Low DA sites won’t hurt your SEO if they’re relevant and high-quality. In fact, a balanced strategy with backlinks from sites with DA close to yours can be beneficial for natural growth. The key is focusing on relevance and content quality, not just the numbers.
This is one of the most common questions in SEO groups — and for good reason. When you’re starting a website or blog, it’s natural to worry whether accepting backlinks from low Domain Authority (DA) sites might hurt more than help. The short answer? No, as long as you know what you’re doing.
What does having a low DA really mean?
First, let’s clear something up: Domain Authority is a metric created by Moz, not Google. It’s like a thermometer that tries to measure a domain’s “strength” on a scale from 1 to 100, but Google doesn’t use this metric directly in its algorithms.
According to Google itself, what really matters is relevance, authority, and content quality. A site with DA 15 but super relevant content for your niche can be worth much more than a generic DA 50 site.
Low DA sites are typically:
- New sites (like yours probably is)
- Niche-specific sites with smaller audiences
- Personal or local blogs
- Sites that are growing organically
This doesn’t mean they’re bad — it means they’re still building their authority.
Why backlinks from sites with similar DA can be a smart strategy?
Here’s the key insight: sites with DA similar to yours can be your best allies for growth. Why?
Natural patterns matter: Google loves natural patterns. In real life, similarly-sized sites interact with each other all the time. If you have a vegan cooking blog with DA 12, it’s natural for other healthy eating blogs with DA 10-15 to link to you.
Easier partnerships: Sites at the same stage as yours are more open to collaborations. They understand the struggle of getting started and are more receptive to guest posts, content exchanges, or mutual mentions.
Growing together: Today you both have low DA, but in a year you might both be at DA 30+. These partnerships tend to strengthen over time.
Ahrefs confirms that a diversified and natural backlink profile is much more valuable than a few high-authority links.
When can low DA sites be problematic?
Not everything is sunshine and rainbows. Some scenarios can be harmful:
- Spam or low-quality sites: If the site has low DA because it publishes poor or irrelevant content, better stay away
- Link farms: Sites created solely to sell backlinks, even with decent DA, are dangerous
- Duplicate content: Sites that only copy content from other places
- Completely irrelevant topics: A link from a pet site to your finance blog makes no sense
The secret is analyzing real quality, not just the DA number. A site with DA 8 but original content, real engagement, and relevance to your niche is worth much more than a generic DA 40 site.
How to create a balanced backlink strategy?
Success isn’t about chasing only high or low DA, but creating a natural and diversified profile:
For your foundation (60-70% of your backlinks):
- Focus on sites with DA between -5 and +10 points from yours
- Prioritize thematic relevance
- Look for sites with real engagement (comments, active social media)
For growth (20-30%):
- Include some backlinks from sites with significantly higher DA
- Guest posts on established sites in your niche
- Mentions in authoritative publications
For diversity (10-20%):
- Some links from smaller but super relevant sites
- Local or community-specific blogs
- New but promising sites
According to a Backlinko study, sites with more diversified backlink profiles tend to perform better on Google.
Tools that can help your strategy
If you’re thinking about where to find backlink opportunities or evaluate site quality, there are some useful options. For those starting out who need a more strategic approach, platforms like inBond can be interesting — it allows you to find guest post opportunities and backlink exchanges with sites of similar quality, focusing on relevance rather than just DA numbers.
What really matters in the end?
Stop worrying so much about numbers and focus on what really moves the needle:
- Relevance: Does the site talk about topics related to yours?
- Content quality: Is the content original and useful?
- Real engagement: Is there a real audience interacting?
- Organic growth: Is the site evolving naturally?
Google wants to reward sites that offer real value to users. If you’re building genuine relationships with other content creators in your niche, regardless of their DA, you’re on the right track.
Low DA sites aren’t the villains of your SEO — on the contrary, they can be valuable allies in your journey. The important thing is not to get carried away by numbers alone and focus on building a natural and relevant network of backlinks.
Remember: Google doesn’t see DA, it sees relevance, quality, and naturalness. Whether you achieve this with DA 10 or DA 100 sites, the result will be positive. The key is maintaining balance and always prioritizing quality over quantity — or over any isolated metric.
