Domain Rating (DR) and Domain Authority (DA) are often confused because they seem similar but measure different things. DR, from Ahrefs, scores the strength of a website’s backlink profile on a scale of 1 to 100. DA, from Moz, predicts how well a website might rank on search engines.
Even though many people think these scores directly impact Google rankings, they don’t. ❌
A high DR or DA often means a site ranks well, but that’s because strong backlinks and good SEO practices influence both the scores and Google rankings. It’s correlation, not causation.
DR focuses on backlink quality and quantity. DA looks at overall ranking potential based on multiple SEO factors. Do you want to check DA and DR for your site or competitors? Use the Site Explorer.
But what exactly are Domain Rating and Domain Authority, how are they calculated, and which one matters more for your SEO? Keep reading to find out! 👓
What Is Domain Rating?
Domain Rating, or DR, was developed by Ahrefs and measures the strength of a website’s backlink profile based on both the quantity and quality of its links.
Think of it like street cred for websites: If two businesses compete online, the one with a higher DR typically has a stronger backlink profile and is more likely to rank well. But DR isn’t everything. Google considers many factors beyond backlinks when ranking pages.
DR scores are based on the number of referring domains and backlinks, but quality matters just as much as quantity. A handful of high-authority links can be more valuable than dozens of low-quality ones.
What Are Domain Rating Factors?
Ahrefs, the creator of Domain Rating, runs a large web crawler that indexes backlinks and maintains a database with links, indexed pages, and backlinks.
How is DR calculated? With the following key points:
- Unique referring domains linking to the site
- Total backlinks pointing to the site
- DR scores of referring domains
- How many sites those referring domains link to
DR is scored on a logarithmic scale from 1 to 100. Sites with strong link-building efforts typically score 60+, while average sites hover around 30.
Note: Backlinks are links from one website to another, while referring domains are the unique websites that contain those backlinks.
What Is a Good Domain Rating?
A “good” DR depends on your industry and competitors, but here’s a general breakdown:
- 60+: Strong backlink profile, likely to compete well in rankings.
- 30-50: Average range for most websites.
- 0-30: Lower authority, often newer or less established sites.
Websites with a DR of 60+ have strong backlink profiles, often due to high-quality links from authoritative sources. For example, BBC.com (DR 94) and NYTimes.com (DR 93) are major news outlets that earn backlinks from a variety of reputable media and government sites.
In the DR 30-50 range, sites like WriteDailyNews.com (DR 52) and WebiVest.com (DR 52) have a moderate backlink profile, typically gaining links from niche blogs, forums, and industry-related sources.
Websites with a DR of 0-30 are usually newer or have limited backlinks. A small local art gallery’s site (LocalArtGalleryExample.com, DR 25) might only have links from local directories, while a new tech startup (NewTechStartupExample.com, DR 15) may still be building its online presence.
DR scores fluctuate over time as sites gain or lose backlinks. You can use backlink tools to regularly check the backlinks and authority scores for a website.
How Do You Increase Domain Rating?
Boosting your domain rating requires a comprehensive approach. Here are three tips to help you increase your website’s authority and expand your online presence:
Build Quality Backlinks to Establish Google Authority
Focus on getting high-quality, do-follow links from respected sites in your niche. Internal linking is also important to spread link equity across your site. Avoid low-quality links, as they can hurt your DR.
Guest posting on authoritative websites can help you acquire quality backlinks, so aim for quality over quantity.
Create Optimized Content to Engage and Retain Readers
High-quality, optimized content is key to boosting your domain rating. Use Content Optimizer Tools to create in-depth, informative content that aligns with search engine ranking factors.
When your content meets your audience’s needs, it will attract organic traffic and links from other sites, boosting your DR.
Make Your Content Shareable to Drive Social Media Engagement
Social media can help raise your domain rating by increasing content visibility. Create content that’s easy to share, encourage followers to spread it, and add share buttons to your pages.
