On October 30, 2026, I checked six websites as link prospects. One of them had a Domain Rating of 71 in Ahrefs and a Domain Authority of 24 in Moz. Same site, same day, 47 points apart.
A second site looked like an easy yes. DR 56, DA 43, a clean Spam Score. Then I opened its traffic report in Semrush. Its US organic traffic had dropped 98% in a single month.
If you buy links, sell them or vet sites for clients, you run into this every week. Ahrefs, Moz, Semrush and Majestic all score the same domain. They rarely agree, and the gaps can be large enough to flip your decision.
The short answer: no single authority score deserves your full trust. Each one measures something different. Use them to build a shortlist, then judge the site on its traffic and its backlinks.
Links still matter a lot for rankings, as these link building statistics show. That is exactly why picking the wrong site hurts. Below, you’ll see what each score measures and the real numbers from my six sites. Then we’ll cover why the scores clash and the checks I run before I approve a site.
What each score actually measures
Every tool sends out its own crawler and builds its own index of links. Then it runs those links through its own formula.
One more thing to keep in mind: these are all third-party metrics. Google doesn’t use DR, DA or Authority Score to rank pages. They are estimates that help you compare sites.
That means DR, DA and Authority Score start from different data before any math happens. Most of the gaps begin right there.
Domain Rating (Ahrefs)
DR rates the strength of a site’s backlink profile from 0 to 100. Ahrefs describes it as “purely link-based,” so traffic plays no part in it.
A few rules shape the number:
- Only dofollow links count. Nofollow links won’t raise DR.
- Only the first link from each domain counts. A thousand links from one site add the same as one link.
- A linking site splits its value across every site it links to. A big site that links out to millions of domains passes little to each one.
The scale is logarithmic. Going from DR 20 to 30 is fairly easy. Going from 70 to 80 takes far more.
Ahrefs also admits that lots of low-quality links can push DR up rather than down. So a high DR shows that a site has links, but says nothing about whether they’re good ones. Ahrefs’ guide to Domain Rating covers the full method.
Domain Authority (Moz)
DA also runs from 1 to 100, but it is built differently. Moz uses a machine learning model. The model takes Moz’s link data and predicts how likely a domain is to rank in Google, compared with other domains.
Like DR, DA is relative and logarithmic. A DA of 40 tells you little until you compare it with other sites. Moz explains the method in its Domain Authority guide.
You will often see two other Moz numbers next to DA:
- Page Authority (PA) applies the same idea to a single page instead of a whole domain.
- Spam Score is a percentage. It shows how many sites with similar features Moz has found to be penalized or banned by Google. It doesn’t mean this particular site has that chance of being penalized. Treat it as a reason to look closer, not as proof. Moz explains it on its Spam Score help page.
Authority Score (Semrush)
Authority Score runs from 1 to 100 as well. The difference is what goes into it. Semrush combines three groups of signals:
- Link power: how many dofollow referring domains a site has and how strong they are.
- Organic traffic: Semrush’s estimate of the site’s monthly search visits.
- Natural profile: spam checks. They flag things like no rankings in Google’s top 100, links that don’t match traffic and an unusually high share of follow links. Many linking domains on the same IP or network also count against a site.
That traffic input matters. When a site loses its search traffic, its Authority Score can fall while DR and DA barely move.
Semrush itself says the score works best for comparing domains, not for calling a site good or bad on its own. Its Authority Score help page lists every factor.
Trust Flow and Citation Flow (Majestic)
Majestic splits the job into two scores, both from 0 to 100.
- Citation Flow (CF) predicts how influential a site might be based on how many sites link to it. In practice, it leans heavily on how many links a site has.
- Trust Flow (TF) is about quality. Sites closely linked to a group of hand-checked, trusted sites score higher.
The gap between the two is the useful part. When CF sits well above TF, the site has plenty of links but few from trusted sources. Majestic defines both in its glossary.
DR vs DA vs AS vs TF: the scores side by side
| Score | Tool | Main input | Uses traffic? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain Rating (DR) | Ahrefs | Dofollow referring domains and their strength | No |
| Domain Authority (DA) | Moz | Link data fed into a ranking-prediction model | No |
| Authority Score (AS) | Semrush | Links, organic traffic and spam checks | Yes |
| Trust Flow / Citation Flow | Majestic | Link quality (TF) and link volume (CF) | No |
Linkody puts Ahrefs DR, Moz DA, PA and Spam Score in the same row for every backlink. That makes a disagreement easy to spot.
How far apart they get: six real sites from my vetting
These six sites were real link prospects. I checked all six on one day, October 30, 2026. I’ve hidden their names, but every number below is exactly what the tools showed.
Here’s where the numbers came from:
- DR and organic traffic: Ahrefs
- DA and Spam Score: Moz
- Authority Score, US traffic, trend and top country: Semrush (US database). Trend is the change from the previous month. Top country is the country with the largest share of the site’s ranking keywords.
