Domain Authority (DA) is one of the clearest signals of how much Google trusts your website. It’s scored from 0–100. New sites usually start at 0 or 1. Giants like YouTube sit at 100. Most businesses live somewhere in between. The higher your DA, the more competitive keywords you can rank for. That’s because Google treats backlinks as endorsements. When a site like Forbes links to you, it’s essentially vouching for your credibility. In Google’s eyes, that authority transfers. But backlinks only