What Is Domain Authority? DA vs DR vs Domain Rank, and How to Raise It Legitimately
DA, DR, AS and Domain Rank are link-based scores from third-party tools; Google does not use them. How they are calculated, how to read them, and how to raise yours without buying links.
DA, DR, AS and Domain Rank are link-based scores from third-party tools; Google does not use them. How they are calculated, how to read them, and how to raise yours without buying links.
"Domain authority" is one of the most asked-about and most misunderstood SEO metrics. In short: it is a third-party estimate of link strength, not a Google ranking factor, but it does correlate strongly with a site's ability to rank.
The common "authority" scores
| Name | From | Scale | How it is calculated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain Authority (DA) | Moz | 1-100 | A machine-learning model over link quantity and quality |
| Domain Rating (DR) | Ahrefs | 0-100 | The strength of the sites linking in |
| Authority Score (AS) | Semrush | 0-100 | Links, organic traffic and spam signals combined |
| Domain Rank | DataForSEO | 0-1000 | A strength score computed over the link graph |
Each tool computes its own score and the numbers do not convert; a 10-point gap for the same site across tools is normal. Compare sites within one tool.
Does Google use these scores?
No. Google has never used any third-party authority score for ranking; it evaluates links its own way. The scores are useful because sites with many links from trustworthy sources tend to rank more easily, so they give a quick read on link strength.
A real example
On 29 September 2026 we checked backlinko.com with our domain authority checker: Domain Rank 500 out of 1000, about 988,000 backlinks from 58,207 referring domains, 91% dofollow and a backlink spam score of 2. Referring domains say more than total backlinks: 10,000 links from one site are worth far less than 1,000 links from 1,000 sites.
Raising it legitimately
- Publish original data people want to cite: surveys, statistics, benchmarks. Our studies on AI crawlers, AI Overviews and DMARC exist for this reason.
- Build free tools: checkers, generators and calculators get linked from tutorials and resource pages.
- Get into listicles: find "X alternatives" and "best X tools" articles and tell the author why your product belongs.
- Fix broken links: find pages linking to defunct sites and suggest your equivalent resource.
- Do not buy link packages: cheap links mostly come from link farms, and Google explicitly forbids paying for links that pass ranking. They tend to hurt once detected.
Domain Authority Checker
Domain Rank, backlinks, referring domains, dofollow share and spam score. 3 free checks a day.