More shares mean more chances for authoritative sites to link back to you, increasing your domain rating and overall site authority.
What Is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority (DA) was developed by Moz to predict how well a website can rank on SERPs, factoring in elements like backlinks, site age, popularity, and size. Unlike Domain Rating, DA gives a more comprehensive view of a site’s potential to rank.
DA scores range from 1 to 100 on a logarithmic scale, with higher scores indicating better ranking potential. However, don’t confuse Domain Authority with Page Authority (PA), as DA evaluates domains, while PA focuses on individual web pages.
Remember, DA and DR aren’t direct ranking factors for Google; use domain authority tools just to predict a site’s ranking potential relative to competitors.
What Are Domain Authority Factors?
Domain Authority uses over 40 factors to assess a site’s potential to rank, including linking root domains, total backlinks, MozRank, MozTrust, content quality, and more. This makes it a broader metric than Domain Rating, offering a fuller picture of how a site might perform in search results.
Some key factors influencing DA include:
- Linking root domains
- Social media signals
- Spam score
- Total backlinks (quality and quantity)
- Website traffic volume
- Domain age
Moz gathers this data and compares it with actual SERP rankings to calculate the DA score. But keep in mind that DA isn’t an exact measure of your rankings—it’s a relative score that shows how your site stacks up against others in your niche.
What Is a Good Domain Authority?
A “good” Domain Authority score also depends on the industry and the competitors, but a higher DA indicates a website with greater potential to rank well in SERPs due to its perceived credibility and influence online.
Here’s a breakdown of DA scores:
- 60+: Indicates a strong backlink profile and significant online presence.
- 50-60: Indicates a well-established website with a solid backlink profile.
- 40-50: Common for many websites that are growing their presence.
- 30-40: Often associated with newer websites or those still in the process of building backlinks.
Examples of high authority signals include BBC.com (DA 93) and NYTimes.com (DA 92), which attract high-quality backlinks from major media, universities, and government sources.
Strong domain authority domains include HealthyPawsCincinnati.com (DA 55) and CincyPetSitting.com (DA 52), local businesses with backlinks from reputable regional directories, and niche blogs.
An example of a common DA could be CincyPawsPetSitters.com (DA 45), which is an established business with backlinks from local directories and industry-related sources.
Lower DA can be a small business like PawPlusShop.com (DA 35), it only has backlinks from local directories or smaller industry sites.
How Do You Increase Domain Authority?
Building a strong Domain Authority starts with creating high-quality, informative content. When your content is valuable and aligns with Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) guidelines, it’s more likely that other websites will naturally link back to you.
While going viral can help, this is not a reliable SEO strategy, and even the best content often needs a little extra effort.
Publish High-Quality, Engaging Content Regularly
Creating valuable content is one of the most effective ways to boost your Domain Authority. By consistently publishing high-quality, informative, and engaging articles, blog posts, or guides, you increase the chances of earning organic backlinks.
Great content not only attracts visitors but encourages other websites to link to yours as a reliable resource.
Avoid Black-Hat SEO Tactics to Build Organic Authority
Avoid trying to game the system by paying for higher DA or using other shady tactics. Google is strict about black-hat SEO, and spammy links from unreliable sources can hurt your Domain Authority.
To improve your DA the right way, stick to white-hat strategies. For example, guest posting on reputable websites with a higher DA than yours can help you earn quality backlinks over time.
Participating in forums related to your niche is another great way to build backlinks—but remember to focus on sharing useful information and avoid the common SEO mistake of spamming links.
Monitor Your Backlink Profile to Remove Toxic Links
Regularly checking your backlink profile is essential for maintaining a strong Domain Authority. If you identify any spammy, low-quality, or irrelevant links, disavow them through Google’s Disavow Tool. Removing these harmful backlinks helps ensure your site isn’t penalized and can increase your chances of ranking higher in search results.
