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Free domain authority checker · No login

Domain Authority Checker

See how strong any website’s links really are: its Domain Rating, its place in the Common Crawl link graph and our Essentras Authority score, for one domain or 50 at once. Every number names its source, so you never pay for a link on a score somebody made up.

  • Verified DA & DR for 3,800+ outlets
  • Live Domain Rating for any site
  • Link-farm warning on every check

Last updated · reviewed by the Essentras editorial team

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DA vs DR vs Authority Score: what each one measures

All of them try to answer the same question: how strong is this site’s backlink profile? They crawl the web separately and use different math, so the same site can score 10 or 20 points apart. Here is what each one measures.

  • Domain Authority (DA)

    Moz · 1 to 100

    How likely a domain is to rank, predicted by a machine-learning model trained on Google results and Moz’s link index.

  • Domain Rating (DR)

    Ahrefs · 0 to 100

    The strength of a domain’s backlink profile: how many unique domains link to it, and how strong those domains are.

  • Authority Score (AS)

    Semrush · 0 to 100

    Link power, organic traffic and spam signals combined into one number.

  • Open PageRank

    Keywords Everywhere (Common Crawl data) · 0 to 10

    Classic PageRank computed on the open Common Crawl link graph.

  • Essentras Authority

    Essentras · 0 to 100

    Our blend of Domain Rating, the Common Crawl link graph and authority-weighted referring domains, with a confidence level that tells you how much evidence there was.

None of these is a Google ranking factor; Google has said so repeatedly. They’re useful because they correlate with rankings and let you compare sites in seconds. Compare like with like: a DA against a DA, never a DA against a DR.

How each score is calculated

Some checkers still say Domain Authority uses “100+ factors”. Moz describes it as a model built on links. All of these scores are built from links; they differ in whose crawl and which math.

Domain Authority (Moz)

Moz counts the unique domains that link to a site and how trusted they are, then feeds them to a machine-learning model trained to predict which sites rank higher in Google. It runs on Moz’s own link index, on a 1 to 100 logarithmic scale.

Domain Rating (Ahrefs)

Ahrefs takes every unique domain linking to a site with at least one followed link, weighs each by its own Domain Rating and by how many other sites it links to, and places the result on a 0 to 100 logarithmic scale. Traffic, content and spam are not inputs.

Open PageRank

The original PageRank algorithm, run over the Common Crawl link graph, the open map of the web rebuilt every month, with link networks filtered out before scoring. 0 to 10.

Essentras Authority

Our score combines Domain Rating with the domain’s position in the Common Crawl graph and its authority-weighted referring domains. Each is converted to 0 to 100 on a log scale and weighted as published below, with a confidence level that says how much of the evidence we had.

Does domain authority matter for AI search?

ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews lean on the same trusted sources Google does, so authority still opens the door. But an assistant can’t cite what it can’t read, and a growing number of sites block AI crawlers in robots.txt without realizing what it costs them.

Every report here checks whether a site blocks GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and 8 other AI crawlers. When we checked in October 2026, Forbes blocked 8 of the 12 and The New York Times all 12.

Score how likely AI is to cite your site

What is a good Domain Authority score?

No score is good in absolute terms. A good score is one higher than the sites you compete with for the same keywords. As a rule of thumb:

  • Weak0 to 19

    New sites, local businesses, personal blogs. Most of the web lives here.

  • Emerging20 to 39

    Established small businesses and niche blogs with some earned links.

  • Solid40 to 59

    Well-known brands in their niche, large blogs, regional media.

  • Strong60 to 79

    National brands, major publications, big SaaS companies.

  • Elite80 to 100

    Global media, platforms and institutions: Forbes, the BBC, Wikipedia.

Run your domain and your 5 closest competitors through bulk mode. The gap between you is the only number that matters.

How to increase Domain Authority (what actually works)

  1. 1

    Earn links from sites stronger than yours

    Authority flows downhill. One editorial link from a DA 90 publication moves your numbers more than 100 directory listings.

  2. 2

    Get covered by the press

    News sites are the strongest links on the web, and they’re also where ChatGPT and Perplexity look for answers. Coverage compounds.

  3. 3

    Publish things worth citing

    Original data, free tools, expert quotes. Pages people reference on their own earn links while you sleep.

  4. 4

    Stop leaking the authority you have

    Fix broken pages that still have backlinks, collapse redirect chains, link your strongest pages to the ones you want to rank.

  5. 5

    Grow steadily

    DA and DR are relative and recalculated as the web grows. A few strong links every month beat one burst followed by silence.

  6. 6

    Never buy from link farms

    If a site’s Domain Rating is high but the spam-filtered Common Crawl link graph barely sees it, walk away. This checker flags that pattern automatically.

Check a site before you pay for a link on it

A DR 60 site that the spam-filtered Common Crawl link graph barely sees is most likely propped up by a link network, and Google is good at spotting those. Our checker compares each domain’s Domain Rating with its Open PageRank and warns you when they don’t add up. Every outlet in the Essentras marketplace is a real publication with real readers, verified DA and DR, and the price on the page.

