What is Page Authority?
Page Authority (PA) is a metric developed by Moz that predicts how likely a specific webpage is to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). The score ranges from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating a greater potential for ranking. PA is based on factors such as the quantity and quality of inbound links to that particular page, the domain it belongs to, and overall link profile strength.
Unlike Domain Authority (DA), which measures the ranking strength of an entire domain, Page Authority focuses on the performance of individual pages.
Why Page Authority Matters
Page Authority is useful for evaluating the SEO strength of a single page, whether it’s your own or a competitor’s. It helps marketers and SEOs:
- Assess how competitive a page is in search results
- Identify which pages attract the strongest backlinks
- Prioritise content updates or link building efforts
- Understand why some pages rank higher than others within the same site
While PA is not a direct ranking factor used by Google, it reflects the same principles that influence real-world rankings.
Example in Use
An online store’s homepage may have a high DA and PA due to many external links, while an inner product page with no backlinks might have a much lower PA. If that product page ranks poorly, boosting its PA with internal links or targeted backlinks could help improve its visibility.
SEO professionals often use PA alongside DA and other third-party metrics to gauge page-level authority.
Related Terms
- Domain Authority (DA)
- Backlink
- Link Building
- Moz
- On-Page SEO