If you’ve spent any time researching link building, you’ve seen both metrics thrown around interchangeably — “this site has a DR 45” or “we only place on DA 30+ domains.” They sound similar, get compared constantly, and are often assumed to measure the same thing. They don’t, and understanding the difference matters if you’re evaluating whether a link (or a link building provider) is actually worth paying for.
What Domain Rating (DR) Actually Measures
Domain Rating is Ahrefs’ proprietary metric. It estimates the strength of a website’s backlink profile on a 0–100 logarithmic scale, based primarily on the quantity and quality of external links pointing to that domain.
DR is purely a link-based signal. It doesn’t factor in content quality, traffic, or how relevant the site is to any particular topic — it’s a fairly narrow (but useful) measurement of link equity.
What Domain Authority (DA) Actually Measures
Domain Authority is Moz’s equivalent metric, also scored 0–100. Like DR, it’s link-based and logarithmic, but it’s calculated using Moz’s own index and algorithm, which weighs link signals differently than Ahrefs does.
Because the two companies crawl the web independently and use different scoring models, the same website will almost always show a different DR and DA score — sometimes by a significant margin.
Why the Numbers Don’t Match
| Factor | Domain Rating (Ahrefs) | Domain Authority (Moz) |
|---|---|---|
| Data source | Ahrefs’ own link index | Moz’s own link index |
| Scoring logic | Proprietary, Ahrefs-specific | Proprietary, Moz-specific |
| Correlation with Google rankings | Indirect, directional | Indirect, directional |
| Update frequency | Continuous crawling | Continuous crawling |
| Officially used by Google | No | No |
Neither metric is a Google ranking factor. Google has stated multiple times that it doesn’t use DR, DA, or any third-party authority score in its algorithm. Both are estimates built by SEO tool companies to approximate authority — useful for comparison, not gospel.
So Which One Should You Trust?
Neither one, in isolation. The real answer is to treat both as directional indicators, not precise measurements, and combine them with other signals:
- Relevance first — a DR 25 site squarely in your industry is often more valuable than a DR 60 general news site with no topical connection
- Real traffic — check whether the site actually gets organic search traffic (tools like Ahrefs or Semrush show estimated traffic, not just link scores)
- Editorial quality — does the site publish genuinely useful content, or does it exist mainly to sell placements?
- Both scores together — if a site has wildly different DR and DA (e.g., DR 55 but DA 12), that’s often a signal of a manipulated or unnatural link profile worth investigating further
The Danger of Chasing a Single Number
Some link building providers advertise packages purely around a DR or DA threshold — “all links from DR40+ sites.” This sounds reassuring, but it can be gamed. A site can inflate its DR through low-quality reciprocal linking or link schemes without having any real traffic, relevance, or editorial standards. A high score on a metric that isn’t a ranking factor doesn’t guarantee the link will actually help you.
The Bottom Line
DR and DA are useful shorthand for comparing sites at a glance, but neither should be the sole basis for deciding whether a link is worth acquiring. The links that actually move rankings tend to come from sites that are relevant to your industry, genuinely trafficked, and editorially credible — regardless of which authority score they carry.
Want links evaluated on relevance and real authority, not just a single number? See how Rankvy vets every placement.