Keep in mind that every traffic number here is a tool’s estimate, not data from the site’s own analytics.
Table 1: Authority scores
| Site | Type of site | DR | DA | AS | Spam Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Startup resource site | 63 | 40 | 38 | 1% |
| B | Small blog (India) | 22 | 11 | 13 | 1% |
| C | Training institute (India) | 56 | 43 | 31 | 1% |
| D | Email marketing software | 71 | 24 | 35 | 1% |
| E | Creative studio | 49 | 32 | 28 | 1% |
| F | Marketing agency | 46 | 34 | 29 | 2% |
Table 2: Traffic and my decision
| Site | Traffic (Ahrefs) | US traffic (Semrush) | Trend | Top country | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 7.7K | 5.5K | Up 4% | US | Approve |
| B | 13 | 1 | No change | India | Reject |
| C | 1.1K | 5 | Down 98% | India | Reject |
| D | 8.4K | 4.4K | Up 69% | US | Approve |
| E | 506 | 834 | Up 2% | US | Reject |
| F | 802 | 2.5K | Up 21% | US | Approve (outreach link only) |
The reason behind each call
- Site A, approved. DR 63, DA 40 and AS 38 point the same way, and Ahrefs estimates 7.7K monthly visits, mostly from the US.
- Site B, rejected. It gets almost no search visitors, and its 29.3K backlinks come from only 221 domains.
- Site C, rejected. Strong scores, but US traffic fell 98% in a month. The scores haven’t caught up yet.
- Site D, approved. DA is low, but both tools show solid traffic that is growing and mostly from the US.
- Site E, rejected. DR 49 looks solid, but Ahrefs shows 506 visits a month and Semrush shows 834 from the US.
- Site F, approved for a standard outreach link, not a guest post. Traffic is growing and mostly from the US, but it’s still too small for a guest post.
Site B’s editor had asked me for $20 to publish a post. Once Ahrefs showed an estimated 13 visits a month, the price didn’t matter.
Four things the data shows
1. DR beat DA on every site. The gap ranged from 11 points on Site B to 47 points on Site D. If you work with a single “DA/DR 25+” rule, the tool you open first can decide the outcome.
2. Authority Score ran lowest on four of the six sites. It also had the tightest range, from 13 to 38. DR spread from 22 to 71. So a DR of 46 and an AS of 29 can describe the very same site.
3. The tools disagreed on traffic as well. The Ahrefs figure covers all countries, while my Semrush figure covers the US only. Even so, the gaps are hard to ignore. Ahrefs gave Site F 802 visits, while Semrush counted 2,500 from the US alone. For Site C, Ahrefs showed 1,100 visits and Semrush showed five.
4. A high score didn’t earn a yes. Site C had the highest DA of the six, and I turned it down. Site D had the second-lowest DA, and I approved it.
Why the scores clash
Across these six sites, and the many I’ve vetted for client work, most gaps come down to six causes.
1. Each tool has its own link index
Every tool runs its own crawler. They crawl at different speeds, find different pages and drop dead links at different times.
If one index sees fewer of a site’s links, its score will trail the others. That’s a likely reason for Site D’s huge gap between DR and DA. Only Moz can say exactly how its model rated that site.
2. The formulas ask different questions
DR asks how strong a site’s referring domains are. DA asks how likely the site is to rank. Authority Score looks at links, traffic and spam signals together. Trust Flow asks how close the site sits to trusted sources.
Run the same links through four formulas and the answers will differ, even when every tool is doing its job properly.
3. Link volume and link quality get mixed up
DR counts the first dofollow link from each domain, whether that link is strong or weak. A site with plenty of low-quality links can still show a respectable DR.
Majestic tries to separate the two. Citation Flow climbs with volume, while Trust Flow only climbs with links from trusted sources. A wide gap between them usually means lots of links with little quality behind them.
4. Sitewide and footer links
Site B had 29.3K backlinks from 221 referring domains. That works out to roughly 130 links per domain.
A ratio like that usually means sitewide links, such as a footer, sidebar or blogroll link repeated on every page. DR ignores the repeats because it only counts one link per domain. The pattern still matters. It suggests many of those links are sitewide rather than placed one by one by an editor.
5. Sudden link spikes
When a site picks up a large batch of links in a short time, link-based scores react fast. Traffic doesn’t follow unless the links are genuine.
Authority Score checks for links that don’t match traffic. So during a spike, AS can move differently from DR and DA, because it’s designed to question links that bring no visitors.
6. Authority Score includes traffic
This is the main reason AS sits apart from the rest. Of the three, it’s the only one that looks at traffic.
Site C shows the effect clearly. Its DR was 56 and its DA was 43, yet its AS was only 31, and its US traffic was down 98%. That’s what you’d expect from a score that weighs traffic alongside links.
Red flags when the numbers don’t match
Scores that disagree don’t make a site risky on their own. The patterns below are the ones that make me slow down.