Getting a backlink from a trusted site, like a news outlet, can give your authority a major boost. Services like HARO connect journalists with experts, offering you a chance to get your site linked in high-profile publications like The New York Times or The Chicago Tribune.
What Are the Differences Between the Domain Rating and Domain Authority?
Domain Rating and Domain Authority are both valuable metrics, but they serve different purposes:
- Domain Rating focuses on the strength of a website’s backlink profile. It’s a measure of the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to a site, helping you understand how strong a website’s link profile is.
- Domain Authority predicts how well a site will perform in search rankings. It considers a variety of SEO factors, such as backlinks, organic traffic, and social signals, to give a more comprehensive view of a website’s potential in search results.
While Domain Rating is crucial for building backlinks, Domain Authority helps you gauge how you stack up against competitors in the SEO space. Essentially, DR gives you insight into a site’s backlink power, while DA reveals its overall SEO strength.
Neither metric is superior to the other—they complement each other. For the best SEO strategy, use both Domain Rating and Domain Authority together, along with other key SEO practices.
How Do You Check Domain Rating and Domain Authority?
To check both Domain Rating and Domain Authority, you can use a tool like Site Explorer. This tool provides valuable insights into a website’s overall SEO performance, including DR and DA, giving you an idea of the website’s strength in search engine rankings.
In Site Explorer, simply enter the URL of the website you’re interested in. Beyond DR and DA, Site Explorer offers a range of other valuable insights, including:
- Organic Traffic: See how much organic traffic a site is receiving, along with trends over time. This helps you understand a website’s search visibility.
- Paid Traffic: Check the amount of paid traffic a site is generating, which can give you insight into its advertising efforts and keyword targeting.
- Backlinks: Review the total number of backlinks a website has, along with their quality and relevance. This is critical for understanding a site’s link profile.
- Referring Domains: See how many unique domains are linking to the site. A diverse set of referring domains is a strong indicator of a robust backlink profile.
- Main Competitors: Identify who the main competitors are in the same space. This helps in competitive analysis and understanding how your site compares to others.
- Top Ranking Keywords: Discover which keywords the site is ranking for and how much traffic these keywords bring. This can give you valuable insights into a site’s content strategy and SEO focus.
Why You Can’t Rely on Domain Rating and Domain Authority for Accurate Metrics
DR and DA are good indicators of a website’s SEO strength, but they’re not immune to manipulation.
It’s not uncommon for some to take shortcuts to boost these metrics. For a small investment, vendors can employ tactics like using low-quality link farms, spammy backlink networks, or superficial link building strategies.
While these methods might temporarily inflate DR and DA scores, they don’t contribute to genuine SEO progress or sustainable authority.
That’s where Domain Power steps in. At Search Atlas, we’ve developed this innovative metric to give a true reflection of a website’s strength.
Unlike traditional DR and DA, Domain Power is designed to resist manipulation, providing a more reliable measure of your website’s actual authority and long-term ranking potential.
What Is Domain Power?
Domain Power (DP) is a proprietary metric from Search Atlas designed to measure a website’s true authority. Unlike traditional metrics that primarily focus on backlinks, DP evaluates organic traffic and ranking keywords, pulling real-world data directly from Google Search Console (GSC).
This gives you a clearer, more accurate picture of how well your site is performing in search results—not just how many links point to it.
Why does this matter? Because backlink-based metrics can be manipulated through link farms or spammy networks. SEOs are looking for a more trustworthy way to assess domain strength, and Domain Power delivers exactly that: A metric that reflects actual search performance and can’t be artificially inflated.
Why is Domain Power More Reliable?
Metrics like DA and DR were built on old-school SEO principles. They put a heavy emphasis on backlinks, but Google’s algorithm has come a long way since then.
Today, authority isn’t just about links. It’s about:
- Page Quality: If your content isn’t valuable and well-optimized, it won’t rank.
