Page Authority Checker
About Page Authority Checker
Page Authority (PA) is a score from 1 to 100 developed by Moz that predicts how likely a specific webpage is to rank in search results — the higher the score, the stronger the ranking potential. But knowing your PA score is only half the picture. The more useful question is: what does your score actually mean? Is a PA of 35 good or bad? What score do you need to outrank competitors in your niche? And how do you move the number? Enter any URL into the Page Authority Checker to see your PA score alongside Domain Authority (DA) and MozRank — then use the benchmarks and improvement guide below to understand exactly where you stand and what to do next.
What the Tool Returns
Enter any URL and the tool returns the Page Authority score for that specific page, the Domain Authority of its root domain, MozRank, and the number of linking root domains — the core signals that drive the PA score.
What Is a Good Page Authority Score? — The Definitive Answer
Most explanations of "what is a good PA score" give you a vague answer like "50+ is good." That is accurate as a rough benchmark — but it is not the full picture. PA is a relative metric: what counts as good depends entirely on the PA scores of the pages you are competing against for the same keyword. A PA of 28 can be excellent in a low-competition local niche and irrelevant in the finance or legal space. Here is how to interpret your score both by the general scale and by competition context.
Compare your score to the pages already ranking — not to an abstract number
Search your target keyword in Google. Check the PA of the pages on the first page of results. Your goal is to match or exceed the PA of the weakest top-10 ranking page, not to hit 50 or 70 as an absolute target. In a low-competition niche, a PA of 22 can comfortably sit on page one. In finance or legal content, you may need PA 50+ to compete. Your checker result only makes strategic sense in the context of what you are competing against.
Page Authority Benchmarks by Industry — 2025
PA scores are not uniform across industries. Competitive niches like finance and legal see significantly higher average PA scores because the sites in those spaces have invested heavily in link building over many years. Use these benchmarks to calibrate your expectations for your specific niche rather than applying a one-size-fits-all target.
| Industry / Niche | Average PA | Strong PA | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finance / Loans / Banking | 30–45 | 60+ | Very high competition — dominated by banks, financial publications |
| Health / Medical | 25–40 | 55+ | Google's YMYL category — authority signals matter most |
| Legal / Law Firms | 25–40 | 55+ | High trust requirements; local PA often lower |
| Technology / SaaS | 20–35 | 50+ | Ranges widely by page type — blog vs product |
| News / Media | 35–50 | 65+ | High natural link velocity from news coverage |
| Education / e-Learning | 20–35 | 50+ | .edu domains skew benchmarks upward |
| E-commerce (product pages) | 20–35 | 45+ | Product pages often have lower PA than category pages |
| Local Business | 15–25 | 35+ | Local competition = lower PA threshold to rank |
| Food / Recipes / Lifestyle | 20–30 | 45+ | Large but fragmented space — mid-PA pages rank regularly |
| General / New Sites | 10–20 | 30+ | Realistic starting range — improvement is straightforward |
Sources: AgencyAnalytics benchmark data (150K+ campaigns), BacklinkGrid industry analysis 2025. These are approximate ranges — actual competition in your specific keyword space is always the definitive benchmark.
PA vs DA vs UR — Three Tools, One Concept
Page Authority is Moz's term. But Ahrefs, Semrush, and other major tools all have their own equivalent metric measuring the same underlying concept — ranking potential based on link signals. They are not directly comparable (a PA of 42 does not equal an Ahrefs UR of 42) but they measure the same thing with different data and methodologies.
The original page-level authority metric. Scale 1–100, logarithmic. Uses MozRank, MozTrust, total linking domains, and link quality signals from Moz's own web index. PA is a page-level score; DA measures the entire domain.
Updated via Moz's Link Explorer. The tool you are using here pulls Moz PA data. Most SEO tools and conversations about "page authority" are referring to Moz PA specifically.
Ahrefs equivalent of page authority. Scale 0–100, logarithmic. Measures the strength of a specific URL's backlink profile. Often correlates closely with Moz PA but uses Ahrefs' own crawl data — frequently a more up-to-date index.
If you use Ahrefs as your primary tool, UR is the number to track. Do not compare Moz PA and Ahrefs UR scores directly — the scales are calibrated differently despite covering the same concept.
Semrush's compound authority metric, combining backlink signals with organic search performance and traffic data. Scale 0–100. Authority Score considers both link quality and actual search visibility — making it a slightly different (arguably more holistic) signal than pure link-based metrics.
