When you’re working to boost your website’s SEO performance, you’ll inevitably come across the terms Domain Rating (DR) and Domain Authority (DA). They look similar and are often used interchangeably, but they represent different metrics built by different tools—and each has its own role in your strategy.
In this article you’ll learn what each metric means, how they differ, how they’re calculated, how they should (and shouldn’t) influence your decisions, and practical steps you can take to improve these scores along with your overall SEO health.
What is Domain Authority (DA)?
Domain Authority is a metric developed by Moz. It gives you a score, from 1 to 100, that estimates how likely your domain is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs) compared to other domains. The higher the score, the stronger the domain is considered in terms of link profile and other factors.
The calculation by Moz considers factors like the number of linking root domains (unique domains linking to you), the total number of backlinks, the quality of those links, the size of the website, domain age, and other components. Because it’s relative (your competitor’s DA affects your score as well), it’s best used for comparing websites against each other rather than chasing a fixed number.
What is Domain Rating (DR)?
Domain Rating is the metric built by Ahrefs. It also gives a score from 0 to 100, but it is focused primarily on the strength of your website’s backlink profile—how many linking domains you have, how strong those domains are, and how powerful the links pointing to you are.
DR does not attempt to include every ranking signal; instead it emphasizes link profile strength. DR gives you a sense of how authoritative your domain’s backlink profile is. It can help you assess link-building opportunities and where you stand compared with competitor domains.
Key Differences Between DA and DR
Understanding the differences helps you decide when to focus on one metric or the other. Here are the major distinctions:
- Focus: DA takes into account a broader set of signals (link profile + domain age + size + other factors). DR mostly focuses on backlink profile strength (quantity + quality of referring domains).
- Creator and database: DA is from Moz; DR is from Ahrefs. Because their crawlers and databases differ, the numbers may differ even for the same domain.
- Purpose: DA is more about “how likely is this domain to rank” in a relative way. DR is more about “how strong is this domain’s backlink profile.”
- Scale: Both run 0-100 (logarithmic scale). As score increases, every incremental point requires more effort.
- Interpretation: A high DA doesn’t guarantee rankings; a high DR doesn’t guarantee rankings either. Both are proxies, not direct ranking factors.
- Which to use: If you’re primarily working on link-building, DR may give you a clearer signal. If you want a broader domain strength measure, DA may serve better.
Similarities Between DA and DR
Despite their differences, they share important traits:
- Both operate on a 0-100 logarithmic scale.
- Both consider links and referring domains.
- Both are relative metrics: your score depends in part on how every other domain is doing in the tool’s database.
- Neither is a direct Google ranking factor (Google doesn’t use DA or DR officially).
- Both can help with competitor analysis, site audits, and prioritizing link opportunities.
What They Don’t Tell You
It’s vital to keep in mind limitations.
- Google has stated it does not use a single “domain authority” metric or score.
- Your content quality, user experience, mobile-friendliness, technical SEO, and relevance still matter heavily.
- A high DA or DR doesn’t guarantee top rankings. Many sites with lower scores outrank ones with higher scores because of better user experience or content relevance.
- They don’t measure everything: DR may ignore internal linking, content freshness, or engagement metrics; DA may still leave out some user or technical signals.
- They can fluctuate for reasons outside your control (changes in the tool’s database, linking domains dropping, competitive domains growing).
Why You Should Care About These Metrics
You’re working in a competitive digital landscape. These metrics help you in concrete ways:
- Benchmarking: Compare your domain vs competitor domains. If you see competitor domains with DR 80+, doing similar work with DR 40 might be uphill.
- Link-building strategy: Use DR to identify which domains have strong backlink profiles and are worth targeting.
- Health check: Watching DA/DR trends can flag if your backlink profile is stagnating or losing strength.
- Client or stakeholder reporting: These numbers provide simple, understandable signals—while you clarify what they truly mean.
Practical Steps to Improve DA and DR
Here’s where your experience and hard work pay off. These steps help you improve the real substance behind the numbers:
- Build high-quality backlinks
Focus on links from domains that themselves have strong link profiles (not just large numbers). A single link from a highly trusted domain often beats many low-quality links.
Guest posting, original research, partnerships, and content that attracts natural links are key. - Diversify your referring domains
Having many unique linking domains is better than many links from the same few domains. Tools like Ahrefs and Moz will penalize thin link networks. - Improve your internal link structure
Especially important for DA: linking logically between content, ensuring your domain age isn’t penalised for orphan pages, and making sure pages are discoverable. - Create content worth linking to
Unique data, thoughtful commentary, industry reports, in-depth guides—these attract links. Content must deliver value. - Maintain technical SEO health
Site speed, mobile-friendliness, secure connection (HTTPS), crawlability, structured data—these may not reflect in DR/DA directly but influence ranking and linking potential. - Monitor and remove low-quality inbound links
A spammy site linking to you can harm more than help. Use disavow tools if necessary (though use with caution). - Patience and realistic expectations
Going from DR 40 to DR 60 is a different effort than 10 to 30—you’re working logarithmically. Don’t expect overnight changes.
Which Metric Should You Use and When?
Since you’ve been doing this for years, you know: context matters. Here’s how I suggest you decide:
- If you’re performing a link-building outreach campaign, use DR primarily. It gives you a sharper sense of backlink strength on target domains.
- If you’re evaluating your domain’s overall strength and potential ranking capacity, use DA alongside DR.
- If you’re reporting to clients who care about “authority,” present both, but clarify what they mean and what they don’t.
- Don’t fixate on hitting an arbitrary number (e.g., “Get DA 70!”). Focus on improvement, relevancy, competitive gap, and real SEO outcomes (traffic, conversions).
Common Misunderstandings and Mistakes
Let’s clear a few things you might see:
- Mistake: Believing a “high DA = ranking #1”. Reality: DA is only one piece of the puzzle.
- Mistake: Chasing DR by building hundreds of low-quality links. Reality: Quality beats quantity.
- Misunderstanding: Assuming DA and DR are interchangeable. They’re not identical; treat them with nuance.
- Mistake: Ignoring content and UX because “my DA is high”. Reality: Users and search engines care about experience.
- Misunderstanding: Expecting direct correlation to Google’s ranking formula. Google doesn’t use DA/DR directly.
Putting It All Together for Your Website
Let’s say you manage a technology blog in the U.S. You check and see your DA is 45 and your DR is 38. You also look at your three top competitors: their DA ranges from 55-65 and DR from 50-60. This tells you you have a gap to close.
Your strategy might then include:
- Building 10-15 new links from domains with DR 60+ this quarter.
- Publishing an original report on a tech topic that attracts natural links and social shares.
- Cleaning up your internal linking, ensuring orphan pages are linked and optimized.
- Disavowing or removing any links from low-quality sites hitting your domain.
- Monitoring progress quarterly—not obsessing over daily fluctuations.
Over time, you may see your DR rise to 45, DA to 50. You’ll be moving in the right direction. But your true measure of success is improved organic traffic, higher rankings on key keywords, increased conversions—not just the numbers on a screen.
Final Thoughts
Metrics like Domain Rating and Domain Authority are valuable tools in your SEO toolkit, especially to gauge link profile strength and competitive positioning. But they are not the whole story. They don’t replace content quality, technical SEO, user experience, or domain relevance.
When you understand how DR and DA differ, what they measure, and how they can mislead if misunderstood, you gain clarity. Use them wisely: as indicators, not goals in themselves. Prioritize building meaningful authority through quality links, smart content, and optimized user experience—and the scores will follow as a by-product, not the other way around.