How Long Does It Take to Increase Domain Authority? (DR Data)
Months, and it depends on where you start. Low scores rise fastest. Above DR 60, a 3-point gain is rare even over several months, because DR is logarithmic.
Speeds it up: followed links from new domains that have links of their own.
Check: monthly, not weekly.
Among sites MentionAgent checked twice at least 90 days apart, 52% of those starting under DR 20 had gained 3 points or more. Of those starting at DR 60 or higher, 6% had.
After 30 to 59 days: the median site at every level was within a point of where it started.
Ahrefs DR, 2,891 sites, April to October 2026. Method at the end.
Why domain authority takes months to grow
- It only counts links the tool has found. Moz's DA and Ahrefs' DR are built from their own link indexes, so a new link counts only once their crawler has seen it.
- The scale is logarithmic. Ahrefs measures DR "on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100" (DR explainer), so each point higher up takes more than the last.
- It's relative. Other sites gain links too. Moz says new sites "always start with a Domain Authority of 1 and increase as they earn authoritative backlinks over time" (DA guide).
How fast DR actually rises
MentionAgent stores the Ahrefs DR of every site it evaluates for outreach, and many sites come up again later. Share of the 2,891 repeat sites that gained 3 points or more, by starting DR and time between readings:
| Starting DR | 30 to 59 days | 60 to 89 days | 90 to 160 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 20 | 30 of 129 (23%) | 13 of 49 (27%) | 11 of 21 (52%) |
| 20 to 39 | 37 of 227 (16%) | 44 of 157 (28%) | 16 of 46 (35%) |
| 40 to 59 | 28 of 303 (9%) | 43 of 245 (18%) | 19 of 101 (19%) |
| 60 and up | 13 of 779 (2%) | 17 of 605 (3%) | 14 of 229 (6%) |
Gains grow with time and shrink with every band. Under DR 20, 8 of the 21 sites read 90+ days apart were up 5 points or more. These are ordinary sites, not necessarily ones building links.
For reference, our own site is at DR 36 in October 2026.
What makes domain authority grow faster
Ahrefs' explainer describes DR as each linking domain passing a share of its own DR, split across the sites it links to. So:
- New referring domains, not repeat links. DR is built from linking domains; a tenth link from the same site adds little.
- Sites with links of their own. A strong blog that links out sparingly passes more than a weak directory that links to thousands of sites.
- Followed links. Ahrefs says DR "ignores any backlinks or referring domains with the Nofollow attribute."
Paid links don't belong on the list: Google's spam policies call "exchanging money for links" link spam (buying backlinks). To plan volume, see how many backlinks do I need and your first 50 backlinks. If your score falls instead, see why did my domain authority drop.
Is a domain authority of 20 good?
Only relative to your competitors. Moz says there's no universal good score "because it's a relative metric." Check the sites ranking for your target searches with our free domain rating checker and aim at the ones just above you.
Grow your DR with steady, relevant links
MentionAgent finds real publishers in your niche, pitches the page that fits each article, and follows up with everyone who replies, so links keep landing month after month. From $99/mo.
Start Getting Mentioned On AutopilotWhat about Semrush's Authority Score?
Authority Score is Semrush's "compound metric that grades the overall quality of a website or a webpage", on "a scale of 1 to 100" (Semrush). It combines three inputs:
- Link Power: how many follow referring domains link to you, and their authority.
- Organic Traffic: Semrush's estimate of your monthly search traffic.
- Natural Profile: six spam checks, such as more than 90% of referring domains sending only dofollow links, or many linking domains on the same IP.
What's a good score? Semrush sets no cutoff, only that "the closer the Authority Score is to 100 the better", and it labels domains from "Low authority" to "Superb". Compare yours with sites in your niche.
How to raise it: earn links from more authoritative domains and grow organic traffic. Semrush updates scores "once every two weeks", so changes show in steps.
Method
- Data: when MentionAgent evaluates a site for outreach, it stores the site's Ahrefs DR from Ahrefs' free DR endpoint. Sites often get evaluated again later for another customer.
- Sample: first and last reading per domain, kept if at least 30 days apart. 2,891 domains: 1,438 with a 30 to 59 day gap, 1,056 with 60 to 89, 397 with 90 to 160.
- Dropped: readings from 10 to 21 August 2026, when an Ahrefs outage meant some values were filled in later.
- Caveats: the under-20, 90+ day group is small (21 sites). Nothing is known about each site's own link building. Moz DA wasn't recorded.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to increase domain authority?
Months. Of sites MentionAgent checked twice at least 90 days apart, 52% of those under DR 20 had gained 3 or more points, against 6% of those at DR 60 or above.
Why is a high domain authority harder to increase?
DR is logarithmic, so each point higher up takes more link strength than the last, and both DA and DR are relative to other sites.
Is a domain authority of 20 good?
It depends on your competitors. Moz says there is no universal good score because it is a relative metric.