What Is Page Authority (PA)?
Page Authority (PA) is an SEO metric created by MOZ to estimate how well a particular webpage would rank in search engines results pages (SERPs). It is scored from 0-100 with a logarithmic scale increasing with a page’s potential to rank. Unlike Domain Authority (DA) which estimates the overall potency of a domain or a subdomain, PA is directed towards a single url, which gives a more granular view of SEO prospects.
The PA score is generated through machine learning models that analyze multiple SEO signals such as the PA of the page, inbound links, linking domains, and general link equity. It’s worth mentioning that Page Authority is not one of the factors that Google uses to rank pages. Rather, it acts as an outside point of evaluation — a benchmark for other SEOs or marketers to estimate and devise plans around the ranking potential of a page.
As an example, there is a mention, “Before activating the newest affiliate campaign, we had evaluated the Page Authority of our leading landing pages to check which one had the greatest potential of ranking organically.”
Why Page Authority is Important
PA is an important affiliate marketing metric for affiliate marketing and SEO. While it does not affect a page’s rank in search engine results, it does indicate pages with a well-built system of backlinks that are likely to do well in those pages. This information can be used to formulate better and more targeted SEO campaigns.
PA is used by marketers to measure performance vis-à-vis peers and identify which of their pages require more aggressive SEO. It is also very important in link prospecting. In this case, high PA pages are more valuable from an SEO standpoint. For PA, content strategy can be constructed around topics or formats that have been shown to earn authority so that that success can be replicated. In affiliate marketing, higher-PA pages tend to drive better organic traffic and therefore aid in better conversions and enhanced commission rates.
How to Use Page Authority in Your Workflow
Affiliate marketers and SEO experts have a variety of ways to incorporate Page Authority into different parts of their campaigns. In content audits, PA shows which content is worth updating or building on. In the planning stages, it helps determine where the link-building campaigns should be focused for important but overperforming pages.
To illustrate, if a key affiliate landing page shows low PA, then it is highly likely that the page will benefit from concentrated optimization and backlink strategies. In evaluating guest blogging opportunities, it is not enough to consider a site’s Domain Authority; PA also needs to be sufficiently high for the page that hosts your content or link. Tools like Moz’s Link Explorer give direct access to this score, but other services like Ahrefs or SEMrush have similar metrics and work with their systems.
Common Mistakes When Interpreting Page Authority
While PA is undoubtedly useful, misinterpreting it can lead to flawed strategies. One common mistake is treating it as an absolute score without context. For example, in a niche market this score 40 could be strong but in a fiercely contested market segment it could be lacking. Always benchmark PA against the pages you are competing with in your specific vertical.
Another misconception is equating PA with traffic. Just because a page has a high authority score doesn’t mean it receives a lot of visitors – it only suggests potential. Moreover, some marketers focus solely on increasing PA through backlinks, while ignoring on-page optimization and content quality. Without strong, relevant content and proper keyword usage, even a high-PA page might struggle to rank.
Key Factors That Influence Page Authority
Most important is the quality of the inbound links. The Page Authority (PA) score increases when there are backlinks from authoritative, niche-related sites. But quantity alone is not enough; variety also counts. A profile with diverse links from multiple referers carries more value than a link from dozens of one source.
Internal linking contributes a lot, too. High authority pages on your site that link to newer or weaker pages share some of their authority, which helps increase the PA of those internal targets. Merely sharing a thematic domain with a particular keyword phrase does not guarantee optimal performance; relevance to search intents also matters. Some aspects of technical SEO, like mobile friendliness, page load speed, and clean metadata, while not impacting PA directly, do affect a page’s SEO efficiency. These factors may have secondary effects on PA.
How to Improve Page Authority
Improving Page Authority (PA) is a gradual, deliberate process. While there isn’t a quick way to achieve the perfect score, several strategies can help improve it over time. Publishing linkable content, such as in-depth guides, case studies, original research, or other tools, encourages backlinks naturally. It is important to have high-quality backlinks from relevant, trusted sources, which can be earned through outreach, guest blogging, or digital PR campaigns.
Maintaining content accuracy and relevance is equally essential. Fresh content often receives better search visibility, translating to increased backlinks and improved PA. On-page SEO also requires attention: using proper headings and keyword structures as well as optimized meta tags boosts usability and SEO performance. Internal linking deserves more focus: linking less authoritative pages to strong pages within your site helps to distribute authority and improve the overall link structure.
Page Authority vs. Domain Authority
Even though both PA and DA have some similarities, they serve different functions. PA assesses the ranking opportunities of a single page while DA evaluates the strength of an entire domain or subdomain. Both are beneficial for affiliate marketers. For instance, a website may possess strong overall DA, but if the PA of key affiliate landing pages is low, those specific URLs will still struggle in search results. Tracking both metrics provides a better appreciation of SEO results across different dimensions.
Explanation for Dummies
Imagine your webpage is a high school student trying to impress a super-picky teacher named Google. Page Authority is like that student’s popularity score. The more cool friends they have (aka backlinks), the better they behave in class (good content), and the cleaner their reputation (fast, mobile-friendly site), the higher their score. A 100 means the student is the prom king or queen of the search results. But becoming that popular is a long, hard road — you can’t just fake it. In other words, PA is your page’s chance of standing out in a very crowded class.
Final Thoughts
Though it is not the only metric that matters in SEO, Page Authority is important when used effectively. For affiliate marketers, it offers a concrete method to evaluate the feasibility of competing at a particular page level, as well as helping optimize content and direct link-building strategies. While PA may not provide a surefire way to improve rankings or traffic, grasping the concept and making efforts towards improving it can bolster the long-term affiliate strategy and improve resilience and performance over time.
