digit DA domain beat a perfect-100 DA domain for the #1 position. For “toxic backlinks,” blakfy.com (DA 16) outranks linkedin.com (DA 99). For “guest posting for SEO,” w3era.com (DA 34) outranks linkedin.com (DA 99). For “dofollow vs nofollow,” rhinorank.io (DA 35) holds the top spot while link-assistant.com (DA 60) ranks beneath it.
The one keyword where the highest-DA domain did win #1 is the exception that proves the pattern is weak, not the rule that confirms it. One out of ten is what you’d expect if DA had almost no direct bearing on which specific page takes the top position — which, given that Google doesn’t use DA at all, is exactly what you’d expect.
Why does this happen? Because Google ranks pages, not domains. A page’s relevance to the query, the quality and specificity of its content, how well it satisfies search intent, its page-level link profile, and user engagement signals all feed into where it lands. Domain-level authority is one input among many, and for competitive informational queries, our sample suggests a highly relevant page on a modest domain routinely beats a generic page on a giant domain. The data bears this out: nine times out of ten in our sample, relevance and page-level strength beat raw domain authority for the #1 spot.
This doesn’t mean DA is useless — it remains a decent rough proxy for a domain’s overall link strength, which is why we measured it. But the gap between “rough proxy for link strength” and “predictor of who ranks #1” is enormous, and this study quantifies just how enormous: DA failed to predict the winner in 9 out of 10 cases within our sample.
Position 2 Beats Position 1 on Authority
The second finding is almost stranger than the first. When we averaged Domain Authority by SERP position across all 70 results, position #2 had a higher average DA (66.3) than position #1 (48.9). The runner-up slot is, on average, occupied by more authoritative domains than the winning slot.
Think about what that implies. If higher authority reliably won higher positions, average DA should decline smoothly from position 1 down through position 10. Instead, the curve is inverted at the very top: the #1 position goes to the most relevant page, while the #2 position disproportionately goes to the big, authoritative domain whose page was good but not quite the best answer. It’s as if Google’s ranking says: “the most authoritative site gets a strong position by default, but the top spot goes to whoever actually answered the query best.”
The DR numbers tell the same story from a different angle. Average DR at position #1 was 62.3; at position #2, 75.6. Two independent authority metrics, same inversion. That’s worth noting within our sample.
For anyone doing competitive analysis for how many backlinks they need, this is a practical insight: don’t just look at the #1 result’s authority and despair. Look at the gap between #1 and #2. When #1 has lower authority than #2, that’s a signal the top spot is being held by relevance and content quality — things you can compete on — rather than by an insurmountable wall of domain authority.
Low-Authority Sites Crack the Top 10
The third finding concerns the floor, not the ceiling. Across our 70 results, Domain Authority ranged from 4 to 100, with a median of 41. That range is the story: the top 10 of competitive SERPs contains both internet giants and sites with barely any measured authority at all.
The most extreme case: seoinbounds.com, with a DA of 4, ranks in the top 10. A domain with single-digit authority — essentially a newcomer by every link metric — outranks thousands of more established sites for a competitive keyword. clickdo.io (DA 9) doesn’t just rank top 10; it holds #1 for its keyword, ahead of YouTube. getfound.id (DA 12) and two44software.com (DA 8) also appear in top-10 results.
This matters because of a belief that quietly discourages a lot of site owners: “I can’t rank until my DA is higher.” The data says otherwise. Low-DA sites break into competitive top 10s regularly in our sample. What they share isn’t authority — it’s specificity. These are pages that answer their query precisely, often with fresher or more focused content than the giants ranking alongside them.
There’s a related lesson about how steadily these sites build their profiles. A DA-9 site ranking #1 didn’t get there by having the biggest link profile; it got there with the right page. Authority helps, and over time these sites will presumably build more of it — but the ranking came first, which reverses the causal story many SEOs tell themselves.
None of this means authority is irrelevant. The median DA of 41 tells you that most top-10 pages do have meaningful authority behind them. But the floor of 4 tells you it’s not a prerequisite. If your content is the best answer to a query, you can compete long before your metrics look impressive.
What This Means for Your Link Building
Data is only useful if it changes decisions. Here’s what this domain authority rankings study suggests if you’re planning a link-building campaign tomorrow.
Stop chasing DA as a target. If the highest-DA domain wins #1 only 10% of the time, then “get my DA above the competitor” is a poor objective function. A better one: build the page-level signals that actually decide rankings — relevant, comprehensive content plus quality links pointing at the specific page you want to rank. Our guide to checking domain authority explains what DA actually measures, which makes it clearer why it’s a diagnostic tool rather than a goal.
