Page Authority
Page Authority is a third-party score predicting how well a single page might rank, as opposed to the whole site. Like Domain Authority, it is a useful estimate, not a Google ranking factor.
Page Authority, often shortened to PA, is a score that predicts how likely a single, specific page is to rank in search results. It uses the same 1 to 100 scale as Domain Authority, but it measures one page rather than the entire website. Think of Domain Authority as the strength of the whole house and Page Authority as the strength of one room in it, because a strong house can still contain a weak room and a weak house can contain one unusually strong room. Like its sibling metric, PA is a third-party score from an SEO tool, not something Google produces or uses to rank pages, so the same healthy skepticism applies.
Page Authority zooms in from the whole site to a single page. Same scale, same third-party caveat, more precise question.
Page Authority vs. Domain Authority
| Metric | Scope | Best used for |
|---|---|---|
| Domain Authority | The entire website | Sizing up a whole site or competitor at a glance |
| Page Authority | One specific page | Judging whether a single page can compete for a given query |
targetWhy both numbers exist
Rankings happen at the page level. Google ranks pages, not whole sites, for a given query. So while Domain Authority tells you about the overall strength of a site, Page Authority gets you closer to the real question: can this particular page rank for this particular keyword? When you are analyzing a SERP, PA is often the more directly relevant of the two, because you are competing page against page.
Two main forces lift a page's authority. The first is external: backlinks pointing directly at that page from other sites. The second is internal: internal links from your own strong pages, which pass a share of their authority along. This is exactly why deliberate internal linking matters so much. Unlike whole-domain authority, a single page's authority is something you can directly influence this week, by earning a link to it and pointing internal links at it from your homepage and your most-linked content.
Example
You publish a new product page. On day one its Page Authority is low, because nothing points to it. Over the next month you earn a couple of backlinks to it and add internal links from your popular blog posts. Its PA climbs, and so does its ability to rank. The number is just tracking the authority you deliberately channeled to that page.
You can build PA on purpose
Unlike whole-domain authority, a single page's authority is something you can directly influence this week, by earning a link to it and pointing internal links at it from your strongest pages.
Use PA the same disciplined way you use DA: as a relative, comparative gauge, never as a goal in itself. When you study a SERP, comparing the Page Authority of the ranking pages tells you how much link strength you are up against for that specific query. If the page ranking number one has a modest PA, the keyword may be more winnable than its position suggests, and that is exactly the kind of opening you want to spot before you commit time to a page. When you want a page to rank, you do not chase a PA number, you do the underlying work it reflects: earn relevant backlinks to that page and feed it internal links from your strongest pages, then let the score follow the substance rather than the other way around.
warningWATCH OUT
Do not confuse a high Page Authority with a guaranteed ranking. PA is one estimated signal among hundreds of real ones. A page with great content matched to intent can beat a higher-PA competitor that answers the query poorly. The metric informs your judgment, it does not replace it.
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