High DA backlinks: how to judge them, where they honestly come from and what to avoid
Use Domain Authority to sort a list, then decide on relevance, readership and how the link came to exist.
Published by AI Knows Us · Updated 13 October 2026
A high DA backlink is a link from a site with a high Domain Authority score, the 1 to 100 rating that the software company Moz gives to a whole website. The links worth chasing are those that pair a strong site with a page about your subject, placed by an editor who chose to cite you. Use DA to sort a list of possible sources, then decide on relevance, real readership and how the link would come to exist. A high number on a page that sells its links is worth nothing to you and can cost you.
What the score tells you and what it does not
Domain Authority is a third party estimate. It is calculated from Moz's own crawl of the web, mainly from how many other domains link to a site and how strong those domains are. Google does not use it. For the full explanation of what it measures, see our guide to domain authority. Three practical points follow for link building.
- The score belongs to the whole site, so a page on a high DA site can still be a dead end if it is buried, unindexed or full of other outbound links.
- Tools disagree. Moz, Ahrefs and Semrush each use a different index, so a site can score 70 in one and a different number in another. Choose one tool and compare like with like.
- The score is not a quality check. Sites that sell links can inflate their numbers for a while, which is why a number alone is never a reason to approach a site.
The four checks before you chase a link
| Check | What to look for | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Relevance | The site and the page cover your subject or your audience | A general site that publishes on every topic |
| Real readers | Visible traffic, comments, social shares, a real byline and an active archive | No author, no dates, thin posts, a "write for us" page for any topic |
| Editorial control | An editor decides what is published and links are given for a reason | Prices for a guest post, "sponsored" slots sold without labels |
| Link neighbourhood | A modest number of outbound links, mostly to respectable sites | Pages stacked with links to casinos, loans, pills and unrelated businesses |
A link that passes all four is worth more than three that pass only the first.
Where high authority links honestly come from
Original data and research
A survey, a dataset from your own operations or a clear analysis of public figures gives other writers something to cite. Publish the method and the numbers on a page of their own, and tell the journalists and bloggers who cover that subject. Writers link to sources they can quote.
Digital PR and expert comment
Reporters need named experts. Respond to their requests with a short, specific, quotable answer, and keep a page on your site with your bio and past appearances so that the publication has something to link to. Our guide to press releases and SEO explains what coverage does for search and how Google treats links in distributed releases.
Resource pages and tools
Many universities, councils, industry bodies and libraries maintain lists of useful resources. If you have a calculator, a template, a guide or a free checker that serves their audience, suggest it to the person who runs the list, with a line on why it fits.
Partners, suppliers and customers
Companies you work with can mention you on a partner, supplier or case study page, given that the mention is true and the relationship is real. Offer a short write-up and a logo.
Local and community institutions
Sponsorships, events, charities and chambers of commerce often link to members and supporters from pages on established domains. These links are relevant by geography and easy to defend.
Contributed articles
A real editorial piece for a publication that commissions expert writing is a legitimate way to earn a link. It earns one when the piece is good enough for the editor to run, and the author bio or a natural reference carries the link.
What Google's rules say about the shortcuts
Google's spam policies, read on 13 October 2026, list link spam as a violation and include buying or selling links that pass ranking credit, excessive link exchanges, and automated link creation. Paid placements and sponsored posts are allowed as advertising, and Google asks that links in them be marked with the sponsored or nofollow attribute, as set out in its page on qualifying outbound links. A seller who offers a list of high DA links for a fixed price is selling exactly the pattern the policy describes. The detail is in our guide to purchasing backlinks, and the myths around the attribute itself are in dofollow backlink lists.
A working routine for one month
- Pull the sites that already link to your three closest competitors. Our guide to finding backlinks covers the free routes.
- Sort them by DA, then remove everything that fails the four checks above.
- Mark the reason each remaining site linked: a resource list, a study, a quote, a partnership.
- For each reason, decide which asset you have or can build that fits.
- Send ten personal emails a week, each naming the page you would like them to see and why it helps their reader.
- Record every reply, every link won and the page it points to, and review at the end of the month.
Point the links you win to pages that deserve them, such as a data study, a tool or a strong guide, and spread the strength from there through internal links, as set out in the wider backlink strategy guide.
Questions about high DA backlinks
What DA counts as high?
There is no official line. The better test is whether the site scores above your own and above the sites you compete with, in the same tool.
Is a low DA link worthless?
No. A link from a small, relevant, trusted site in your niche can bring buyers and signals relevance. Judge it on the four checks.
Can I get high DA links for free?
Yes, through data, expert comment, resource pages, partners and community links. The cost is time and a useful asset.
How many high DA links do I need?
Look at the sites ranking for your target queries and count the linking domains to their pages. That gives a realistic range for your market.
Do nofollow links from high DA sites help?
They bring readers and mentions, and those are valuable. Treat any rating effect as a bonus and the traffic and recognition as the point.
Authority in the sources assistants cite
Assistants do not read DA. They cite pages they find clear, consistent and well corroborated, and in every category a small group of sites supplies most of those citations: trade publications, review sites, directories and a few forums. Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your buyers ask and write down every source they link or name. That list is a better outreach target than any DA ranking, because a mention there is read by the assistants themselves. AI Knows Us (aiknowsus.com) collects those cited sources for a set of questions about your business, which turns the outreach list into something you can check against the answers.