What is Domain Authority? 5 Recommended Tools to Check DA

If you are keeping up with your website’s SEO metrics, you could be seeing a certain something called ‘DA scores’ in your reports.

And if you are a novice in the whole SEO biz, you could be a bit confused as to what these mean and how much of a value is considered good.

In this post, we are going to start at the bottom and learn what DA is, why you should measure it for your website and what checkers you can use for this purpose.

Let’s get into it.

What is domain authority?

Domain Authority is an SEO performance score developed by Moz. In simple terms, it is a way to measure the performance of a particular website in the search engine results.

According to Moz, the DA “predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages”.

DA scores can range anywhere from 0 to 100. The higher the probability of a website showing up in the results, the higher will be its Domain Authority. Let’s look at some examples to understand this a bit better.

We checked the DA score of two websites viz. Dropbox and Moz.

Both of them are internet giants, and as we can see, their DA scores are pretty whopping high.

What is the purpose and benefit of measuring DA?

Now that we know what this score actually is, let’s talk about why it is necessary to measure it for your SEO progress. Since examples are a great way to explain stuff, let’s use one here as well.

A typist knows that he can type fast. But if he does a typing test every now and then, he will know his exact word-per-minute rate. And when he regularly watches his rate, he will be able to determine whether he is doing above or below average.

Similarly, he will be able to set a target to achieve, for which he will work hard. The same goes for websites and their DA rankings. When we use the DA score to check the probability of our website’s appearance on the SERPs, we are able to quantify its performance.

We can match it with the scores of our competitors, and we can use it as a reference to see when the site’s performance is on a decline, or when it is on an increase.

Taking all of this, we come to the point that DA scores essentially let us monitor our progress in the search engine rankings.

In the next part of this article, we will look at some software that you can use to check DA in 2022. We will also try to cover some features and what makes them worth using.

7 recommended tools for checking Domain Authority

1. Prepostseo.com

If you are looking for a tool that can check the Domain Authority of multiple websites in a couple of seconds, Prepostseo.com is an awesome choice to go for.

During our experiments with this app, there were three main features that we really liked.

Pros

1. It is quick. The results are shown literally in two or three seconds. Of course, this could be affected if your internet connection is particularly slow.
2. We first tried the test with just two links. Thereafter, we added a couple more. And then we brought the number to a total of 8 links. The speed remained unaffected.
3. It gives more than just the DA score. If you are using the premium version of the app, you will get access to a whole host of useful metrics and options.
4. These include the spam score, IP address, ‘Pages in Google’ (this lets you load the link in Google’s search bar), and a ‘Guest Post List’ section where you can add URLs.
5. In the free version, these metrics and options will be shown only for the first two options. For the other URLs, you will only get the DA and PA scores.
6. URL capacity: In the premium version, you get a capacity of entering up to a whopping five hundred URLs per search.
7. The free version, however, allows for just 10.

Cons

As for the downside, there are a lot of ads on the website. If you want to use the free version and avoid spending money, you won’t be able to do it for long…in peace, at least.

2. Sure Oak SEO

Although Sure Oak SEO’s DA checker tool gives the DA score quickly and clearly, it does not give as many extra statistics and metrics as Prepostseo. It also doesn’t give the option of entering multiple URLs in one search.

Considering all this, you could be wondering why we have included it in our list, especially at number 2.

And the reason for that is that it is easy to use, and it has a no-frills design. The process goes to showing the DA process right away and that’s it.

You don’t even have to deal with any ads throughout the procedure.

Pros

1. Straight to business. There is no captcha, no annoying banners, or popups that you have to deal with when using this app.
2. You get a plain screen where you can enter the URL and then press the button to get the DA score.
3. Easy and Graphical Score Display: Instead of showing the score as a boring number, Sure Oak makes it a little pleasant on the eyes.
4. The score is displayed in a large font, placed in the center of a circular meter which fills up according to how high the DA is.
5. This little visual touch makes the user experience more enjoyable, and that is something that we think can make or break a deal when it comes to online tools.
6. No sign-up, no registration, and no downloads. With Sure Oak SEO, it’s a quick ‘go in, go out’ job.
7. You don’t have to do anything to use the tool other than adding the URL and pressing the Enter button.
8. Although it may not sound like much, reaching over to the mouse (or trackpad) and then going down to click the button can be a little arduous and annoying.