High DR with almost no traffic
Site E had a DR of 49 but only 506 monthly visits in Ahrefs. Links point to the site, but the estimates suggest Google sends it very few visitors.
The cause might be bought or swapped links, lost rankings or thin content. Whatever the reason, a link from a page nobody reads is unlikely to do much for you.
Traffic falling while the scores hold
Site C is the textbook case. DR and DA are built from links, so they change slowly. Traffic estimates react within weeks. A site can keep a healthy-looking DR or DA for months after its search traffic is gone.
A drop that steep can come from a penalty, a core update, a broken migration or a new owner. I don’t know which one hit Site C, and I don’t need to. What matters is whether the site is healthy on the day the link goes in.
High DA with low DR
None of my six sites showed this. Every one had a higher DR than DA.
When you do see it, look at the type of links. Ahrefs ignores nofollow links when it calculates DR. A site with lots of nofollow links can look stronger in a tool that weighs links differently.
Scores that jumped in a few weeks
Real sites tend to grow slowly. If a site’s DR climbs 20 points in a month while its traffic stays flat, be careful. Someone may be building links to lift the score before selling posts.
Check when its referring domains first appeared. A large batch in one short window is the warning sign.
Lots of backlinks from very few domains
Site B fits this pattern. A high ratio of backlinks to referring domains usually means sitewide links. It can also mean a small group of connected sites.
A Spam Score above the usual range
All six of my sites scored 1% or 2%, which is low. A higher score doesn’t prove a site is spammy, but it does call for a closer look. Some sites have backlinks that look like the toxic backlinks you’d clean out of your own profile. Skip those, however high their DR is.
Some gaps work in the site’s favor
Site D’s low DA looked like a warning, but its traffic was strong and climbing. If I had gone by DA alone, I would have passed on one of the best sites in the group.
How I read them together when vetting a site
I run these checks in the same order every time. After a few sites, it only takes a few minutes each.
Step 1: Use the scores as a first filter
For a guest post, I want DR or DA of at least 25. For a standard outreach link, DR 15 or higher is enough. If a site falls below that, I stop there.
For a quick first look before you open the bigger tools, Linkody’s Website Authority Checker is a handy starting point.
Step 2: Check the traffic and its direction
For a guest post, I look for at least 5,000 monthly organic visits. For an outreach link, at least 1,000. I care about the trend over several months more than one month’s number.
When a site sits close to my minimum, I check a second tool. Site F is a good example. Ahrefs had it just under 1,000 visits, while Semrush showed 2,500 from the US alone and rising.
Step 3: See where the traffic comes from
Most of my clients want readers in the US and the UK. A site whose keywords rank mostly in another country can still be a good site. It just may not suit that client.
Step 4: Look at the ranking keywords
I check how many keywords the site ranks for, and which ones. Ranking for real topics in its niche is a good sign. Ranking only for its own brand name is not.
Step 5: Review the backlink profile
Here I compare total backlinks with referring domains. I look at the Spam Score and the gap between Trust Flow and Citation Flow. Above all, I ask whether the links look earned.
I use the same checks I’d use in a backlink audit of my own site. Here, they’re aimed at the site I might get a link from.
Linkody speeds this step up. You can compare every linking domain’s metrics on one screen.
Step 6: Check who the site links out to
I open a few recent posts and look at the outbound links. Lots of paid-looking links to unrelated sites are a bad sign. So are links to casino, CBD or adult sites, which I never work with. A site’s outbound links say a lot about how it treats its readers.
Step 7: Check domain age and topical fit
An older domain with steady growth is a safer bet than a young one with a sudden spike. The site also has to make sense for the client. A strong site in an unrelated niche is still the wrong site.
Step 8: Keep watching after the link goes live
Vetting doesn’t stop once the post is published. Links get removed, and some get switched to nofollow. Linkody keeps checking each link you track and alerts you when one is lost or its status changes.
If you outsource link building, ask your provider how they handle each of these steps. A spreadsheet of DR numbers on its own isn’t vetting.
So which one should you trust?
None of them alone. Each score answers a different question, and each has blind spots.
After years of doing this for clients, my rule fits in two lines:
Use the scores to decide which sites are worth a look. Use the traffic and the backlinks to decide which sites get approved.
When the scores and the traffic estimates point in different directions, I lean on the traffic and its trend. Then I open the backlinks to find out why they disagree.
You can see it in the six sites above. Ranked by DR alone, Site C would have made my top three. Ranked by DA alone, Site D would have sat near the bottom. Once I checked traffic, trend and backlinks, the right choices were obvious.
So when two tools give you two very different numbers, don’t just pick the one you like better. Open the site, check where its visitors come from and look at who links to it.
About the Author
Subham Chowdhury runs SEO by Subham, a link building service. He has built links for clients since 2018 and completed over 2,000 orders. He vets every site by hand before a link goes live. Learn more at seobysubham.com.