Target relevance over raw authority in outreach. The pages winning #1 in our data weren’t on the most authoritative domains — they were the most relevant pages. That means a link from a DA-30 site in your exact niche, pointing at your specific page with relevant anchor text, may be worth more than a link from a DA-70 generalist site. Relevance is doing real work in these rankings; your link building should reflect that.
Don’t disqualify low-DA prospects — or fear low-DA competitors. If DA-4 domains can rank top 10, then a DA-25 prospect site in your niche is a perfectly good link target, and a DA-20 competitor outranking you isn’t a mystery — they’re probably beating you on relevance. Audit the page, not just the domain.
Watch the #1 vs #2 authority gap. When you’re sizing up a keyword, compare the authority of the #1 result against #2 through #5. If #1 has notably lower authority than the sites below it, the top spot is being held by content quality — and it’s contestable. If #1 also has the highest authority, you’ll need both better content and a stronger link profile to dislodge it.
Take spam scores seriously, but don’t panic. Our data showed an average spam score of 4.6 across ranking domains — low, as you’d hope. But wordsystech.com, with a spam score of 86 and DA 20, still ranks in the top 10. In these results, Google’s systems were clearly evaluating more than a single spam number. Google’s spam policies target manipulative behavior patterns, not scores — keep your own profile clean and don’t obsess over any one metric.
Limitations
An honest data study states its limits plainly, so here are ours.
Ten keywords, one niche, one day. Our sample covers competitive SEO keywords measured on a single day (October 7, 2026). SERPs shift constantly — algorithm updates, content refreshes, and new competitors change these lineups weekly. A broader study across niches and over time might find different patterns, though the core finding (DA doesn’t predict #1) is consistent with how Google describes its own ranking.
DA and DR are estimates, not ground truth. Both metrics are models built by third parties from their own link indexes, which differ in size, freshness, and coverage. The two metrics diverged by 17 points on average in our data — hoovermarketing.info measured DA 65 but DR 11, while rankmath.com measured DA 50 but DR 88. When two authority metrics disagree that sharply about the same domain, treat both as rough approximations, not precise measurements.
Correlation is not causation, and we didn’t test causation. We measured what ranks, not why. The pages winning #1 may share traits we didn’t measure — content depth, page speed, brand search volume, user engagement. Our finding is that DA doesn’t predict the winner, not a proof of what does.
Survivorship in the sample. We only analyzed domains that already rank in the top 10. We didn’t measure the thousands of low-DA sites that don’t rank — so “a DA-4 site can rank” shouldn’t be read as “DA doesn’t matter at all.” Authority clearly helps pages get into the consideration set; our data just shows it doesn’t pick the winner.
We’ll re-run this domain authority rankings analysis periodically and update this article as the dataset grows. If the pattern holds across more keywords and more time, it’ll be worth a follow-up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common questions about domain authority and rankings:
Does higher Domain Authority mean higher rankings?
Not reliably. In our analysis of 70 visible Google results, the highest-DA domain won position #1 only 1 out of 10 times, and position #2 had a higher average DA (66.3) than position #1 (48.9). Within our sample, DA correlated loosely with ranking strength but didn’t predict which page took the top spot.
Can a low-DA website rank on page one of Google?
Yes. In our dataset, domains with DA as low as 4 ranked in the top 10 for competitive keywords, and a DA-9 domain (clickdo.io) held the #1 position ahead of YouTube (DA 100). Within our sample, relevance and page-level quality overcame large authority gaps.
Is Domain Authority a Google ranking factor?
No. Domain Authority is a third-party metric created by Moz — Google has never used it in its ranking systems. It’s a useful estimate of a domain’s link strength, but Google ranks pages using its own signals — which is why, in our sample, DA failed to predict the actual winner in 9 out of 10 cases.
What’s the difference between DA and DR?
DA (Domain Authority, by Moz) and DR (Domain Rating, by Ahrefs) are competing third-party estimates of a domain’s ranking strength on a 1–100 scale. In our data they diverged by 17 points on average for the same domains, so treat both as rough approximations rather than precise measurements.
Should I still try to increase my Domain Authority?
Build links for rankings and traffic, not for the DA number itself. DA tends to rise as a side effect of earning quality backlinks, which is worth doing — but optimizing directly for DA (rather than for relevance, content quality, and real referring domains) mistakes the proxy for the goal.
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