DA vs DR Explained: Domain Authority, Domain Rating and What Google Uses

What DA and DR are

Domain Authority (DA) is a metric created by Moz that predicts how likely a domain is to rank in search results relative to other domains, based mainly on Moz's link data. It is scored from 1 to 100.

Domain Rating (DR) is a metric created by Ahrefs that shows the relative strength of a website's backlink profile compared to other sites in Ahrefs' database. It is scored from 0 to 100.

Other tools have their own versions: Semrush's Authority Score and Majestic's Trust Flow and Citation Flow. They all try to answer the same question: how strong is this site's link profile?

How they differ

Google does not use either

This is the most important point. DA, DR and Authority Score are third-party estimates. Google does not use them, and Google representatives have said publicly that Google does not have an overall "domain authority" score of the kind these tools present.

Google does evaluate links and sites in many ways, so the concept is not meaningless: sites with strong, relevant link profiles often do rank well, which is why these metrics correlate with rankings. But a DA or DR number itself has no direct effect on your Google rankings, and improving it is not a goal in itself.

Why scores are logarithmic

Both scales are compressed so that higher scores are much harder to reach. In practice:

• Going from 0 to 20 can happen with a few dozen decent referring domains.
• Going from 40 to 50 requires substantially more strong links.
• Scores in the 80s and 90s belong to very large, very widely linked sites.

So comparing a DR 20 site with a DR 30 site is not like comparing 20 with 30 on a linear scale. The gap is larger than it looks. Scores also move relative to the rest of the web: your score can change even when your own links do not.

How DA and DR get gamed

Because many people buy links based on DA or DR alone, these scores are a target for manipulation:

• Link farms pass link equity between their own sites to inflate DR.
• Expired domains with old backlinks keep high scores while publishing unrelated content.
• Sites that sell guest posts to anyone can have high DR and almost no real organic traffic.

Red flags: a high DR with tiny or falling organic traffic, outbound links to unrelated topics (casino, crypto, CBD and tech on the same blog), and many articles that exist only to hold links. Our guide on buying backlinks and Google's policy covers more warning signs.

How to evaluate a site properly

Use DA or DR as a quick filter, then check:

1. Organic traffic trend: is it real and stable or growing? A site with DR 35 and solid traffic is usually a better link than DR 70 with none.
2. Topical relevance: does the site cover your subject?
3. Content quality: would you read it? Are articles written for humans?
4. Outbound link patterns: does every article link out to unrelated commercial sites?
5. Indexation: is the linking page itself indexed? Search the URL or use a site: search as a quick check.
6. Audience: does the site have real readers, comments, social shares or a newsletter?

A link that passes these checks is valuable regardless of its exact DA or DR.

Should you try to increase your DA or DR?

Only as a side effect. The work that raises these scores, earning links from relevant, established sites, is the same work that helps you rank. But chasing the score directly leads to bad decisions, like buying links from high-DR sites with no relevance.

Use your own DR or DA as a rough progress indicator, alongside the numbers that matter: referring domains from relevant sites, rankings for target pages, and organic traffic. For a practical plan, see how to get backlinks for a new website. Our backlinks service reports live URLs, placement and traffic context, not just a DR number.

Quick reference: the main authority metrics

• Domain Authority (Moz): 1-100. A machine-learning prediction of ranking likelihood based on Moz's link index. Also has a page-level counterpart, Page Authority.
• Domain Rating (Ahrefs): 0-100. Relative strength of a site's backlink profile, driven by unique referring domains with followed links. Page-level counterpart: URL Rating (UR).
• Authority Score (Semrush): 0-100. Combines link data with estimated organic traffic and spam signals, according to Semrush's description.
• Trust Flow and Citation Flow (Majestic): 0-100 each. Citation Flow reflects link volume; Trust Flow reflects closeness to a set of trusted seed sites. A large gap between them can hint at low-quality links.

All are useful for comparisons within the same tool. None is a Google metric, and none should be the only number you use to buy, sell or judge a link.