When you’re starting out with SEO, it can be tough to wrap your head around all the terminology. There are so many different factors that affect rankings, and when you’re talking about domain ratings and domain authority, two terms that are very similar but not interchangeable, things can get even more confusing!
In this post, we’ll explain what these two metrics mean, which one is better for SEO (Spoiler: It’s DR, but really it depends), and how they relate to each other.
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SEO Domain Metrics Can Be Confusing
There’s an abundance of SEO companies out there that have come up with their own variations of differing metrics for almost everything you can imagine, and that can be extremely overwhelming for newcomers on which ones to use or even to trust.
Both DA and DR are two of the best metrics the industry has to offer when it comes to summarizing an overall link profile of a website.
What is Domain Rating (DR) by Ahrefs?
The Domain Rating is a metric created by Ahrefs that measures a website’s backlink profile.
It’s calculated by taking the average of all the site’s backlinks and gives you an idea about the quality of a site’s link profile. The DR score ranges from 1 to 100, with higher numbers indicating better quality backlinks.
What is Domain Authority (DA) by Moz?
Domain authority is a score developed by Moz, based on the link popularity of a website.
It measures how powerful a website is based on the strength of its backlink profile.
Both Have Nothing To Do With Google or PageRank
You might have heard that a high Domain Rating means you’re more likely to rank in Google. You might also have heard that a high Domain Authority means you’re more likely to rank in Google. But despite the fact that they sound like they have something to do with Google, these metrics are actually invented by SEOs and don’t really mean anything at all!
So why are we using them? The reason is simple: They can help us understand how much trust other people place in your website when it comes time for them to link back to you from their pages (which is one of the most important ways people find new websites).
Domain Rating vs Domain Authority: DR Wins
Domain Rating is the better metric, it takes far more factors into consideration and is a lot harder to manipulate from our testing – That does NOT mean it is impossible to manipulate, because that is far from the case.
