Domain authority vs. moz difficulty

[DonnieCooper]

what type relationship do you see with domain authority and moz difficulty scores?

i'm finding a rule of "tens' usually applies.... meaning if da = 45, then difficulty scores of 40-50 are generally within short term reach (3-6 months of simple onpage optimization and an appropriate # ofinbound links to the page).

your thoughts/data? just trying to get a feel for a consensus

[Cyrus-Shepard]

(Caveat: I'm an SEOmoz Associate, but I'm not one of the data scientists that calculate Domain Authority or Keyword Difficulty)

Domain Authority is a significant part of the Keyword Difficulty calculation, and it's highly correlated with the final result. If I had to guess, I'd say Page Authority is an even bigger consideration.

Personally, when looking at Keyword Difficulty, the "big 3" factors I take into account are:

• Domain/Page Authority & Trust Metrics
• On Page Optimization
• Incoming Links (both external & internal)

Of course there are a hundred other factors, many of which can be seen by running a full report in the Keyword Analysis Tool.

Often you'll see a page ranking for a keyword based on Domain Authority alone, or a few other minor factors, when in fact the page in question is terribly optimized or not targeted for the keyword at all. These are my favorite targets because they are often ranking accidentally, and a good effort at on-page optimization and the right backlinks can beat a high authority domain.