- Topical Authority: Google wants to see that you’re a trusted expert in your niche.
These factors now carry the most weight, and Domain Power takes them into account, giving you a more accurate measure of your site’s true strength.
Backlinks still matter, but quality content and industry authority are what really drive rankings now.
What Is a Good Domain Power Score?
Domain Power gives you a real, reliable picture of website authority that can’t be faked. Here’s how you can assess a site:
- The Titans (65 to 100): Big names that rank for loads of keywords and get tons of traffic. Think Google (100), Forbes (83), Figma (71), SpaceX (65).
- Niche Leaders (35 to 65): Trusted brands in their industries with solid traffic and keyword rankings. Examples: HTC (60), Saucelabs (51), Power (44).
- The Builders (0 to 35): Smaller sites growing their influence and gaining traction. E.g., Supply Land (34), Winter (28), Labels (14).
Don’t just focus on the giants. Google loves smaller sites with great content, especially in niche markets. A site with a Domain Power of 34 can still offer valuable backlinks that boost your SEO.
How Is Domain Power More Accurate?
We didn’t just assume Domain Power was the better metric—we put it to the test. We analyzed thousands of websites, comparing organic traffic, ranking keywords, backlinks, and even traditional metrics like DA and DR to see which factors best correlated with top-ranking pages. So, what did the data reveal?
Domain Power consistently outperformed DA and DR, offering a much clearer picture of what Google actually prioritizes for rankings.
Bottom line? It’s a smarter, more accurate way to measure your site’s SEO strength.
Domain Power vs. Domain Authority
Look at this site with a DA of 48—it ranks for just two keywords, gets zero traffic, and has a score propped up by 723 backlinks. Even if those links are “relevant,” Google clearly doesn’t see the site itself as valuable or authoritative.
Why chase backlinks from a source that search engines don’t trust? Domain Power catches this with a low score of 4—because if a site isn’t relevant, it doesn’t matter how many links it has.
Now, consider a second site. It has a DA of just 20, yet it pulls in solid traffic and ranks for 4.4K keywords.
Clearly, both Google and users find it far more valuable than the first example. And Domain Power reflects that with a score of 40.
You’ll notice the same pattern when comparing Domain Power to Domain Rating.
Domain Power vs. Domain Rating
Here’s a site with a DR of 71 and over 10,000 backlinks. Sounds impressive, right? But take a closer look—it ranks for just one organic keyword and barely gets 27 visitors.
DR paints it as a high-value site, but Google clearly thinks otherwise. Domain Power reflects reality with a low score of 12, showing that backlinks alone don’t equal authority.
Now, consider another site with a DR of just 13. On paper, it seems weak. But in reality, it ranks for 5.8K keywords, with 285 of them in the top 3, and brings in 6.3K visitors every month.
Google clearly values this site, and Domain Power does too, giving it a well-earned score of 42.
Once again, this proves how Domain Power provides a more accurate measure of real authority than DR or DA.
Finally an Authority Metric You Can Trust
For years, metrics like DA and DR have been the gold standard for measuring a website’s authority. But Domain Authority vs. Domain Rating share the same flaws, they’re not as reliable as they seem. 👎
These scores can be easily manipulated with spammy link building tactics, making it look like a site is authoritative when, in reality, it holds little actual value in search rankings.
That means if you’re relying on DA or DR to guide your link building strategy, you might be investing in backlinks that don’t really move the needle. Google’s algorithm has evolved far beyond just backlinks—it considers real-world signals like organic traffic and keyword rankings.
Domain Power provides a clearer, more accurate picture by focusing on what truly matters: How a site performs in search, not just how many links point to it. 👍
With Domain Power, you can build links from sites that Google and real users actually trust—helping your SEO strategy deliver real results instead of chasing inflated numbers.
At Search Atlas, we offer more than just the basics with innovative solutions. Want to see our metrics in action? Start your free trial now!
