Innovation & data-driven digital marketing.
Your website is a gateway for consumers to connect with your brand. To be found, you have to “score” well with search algorithms—content, site performance, and engagement metrics are all measured to gauge the value of your site. If you score high? You might show up on the first page of search results. But if you score low, you could end up buried five pages deep.
Domain Rating vs. Domain Authority
When we measure a website’s “digital health,” 10x experts use domain authority and domain rating metrics. These two scores are pretty strong indicators of how your website will be perceived and ranked by search algorithms. To dive deeper, we’ll break down these two scores and how we use them to gauge potential content performance:
Metric #1: Domain Authority
Domain Authority (DA) is a ranking developed by Moz, an SEO software service. This indicator shows how likely a website will rank high on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Domain authority scores range from 1 – 100. In most cases, a score from 50 to 60 is considered good, but it’s not an exact science. For example, if your competitors average DA scores of 75, you would want to rank at 80 or higher to outcompete for real estate on the front page of Google. It’s also important to remember that DA is not a core Google ranking factor and does not guarantee an effect on SERPs.
Calculating a Domain Authority Score
Domain authority calculations measure and plot over 40 factors when determining a final score. These factors include (but are not limited to) the quality and relevance of backlinks to content value, SEO performance, root domains, and social signals. Once the machine has calculated the value for each factor, the final combined result is plotted on a scale of 1 to 100.
Your final DA score is measured relative to other websites. So, as other websites improve, your score may decrease. What does this mean for you and your team of digital marketers? It’s vital to constantly search for ways to enhance your content, website performance, and link strategy to stay ahead of the game.
Metric #2: Domain Rating
In contrast, Domain Rating (DR) is a second metric that primarily measures your website’s backlink profile against competitors. This metric from Ahrefs is also independent of Google’s ranking factors and does not directly impact results—but it is a good indicator of your website’s value.
The Value of Backlinks
Backlinks are essential to any strong SEO strategy but often get overlooked. Why? Because they occur away from your website. Backlinks “generate” when outside websites link back to content on your website. This trigger signals to search algorithms that your content is valuable and worth sending to the top of a search result. If a website with a high DA or DR links to your content, it further improves your score. In most cases, gathering backlinks requires a robust outreach and planning strategy to ensure valuable placements.
Calculating a Domain Rating Score
Machine learning tools calculate your DR score in a series of steps:
- Analyze the number of unique (individual) domains connected to your site and their subsequent rankings;
- Track the number of unique sites these domains link toward;
- Use machine learning to apply metrics to these calculations;
- Plot the final score on a scale of 1 to 100.
How to Increase Your Website’s Digital Health
So, to review Domain Rating vs. Domain Authority: Domain Rating shows the strength of your backlinks, while Domain Authority indicates potential SERP value. If you want to increase either score, our team of experts at 10x digital is here to help. We both plan and implement strategies to improve your website’s digital health and get ahead of your competitors.