What is DR (Domain Rating) in Moz

Definition

DR (Domain Rating), often confused with Moz's DA (Domain Authority), is actually an Ahrefs metric that measures the strength of a website's backlink profile on a scale from 0 to 100 — while Moz's equivalent metric is called Domain Authority (DA). This distinction matters because the two metrics use different methodologies, different link indices, and different scoring algorithms. DR (Ahrefs) evaluates the quantity and quality of external backlinks pointing to a domain, while DA (Moz) predicts how likely a domain is to rank in search results based on a machine learning model trained on actual SERP data. Both are third-party proprietary metrics — neither is used by Google in its ranking algorithm.

Why It Matters

The confusion between DR and DA creates real problems for B2B SaaS marketing teams. When a team member reports that "our Moz DR is 45," they are conflating two different tools and two different metrics — which leads to incorrect benchmarking, misaligned goals, and poor vendor evaluation. Understanding the distinction between these metrics is foundational to using them correctly.

Both DR and DA are widely used in the SEO industry as shorthand for a website's authority, but they serve different analytical purposes. DR is specifically a backlink profile strength metric — it answers the question "how strong is this site's link profile compared to every other domain in the Ahrefs index?" DA is a ranking prediction metric — it answers "how likely is this domain to rank in search results relative to other domains?"

For B2B SaaS companies evaluating link building opportunities, understanding which metric to reference matters for several reasons. When assessing a potential guest post placement, DR provides a direct read on the linking site's backlink strength. When benchmarking against competitors in search results, DA may be more relevant because it factors in ranking signals beyond just links. Using the wrong metric for the wrong purpose leads to suboptimal decisions.

Neither metric should be treated as an absolute measure of a website's quality or search potential. Both are approximations built on partial data — Ahrefs and Moz each crawl a fraction of the web, and their indices differ in size and freshness. A site's DR and DA scores can diverge significantly because they are measuring different things with different data.

How It Works

Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR):

DR is calculated based on three factors:

The number of unique domains (referring domains) linking to the target website
The DR scores of those linking domains (link quality)
The number of unique domains each linking site links out to (link equity dilution)

DR uses a logarithmic scale, meaning that moving from DR 20 to DR 30 requires significantly less effort than moving from DR 70 to DR 80. The metric is updated regularly as Ahrefs discovers new links and detects lost ones. DR does not factor in traffic, content quality, or actual ranking performance — it is purely a backlink profile metric.

Moz Domain Authority (DA):

DA is calculated using a machine learning model that incorporates:

The number and quality of linking root domains (from Moz's own link index)
The total number of links pointing to the domain
MozRank and MozTrust scores (Moz's proprietary link quality metrics)
Predictive correlation with actual search rankings

DA also uses a logarithmic 0-100 scale. Moz updates DA scores periodically, and scores can fluctuate when Moz recalibrates its model or expands its link index. Like DR, DA is a relative metric — scores are meaningful only in comparison to other domains.

Practical recommendations for B2B SaaS teams:

Pick one metric as the team standard and use it consistently for benchmarking
Never compare a DR score from Ahrefs to a DA score from Moz as though they are equivalent
Use both metrics as directional indicators, not absolute truths
Track changes over time (trending up or down) rather than fixating on the absolute number