Domain Authority vs. Rating vs. Score: What's the Difference?

What’s the Difference Between Domain Authority, Domain Rating, and Authority Score?

If you're exploring the Backlink Marketplace and come across terms like Domain Authority, Domain Rating, and Authority Score, it’s natural to wonder what they mean — and more importantly, how they differ.

These three SEO metrics help you assess the credibility and value of a website before securing a backlink. While they’re often used together, each one follows a different methodology and serves a slightly different purpose.

Let’s break it down in a way that makes it easier to decide which metric to rely on based on your SEO goals.

1. Domain Authority (DA)

What it is
Domain Authority  score you  get from the Moz tool. It estimates how likely a domain is to rank on search engines. The score ranges from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating stronger potential visibility.

How it's calculated
The score is based on factors like:

• backlink quantity and quality
  

• linking root domains
  

• internal linking structure
  

• spam-related signals
  

Why it matters
A higher Domain Authority suggests a site has strong link equity and is more likely to pass SEO value to your content.

How to use it in the marketplace
Set a minimum DA filter (e.g., 40 or above) to find websites with strong reputations and a higher chance of boosting your rankings.

2. Domain Rating (DR)

What it is
Domain Rating reflects the overall strength of a website’s backlink profile. In the Backlink Marketplace, this metric is used to give you insight into how authoritative a site is based on its external link profile — though it is not explicitly labeled as coming from Ahrefs.

How it's calculated
This score typically looks at:

• the number of unique referring domains
  

• the quality and authority of those domains
  

• the dofollow/nofollow link distribution
  

Why it matters
A higher DR means the website is well-referenced by other domains, suggesting a strong, influential backlink profile.

How to use it in the marketplace
Filter for DR 50+ if you're focusing on getting backlinks from domains with strong link networks.

3. Authority Score

What it is
Authority Score is a metric derived from Semrush data. It evaluates a website’s overall trust, performance, and SEO health.

How it's calculated
Factors include:

• backlink quality and domain strength
  

• estimated organic traffic
  

• keyword visibility
  

• spam and trust indicators
  

Why it matters
This is a more holistic view of a domain’s value. It considers not just links, but also how the site performs and how reliable it is from a search engine’s perspective.

How to use it in the marketplace
Apply an Authority Score filter (e.g., 50+) if you want to prioritize sites that are both trusted and well-performing.

Putting It All Together

There’s no single “best” metric — each serves a different purpose. That’s why the Backlink Marketplace provides access to all three, allowing you to layer metrics for more strategic decisions.

Here’s how to make them work together:

• use Domain Authority to understand how likely a site is to rank
  

• use Domain Rating to measure link strength and influence
  

• use Authority Score to assess safety, trust, and SEO performance
  

Combining these metrics with other filters (like niche, traffic, spam score, or price) helps you find backlinks that match your goals — whether you’re focused on authority, relevance, or ROI.

Need links from high-authority sites in the tech niche with low spam scores and fast turnaround times? You can easily filter for that.

The better you understand these metrics, the more confident and effective your link-building strategy will be.