Domain Rating (DR) and Domain Authority (DA) are two different metrics from two different SEO tools that both attempt to measure the same thing: the overall authority of a website’s backlink profile. Neither is a Google ranking factor, but both are useful for comparing sites and evaluating link building progress.
Domain Rating (Ahrefs)
DR is Ahrefs’ proprietary metric that measures the strength of a website’s backlink profile on a 0-100 logarithmic scale.
- What it measures: The quantity and quality of unique domains linking to a website
- Scale: 0-100, logarithmic — going from DR 70 to 71 requires exponentially more links than going from 20 to 21
- Key factor: Number of unique referring domains and their DR (link quality)
- Does NOT consider: Content quality, on-page SEO, traffic, or spam signals
Domain Authority (Moz)
DA is Moz’s proprietary metric predicting how likely a domain is to rank in search results, scored 0-100.
- What it measures: Multiple factors including linking root domains, total links, and MozRank
- Scale: 0-100, logarithmic — same exponential scaling as DR
- Key factor: Combination of link quantity, link quality, and Moz’s spam score assessment
- Includes spam detection: Moz factors in spam signals, which can lower DA for sites with spammy link profiles
Key Differences
- Different databases: Ahrefs and Moz crawl the web independently — they see different links, so scores often differ
- Different calculations: DR focuses primarily on linking domain quantity and quality; DA uses a more complex model including spam assessment
- Not interchangeable: A DR 50 site is not equivalent to a DA 50 site — the scales are not calibrated to each other
- Update frequency: Both update regularly but on different schedules
Which Metric Is Better?
Neither is inherently better — both are third-party estimates, not Google metrics.
- Use Ahrefs DR if: You primarily use Ahrefs for SEO research — consistency within one tool is more useful than mixing metrics
- Use Moz DA if: You primarily use Moz tools, or you want a metric that factors in spam signals
- Best practice: Pick one and use it consistently for benchmarking. Do not compare your DR to a competitor’s DA.
What Neither Metric Tells You
- Actual Google rankings: High DR/DA does not guarantee rankings — Google uses hundreds of signals
- Content quality: A site can have high authority but poor content
- Topical relevance: A high-DR general site may lose to a lower-DR niche-specific site on specialized topics
- Page-level authority: DR/DA measure domain-level authority. Individual pages can be much stronger or weaker than the domain average.
How to Use Authority Metrics in SEO
- Competitor benchmarking: Compare your DR/DA to competitors to understand the authority gap you need to close
- Link building evaluation: Assess the quality of potential link sources — higher DR/DA sites pass more value
- Progress tracking: Monitor your own DR/DA over time as a proxy for backlink profile growth
- Keyword difficulty estimation: Use alongside keyword difficulty scores to assess whether you can realistically compete
- Do not obsess: Focus on building genuine authority through quality content and natural links — the metrics will follow