Cons

But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. There is a downside to this tool as well.

The limitation on the entered URLs could be a little troubling for people who want to compare the DA of multiple websites at once.

3. Softo.org

Softo.org is a good choice for checking Domain Authority. It gives a decent number of metrics, has a nice link capacity, and is also free to use.

Although you can’t use this software for entering up to 500 URLs at one time, as was the case with Prepostseo.com, the 20-URL limit can still be quite sufficient.

As compared to Sure Oak SEO, it has a lot more features and additional stats as well.

However, the reason why it’s ranked at number 3 is the ads. Ads are, while understandable, detrimental to the user experience.

Pros

1. Stats Report: Softo.org is pretty generous when it comes to stats and metrics. Apart from the DA, you also get the PA, SS (spam score), and MR (Moz rank)
2. Downloadable Excel Report: Another great perk offered by Softo.org is the downloadable excel file.
3. This can be useful if you want to save the results of your test for later, or if you want to import them to a viewable file for sharing with someone else.
4. Exclude Same URL/Domain: By stopping the entered domains and URLs from being included in the check, you can make your results more accurate.

Cons

As we mentioned in the introduction, there are a lot of ads that you will have to deal with when using this tool.

4. Project backlinks

Project Backlinks is similar to Softo.org in that it also lets you add up to 20 URLs at one time.

However, the report does not contain as many metrics and scores. And the process also comes with the addition of a captcha verification…unlike that of Softo.org.

But, let’s not get biased. Project Backlinks is still an excellent app and it is way better than a lot of other tools in the industry. Let’s look at some reasons why:

Pros

1. Quick and Accurate: When we tested Project Backlinks with some popular domains, it gave accurate results within a single second…quite literally.
2. URL Capacity: Having a good and expansive URL capacity is something that you will appreciate if you look at some other basic tools on the net.
3. A lot of tools let you work with just a single URL at a time. Others may increase it to 2 or 3.
4. But with Project Backlinks, you can enter up to 20 links in the same search.
5. No Registration or Subscription: Although we have mentioned this point before as well, it does not mean it should stop being appreciable.
6. How awesome is it that you can just go to the site, enter a link, get the results, and say bye-bye?
7. You don’t have to worry about receiving annoying emails or promotional messages…which is something that almost always happens after you sign up.

Cons

One con that we found a little disturbing to the user experience was the captcha verification.

If there weren’t some tools that allowed you to search without first doing the captcha, we wouldn’t have mentioned this con because then it would have been an industry standard.

But since there are many apps that don’t require you to run a captcha before doing the check, it becomes a con that has to be highlighted.

5. Dapachecker.org

With Dapachecker.org, you don’t have to worry about navigating to a particular page or a section on the website to use the DA checker tool. There are some sites like Prepostseo.com that feature a lot of different tools and apps.

To use the DA checker, you have to first go through the listing and pick the particular tool, or you have to search with specific keywords on Google. This hassle doesn’t exist with Dapachecker.org since the site automatically and by default opens up to the Domain Authority checking tool.

Pros

1. Quick Load Time and Results: Aesthetic and dynamic websites are great and all, but when it comes to using tools, we live by the rule of ‘simple is best’.
2. The less snazzy a website is, the quicker it will load up on the browser. And this is something that dapachecker.org does pretty well.
3. And the quick loading times aren’t just restricted to the website boot. The test results also get generated in a matter of seconds.
4. Three Different Metrics: With dapachecker.org, you can get your website’s DA, PA, and spam score all in one check.
5. Accurate: When we checked dapachecker.org with our standard experimental searches, it gave accurate results in all three scores.

Cons

Although the speed and simplicity of this app are more than enough to qualify it as a top DA checking tool, we do have to stick to protocol and mention a con here.

And that is the ads. To be honest, our mention of ads repeatedly in this post could be making you just as annoyed as actual ads on a website…but we do need to be critical.

Conclusion

Checking the Domain Authority of your website can be a good way to understand how well it is performing in the search results.

DA scores are rated on a scale of 0-100. The higher this value is, the higher will be the chances of the website appearing in the SERPs.

If you want to check the DA of your website, you will have to use a Domain Authority checking tool.

There are a lot of these that you can use on the internet. If you are trying to find one, the five recommendations listed above can be a good place to start.