A client sees "DA 35" in one report and "DR 52" for the same website in another, and asks which number is correct. Neither is wrong. Domain authority vs domain rating is not a disagreement about the same metric, it is two different companies scoring two different formulas, and confusing the two leads agencies and business owners toward the wrong target entirely.
Domain authority vs domain rating: two different companies, two different scores
Domain Authority (DA) is Moz’s own metric, built to predict how well a site might rank in search results on a 1 to 100 scale. Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs’ equivalent, scored 0 to 100 on its own link index and its own weighting of link strength. Both tools estimate the strength of a site’s backlink profile. Neither tool has access to Google’s actual ranking algorithm, and neither was built by Google.
The two companies do not share data, do not coordinate their formulas and update their indexes on different schedules. That alone explains why a business’s DA and DR rarely match, even when both scores are tracking the same real backlink profile in good faith.
Why neither score is a Google ranking factor
Google does not calculate DA or DR, and does not use either figure anywhere in its ranking systems. Both metrics come from companies that built their own crawlers and their own scoring models to approximate authority from the outside. A page with a low DA can still outrank a page with a high one, because Google weighs hundreds of other signals, including content relevance, search intent match, page experience and the quality of the specific linking pages, rather than one blended score.
A Dubai hospitality brand chasing a higher DA score while its actual rankings for "hotel booking Dubai" or "serviced apartments Downtown Dubai" sit unchanged is optimising for the wrong report. The score moved. The business outcome did not.
DA vs DR: how the two scores are built
The DA vs DR gap exists because the two formulas measure different inputs. Moz’s DA model draws on its own Link Explorer index and factors in the number of linking root domains, the quality of those domains and a calculated spam score. Ahrefs’ DR model draws on its own, separately crawled backlink database and weighs mainly the quantity and strength of unique referring domains, using a formula closer to a simplified version of PageRank.
Because the two tools crawl the web independently, they catch different links at different times and weigh them differently once found. A site with many links from a narrow set of regional industry blogs might score well on one tool’s model and only moderately on the other.
Moz DA vs Ahrefs DR: why the same site shows two different numbers
A frequent question from clients comparing Moz DA vs Ahrefs DR side by side is why a 10 or 15-point gap exists for the same domain. The answer sits mostly in index size and crawl recency. Ahrefs maintains one of the largest publicly available backlink indexes and refreshes it on a short cycle, which tends to push DR scores higher for sites with recent link growth. Moz’s index is smaller and its algorithm applies a steeper curve toward the top of the scale, which can hold DA lower even when the underlying link profile is genuinely strong.
Neither company publishes the exact weighting of its formula, so neither score can be reverse engineered with precision. Both Moz’s own documentation on Domain Authority and Ahrefs’ explanation of Domain Rating describe their metrics as comparative benchmarking tools, not predictions of Google ranking position.
Can you raise DA or DR on purpose
Both scores respond to the same underlying input: new, relevant linking domains. The numbers rise over time when a site earns coverage from publications, directories, partners and industry sites that Moz and Ahrefs already treat as credible referring domains. Buying links, mass guest posting on unrelated sites or running automated outreach can move either score slightly in the short term. Both routes risk building the kind of link profile that eventually drags rankings down rather than lifting them, because the links behind the number carry no real relevance to the business.
A UAE law firm earning a mention from a regional business publication after a genuine press story does more for both scores, and for actual rankings, than fifty guest posts purchased in bulk on unrelated blogs. The quality of the referring domain matters more than the count of referring domains.
What to track instead of chasing a score
A business that wants real authority growth needs evidence closer to how Google evaluates a site. Relevant referring domains in the same industry or the UAE market carry more weight than a high volume of unrelated links from unrelated regions. Organic traffic to the specific pages that earned new links shows whether those links are driving anything beyond a metric. Rankings for the terms a page targets, tracked over weeks rather than days, show whether the off-page work is translating into visibility. A rise in branded search volume often signals that digital PR is reaching real audiences, not just link indexes.
Checking DA and DR once a month, alongside the link data in Google Search Console, keeps the comparison honest without turning either score into a weekly obsession. None of these replace DA or DR as a quick benchmark against competitors. They sit alongside the score, not instead of it. The mistake is treating the number itself as the goal rather than one input among several.
Agencies that report DA or DR growth as a headline win, with no connection to rankings, traffic or leads, are reporting a vanity metric and calling it progress. Dominate Online’s authority SEO service builds link acquisition and digital PR work around the signals that move rankings for UAE businesses, tracking DA and DR as a secondary indicator rather than the target itself.