DA dropped 7 pts in one week as well as our competitors. Is something going on?

[WeaverMike]

We have consistently had a 70 in DA and now all of the sudden we are at a 63 as well as seeing the same considerable drop among our competitors.  This was odd as I have not seen this type of drop in DA since being with the company.  Any ideas are appreciated.

[ATP]

Hey Mike,

Nope nothing to worry about. Moz Domain Authority is always jumping an and down. This is how its designed. It shouldn't be compared month to month as the previous month has no bearing on the next. Instead you should judge it on how well you are doing compared to your competitors.

Rand posted an article about it this month (https://moz.com/community/q/da-pa-fluctuations-how-to-interpret-apply-understand-these-ml-based-scores) Took me ages to find it... turns out it was pinned to the top of the forums... typical

In summary
The best website on the web has DA 100. This month they have 5000 links.
You are DA  30 and have 1000 links

If the following month the best website gains 3000 more links so its at 8000 links - the DA 100 benchmark has moved
Compared to this benchmark you are not as authoritative as you were, your DA has dropped you are now
DA 25 and still have 1000 links

Your site hasn't change and you have no extra links. But compared to the best website you are slightly worse.

As long as everyone else in your niche has done the same don't worry.
If however, you drop 5 DA and your competitor gains 2 DA. They have improved their link profile much more than you have yours and you should look to act.

DA is also affected by changes to the moz algorithm as they prioritise different factors to get a better reflection of how google perceives your website.

So the simple rule. Compare yourselves to your competitors not to last months DA alone.