Domain Authority vs Domain Rating: Which Metric Actually Matters?

Two Metrics, Two Companies, One Confusion

If you've spent any time in SEO circles, you've encountered both Domain Authority (DA) and Domain Rating (DR). They sound similar, measure something similar, and are frequently used interchangeably — but they're distinct metrics from competing companies, calculated using different methodologies. Neither is a Google metric. Neither directly determines your search rankings. Google has confirmed this explicitly and repeatedly — the company does not use any third-party domain score in its ranking algorithm. And yet both DA and DR remain widely used in the SEO industry for evaluating link opportunities and benchmarking site authority.

Here's what you actually need to know about each one, and which to prioritize in your link building workflow.

What Is Domain Authority (DA)?

Domain Authority is a metric created by Moz. It scores websites on a scale of 1 to 100, predicting how likely a domain is to rank in search engine results. The score is calculated using multiple factors, including the total number of linking root domains, the quality of those links, and Moz's proprietary spam score analysis.

DA was introduced as a way to approximate Google's own internal site authority signals in a publicly accessible format. Higher is better, but the scale is logarithmic — moving from DA 70 to DA 80 is far harder than moving from DA 20 to DA 30. DA is recalculated regularly as Moz re-crawls the web, which means your score can fluctuate even if your actual backlink profile hasn't changed.

What Is Domain Rating (DR)?

Domain Rating is a metric created by Ahrefs. Also scored from 0 to 100, DR specifically measures the strength of a website's backlink profile relative to others in the Ahrefs index. It focuses primarily on the number of unique referring domains pointing to a site and the DR of those linking domains.

Unlike DA, DR doesn't try to model Google's algorithm holistically — it's explicitly a backlink-strength indicator. Ahrefs recalculates DR relative to the entire set of websites in its index, which means your DR can shift when other sites around you gain or lose links, even with no changes to your own profile. DR is generally considered more transparent in its methodology than DA.

Key Differences

Does Google Use Either Metric?

No. Google does not use DA, DR, or any third-party metric in its ranking algorithm. Google has confirmed this repeatedly. These scores are models — approximations built by SEO companies trying to reverse-engineer signals that Google uses internally. They can be useful proxies, but they are not the real thing. Google's Gary Illyes has stated that PageRank still exists internally but has not been exposed publicly since 2016, and that external scores are not substitutes for it.

What Google actually evaluates is far more nuanced: the relevance and quality of individual links, the trustworthiness of linking sites, the context of the link placement, and hundreds of other signals. For more on how Google evaluates backlinks, see How Google Really Uses Backlinks to Rank Websites.

Which Metric Should You Use?

The honest answer: use both as rough filters, but never as the sole criterion for a link building decision. Here's a practical framework:

• Use DR when you primarily care about backlink strength and are evaluating a site's link profile as a potential link target.
• Use DA when you want a broader view of ranking potential that factors in spam signals.
• Use neither as a hard cutoff. A DA 25 site in your exact niche with a real audience can be a better link source than a DA 70 generalist site with irrelevant content.

The Practical Takeaway

Stop obsessing over the number. A DA of 40 from a highly relevant, actively maintained site in your industry is more valuable for SEO than a DA of 80 from an off-topic domain. Relevance, real traffic, and editorial context matter more than the score shown in any third-party tool. Use Google Search Console as your ground-truth reference for how Google actually perceives your link profile — not as a replacement for DR or DA, but as the authoritative source for understanding which links Google is counting.

When you're managing multiple link building relationships, use these metrics to quickly filter prospects — but always do a manual quality check before prioritizing any opportunity. Tools like Backlink Monkey help you track and manage the links that matter most, regardless of what DA or DR says.