Semrush Authority Score is available at both domain and page level. It can differ significantly from Moz PA on the same URL.
Which one matters? All three are third-party estimates — none are official Google metrics. Google has its own internal PageRank which it does not share publicly. Use whichever metric aligns with the tools you use most, and track it consistently over time rather than comparing absolute numbers across different tools.
How to Improve Page Authority — 5 Proven Methods
PA is fundamentally a link metric — it rises when quality pages link to your specific URL. Here are the five highest-impact actions for moving your PA score.
PA measures the authority of a specific URL. Links to your homepage or other pages do not directly raise a page's PA — only links pointing to that exact URL do. When pitching guest posts, creating shareable content, or doing outreach, direct the link to the specific page you want to rank. A single quality backlink pointing directly to a page can meaningfully move its PA.
Internal links from your highest-authority pages transfer some of that page's link equity to the linked destination. Find your highest-PA pages using this checker, then add contextual internal links from those pages to the URL you want to boost. This distributes existing authority within your site and is one of the fastest ways to improve a page's PA without any external link building.
Every redirect hop loses a small amount of link equity. If links pointing to your URL go through a redirect chain (A → B → C → your page), the PA benefit of those links is diminished at each step. Check your page using the Redirect Checker — any incoming links pointing to a redirected URL should ideally be updated by the linking site to point directly to your page.
The most sustainable PA improvement comes from content that naturally earns links over time. Long-form definitive guides, original research, free tools, and comprehensive reference pages all attract links from other sites in your niche. Content that others cite as a source is the foundation of a durable PA growth strategy.
Spam, paid link scheme, and extremely low-quality backlinks can suppress your PA and damage your site's trust signals. Check your backlink profile using the Backlink Checker and identify any obviously toxic links. Submit a disavow file to Google Search Console for links you cannot get removed — this signals to Google that you are not vouching for those links and protects your page's authority signals.
How to Use the Tool
Enter the URL
Paste any publicly accessible URL. Paste your full page URL — not just the domain — since PA measures the specific page, not the whole site.
Check Your PA Score
The tool returns PA, DA, and MozRank. Note your PA score, then compare it to the scale above to understand where you stand.
Check Competitors
Run the top 3–5 pages currently ranking for your target keyword. Their PA scores tell you the actual threshold you need to compete — use this as your real benchmark.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Page Authority affect my Google rankings?
No — Page Authority is a Moz metric, not a Google metric. Google does not use Moz's PA score in its ranking algorithm. Google has its own internal equivalent called PageRank, which it does not make publicly available and which it uses as one of hundreds of ranking signals.
PA is a useful predictor and proxy — pages with higher PA tend to rank better because they have strong backlink profiles, and backlinks are a confirmed Google ranking signal. But the PA number itself is not what Google reads. A page can have a PA of 60 and rank poorly if the content is irrelevant, or a PA of 25 and rank well if the content perfectly matches user intent and competition is low.
Why is my Page Authority different from my Domain Authority?
Because they measure different things. Domain Authority (DA) is the authority of your entire domain — all pages combined. Page Authority (PA) is the authority of one specific URL based on the backlinks pointing to that individual page.
A site with a high DA of 60 can have individual pages with PA 15 if those pages have never attracted any external links. Conversely, a site with DA 30 can have one viral page with PA 50 if that page attracted a lot of links. Always check both — DA tells you how strong your overall domain is, PA tells you how strong the specific page you want to rank is.
How long does it take for PA to improve after building backlinks?
Moz updates its PA calculations when it re-crawls the web and re-processes its link index — typically within a few weeks of a new link being live. However, PA scores are not real-time. You should expect a 2–6 week lag between a new quality backlink going live and the resulting PA increase appearing in Moz's tools. Track your PA score monthly rather than daily — changes are gradual and reflect the accumulation of links over time, not immediate reactions to individual links.
My PA dropped suddenly. What does that mean?
A sudden PA drop most commonly happens when:
- Moz updates its algorithm or re-indexes its link data — PA recalibration affects all scores
- Previously linking sites removed their links to your page
- Moz detected new spam links pointing to your page and adjusted its quality signal
- Competitor pages gained new links, relatively reducing your score
A PA drop does not necessarily mean your actual Google rankings have changed — check your rankings and organic traffic in Google Search Console to see whether the drop reflects real-world performance changes or just a Moz index recalibration.
Is this tool completely free?
Yes — completely free, no account, no sign-up, no limits.