Domain Rating vs Domain Authority

Nowadays, every company is knowledgeable about SEO, backlinks and search engines and has principles regarding what makes a website more credible and reliable than its competition.

At present, Domain Rate (DR) and Domain Authority (DA) are two metrics that are the leading criteria for analysing websites and comparing them to others.

Domain Rating is the primary ranking metric used by Ahrefs. DR summarises a website’s or URL’s strength by measuring the backlink profile on a scale of 1 to 100.

On the other hand, Domain Authority is a predictor developed by Moz that acts as a ranking metric for how websites rank on search engine result pages.

Many business owners who source the best link builders use DR as the quality metric to assess how good a backlink is. We strongly recommend not solely using DR or DA as quality metrics because relevance, trust and toxicity need to play a part. If you have a large backlink profile we strongly recommend a proactive link audit service to remove any toxic links.

So which one is superior to the other? Let’s go back to the first parameter that laid the foundations for the others.

What is PageRank?

PageRank (PR) was the first algorithm Google used to rank websites and web pages in their SERPs. PR was used as a way of gauging how important these websites were.

This metric was measured using the quality and number of links pointing to a website, which suggested how important a website was.

In summary, PageRank’s underlying assumption was that the better and more reputable websites would have more referring domains and backlinks pointing to them.

This was the failure of PageRank, as now it is known that you need more than just a quantity of links to build a reputation online. This is why Google no longer uses PageRank.

However, PageRank was the very first metric that laid the foundations for the continuous evolution of improved metrics to shape Google’s indication of its assessment of a website’s reputation.

What is Domain Authority?

Domain Authority (also known as Moz DA) is a metric used to indicate a website’s backlink quality and relevance. It calculates the score from 1 to 100 based on the Moz web index.

It considers 40 factors, of which some are unknown. However, some of the few known factors include

  • Domain age
  • Website traffic volume
  • Amount of backlinks
  • Quality of backlinks
  • Spam Score
  • Social Signals

DA does not use any on-page factors such as content quality or keyword relevancy and isn’t used by Google as a ranking factor.

Because of this, Domain Authority doesn’t always provide a perfectly accurate prediction of ranking power and ability. It can also be manipulated since it doesn’t consider factors that differentiate organic traffic from paid traffic.

How do you check Domain Authority?

You can check your Domain Authority by using the Moz DA Checker.

Moz is the developer of DA, so there is no better place to check your DA score than directly through Moz.

How is Domain Authority Calculated?

Domain Authority is calculated by analysing many factors, such as linking root domains and the number of backlinks a web page has.

DA suggests what Moz determines as a website’s ‘ranking strength’. If DA on one website is higher than another, Moz says it should rank higher.

How can I increase my Domain Authority?

There are many ways of improving your Domain Authority including:

  • Acquire high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites
  • Improve your website’s content
  • Audit your site for any errors and poor-quality links
  • Optimise your website silo structure through internal linking

What is Domain Rating?

Domain Rating is a metric that shows how strong a website’s backlink profile is on a scale of 1 to 100. DR can quickly create a temporary evaluation on whether a web page is suitable for someone.

DR analyses how many unique domains have do-follow links to a URL. It considers the DR values of referring domains and the number of unique domains they link to.

Organic search results are links on a search result earned through different factors such as:

  • Content relevancy
  • Links and domain rating
  • Engagement

Domain Rating is a metric that is aimed at backlink profile quality. Using DR, you can create solid link-building strategies with backlinks from highly relevant websites that outweigh hundreds of backlinks from lower-quality pages.

Why Use Domain Rating?

Due to a high DR only being available through a strong backlink strategy and real, organic traffic, DR is a crucial metric that can assist in measuring a site’s URL power.

Using Domain Rating, you can build content-relevant and effective connections between various websites to enhance your search ranking and improve the DR of a website through building backlinks.

Because of this, DR is a ranking factor more relevant to Google’s ranking parameters and cannot be manipulated to show falsely achieved high scores on SERPs.

How do you check Domain Rating?

To check your Domain Rating, you should use Ahrefs.

Ahrefs developed DR, so there is no better place to check than through their website.

Alongside the Ahrefs domain rating checker, you could utilise the Ahrefs domain authority checker.

How is Domain Rating Calculated?

DR is calculated primarily through link juice, backlink volume and backlink quality.

Ahrefs also uses a formula to split the rating equality among domains a website links to.

How can I increase my Domain Rating?

Domain Rating can be increased by improving your backlink profile and content quality.

DR is calculated through backlink analysis, so it is important to ensure you are receiving backlinks from high-quality, relevant web pages.

Using high-quality content on your website is also crucial, not just for your DR but also to rank on the SERPs.

Importance of DA and DR

Domain Authority and Domain Rating are important SEO and website ranking metrics.

Even though they are third-party metrics, they summarise a huge set of collated data collected from millions of websites across the web.

There are a few reasons why is it important to consider these metrics:

  • You can analyse a website to get an idea of how much time has been spent on its SEO
  • You can analyse a website while taking backlinks from them
  • You can gauge how spammy a website is
  • It can help you to promote your products or services on other websites

Similarities Between DA and DR

Both DA and DR were developed by SEO companies in Moz and Ahrefs, respectively, and they are related to the SEO and performance of a website.

Neither metric directly impacts search engine results and is just used as a predictor of how well your website is doing.

Both metrics use systems to consider the following factors:

  • Backlink evaluation
  • A higher score means higher rankings
  • Varied scores from 0 to 100
  • Predicts progress of a website or web page
  • Find spammy backlinks
  • Consider bounce rate as part of the score

Final Thoughts on DA and DR

Both Domain Authority and Domain Rating are important ranking metrics in their ways. There is a valid argument to be made for both.

Moz’s DA score doesn’t look too much into backlinks. It instead focuses on factors such as traffic, age space score and social presence. This isn’t great as we know backlinks are a clear ranking factor and should be looked into in some amount.

The argument against DR, however, is that Domain Rating can be manipulated. A super old website will likely have a high DA score even if it doesn’t rank for many keywords.

Domain Rating vs Domain Authority FAQs

What is the difference between Domain Rating and Domain Authority?

Domain Rating (DR) is a ranking metric that’s developed by Ahrefs. It shows the strength of a website’s backlinks on a scale from 1 to 100. Domain Authority is a ranking metric developed by Moz that predicts how well websites will rank on search engines.

Is domain authority a ranking factor?

Domain Authority is not a ranking factor. It is a ranking metric that calculates a domain’s DA score which comes from a machine learning algorithm’s predictions on how often Google is showing the domain in the SERPs.

Is domain rating important for SEO?

Domain Rating is important for SEO. The domain rating indicates how high on the search engine results pages that a website will rank. Even though it is a third party metric, the developer of DR, Ahrefs, is a credible source that provides data on millions of websites.

What are domain ratings?

Domain Ratings are scores given to a website that indicates how high a website will rank on a search engine results page. Higher numbers suggest that a site will rank higher on a SERP and that a website is credible.

All Link Building Agencies

Here is the full list of the link-building companies we have reviewed:

The top-rated link-building company reviews were updated in April 2024.

Link Builders

After lots of SEO Testing we have reviewed the best tried and trusted link building companies to grow your websites.

Quick Links

Top 10 Link Builders Buy Guest Posts Buy Niche Edits Buy Tier 2 Links