Browse verified outlets

How we calculate Essentras Authority

We combine the link signals we can verify into one 0 to 100 score: the domain’s Domain Rating, its position in the Common Crawl link graph, and its authority-weighted referring domains. Ranks and link counts are converted on a log scale, because both are power-law distributed. Moz DA is shown next to it when we have it, but never blended in.

  • Domain Rating45%
  • Position in the Common Crawl link graph35%
  • Authority-weighted referring domains20%

Confidence is the share of that weight we actually had for the domain. A score built on 30% of the signals says so on screen.

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What this checker can’t tell you

  • What Google thinks

    DA and DR are vendors’ estimates of link strength, not Google’s view. They correlate with rankings; they don’t cause them.

  • Whether one page is worth a link

    Domain metrics describe the whole site. A strong domain can host a weak, orphaned page, and that page is where your link would live.

  • Real traffic

    We measure authority, not visits. Before you pay for a placement, ask for the site’s traffic, or buy where it is shown up front.

  • Today’s exact figure

    Every vendor refreshes on its own schedule, so every number here shows its date. Press Re-check now for the latest.

FAQ

Domain Authority checker: FAQ

What is Domain Authority (DA)?▾

Domain Authority is a score from 1 to 100 created by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search results, based on the links pointing to it. Higher means stronger. It’s logarithmic, so moving from 70 to 80 is far harder than from 20 to 30.

What is Domain Rating (DR)?▾

Domain Rating is Ahrefs’ 0 to 100 score for the strength of a site’s backlink profile: how many unique websites link to it, and how strong those websites are. It’s also logarithmic.

What’s the difference between DA and DR?▾

Both measure link authority, but they come from different companies, different crawls and different formulas. DA is Moz’s prediction of ranking ability; DR is Ahrefs’ measure of backlink strength. The same site often scores 5 to 20 points apart. Compare DA with DA and DR with DR, never one with the other.

How do I check the DA of a website for free?▾

Type the domain in the box above and press Check authority. You get its Domain Rating, its rank in the Common Crawl link graph, our Essentras Authority score and risk flags in one report, free, with no login and no captcha. For outlets in our marketplace you also see their verified DA; for any other site, Domain Rating is the closest equivalent.

Can I check the DA and DR of many sites at once?▾

Yes. Switch to Bulk mode and paste up to 50 domains, one per line or separated by commas. You get one row per domain on screen, and can download the results as a CSV.

Where do your DR and DA numbers come from?▾

Domain Rating comes straight from Ahrefs through its official Domain Rating API, and it is labeled Domain Rating by Ahrefs wherever it appears. Domain Authority is Moz’s metric: we show it where we hold a verified figure, such as the outlets in our marketplace, and we never estimate it or put another number under its name.

Why is my DA different on Moz, Ahrefs and Semrush?▾

Each company runs its own crawler, finds a different share of your backlinks, and weighs them with its own math. Differences of 10 points or more are normal. Track one metric consistently over time instead of switching between them.

What is a good Domain Authority?▾

One higher than your competitors’. Roughly: under 20 is weak, 20 to 39 emerging, 40 to 59 solid, 60 to 79 strong, and 80+ is elite (global media and platforms). Check your competitors in bulk to see your real gap.

Is 20 a good Domain Authority?▾

For a new site, a local business or a niche blog, yes: 20 means real websites link to you. Against established competitors it is low, because most of them sit between 30 and 60. Whether 20 is good depends on the sites ranking for your keywords, so check them side by side in bulk mode.

How can I increase my Domain Authority?▾

Earn links from websites stronger than yours, ideally editorial links in real publications, keep publishing content people cite, and fix pages that waste the links you already have. One link from a DA 90 news site moves the score more than dozens of weak ones.

Is Domain Authority a Google ranking factor?▾

No. Google doesn’t use Moz DA, Ahrefs DR or Semrush AS. They’re third-party estimates. They matter because they correlate with the thing Google does use: links from trusted sites.

How often is Domain Authority updated?▾

Moz and Ahrefs recalculate as their crawlers find new links, the Common Crawl link graph is rebuilt every month, and the whole scale shifts as the web grows. Our reports are cached for up to 7 days; press Re-check now for fresh figures.

How do I get a backlink from a high-DA site?▾

Earn coverage, or place an article directly. In the Essentras marketplace you can pick a real publication by its verified DA, DR, traffic and price, and we write and publish the article. If we don’t publish, you get your money back.

What is the best domain authority checker?▾

Moz is the source of Domain Authority and Ahrefs of Domain Rating, and both limit free checks. This checker shows Domain Rating for any site, verified DA where we hold it, the domain’s rank in the Common Crawl link graph and a link-farm warning, for up to 50 domains at once without a login, and it labels where every number comes from.

Does Domain Authority still matter in 2026?▾

As a way to compare sites, yes. Google never used it, and AI search has made brand mentions matter more, but the sites that win rankings and AI citations still tend to have the strongest link profiles. Use it to compare yourself with competitors, not as a goal in itself.