DR (Domain Rating) is an Ahrefs metric that rates the strength of a domain’s backlink profile on a 0–100 scale. DA (Domain Authority) is Moz’s predictive score of how well a domain is likely to rank, also 0–100. Trust Flow (TF) is a Majestic metric that shows how close a site sits to verified “trusted” sources in the link graph. All three are third-party SEO tool metrics: Google doesn’t see or use them, but they help you quickly filter out weak and manipulated referring sites.
Key points in 30 seconds
- DR and DA measure the number and strength of links to a domain; Trust Flow measures the quality and trustworthiness of the sources.
- None of these metrics is a Google ranking factor. They are only benchmarks from third-party tools.
- A high DR with zero traffic is the main sign of an inflated referring site.
- A TF/CF ratio below 0.5 often points to mass low-quality links.
- A referring site is assessed as a whole: metrics + traffic + topic + indexing + domain history.
What DR (Domain Rating) in Ahrefs is
Domain Rating is Ahrefs’ internal metric. It shows how strong a domain’s backlink profile is compared with other sites in the Ahrefs database. The scale is logarithmic: moving from DR 10 to DR 20 is much easier than from DR 70 to DR 80.
How DR is calculated, simplified:
- only unique referring domains count, not the number of links: 1,000 links from one site count the same as one;
- each referring domain’s weight depends on its own DR, so a link from DR 80 carries more weight than one from DR 15;
- weight is “split”: if a site links out to thousands of sites, each of them gets less;
- nofollow links are not counted in DR.
What DR does not show: the relevance of referring sites, their traffic, whether the links are spam, or whether the site is even alive. That is why DR is easy to inflate with cheap links from sites that have a high DR but sell placements to anyone.
What DA (Domain Authority) in Moz is
Domain Authority is a Moz metric that predicts how likely a domain is to rank in search results. Unlike DR, it is not a direct formula but a machine learning model: Moz compares sites’ link profiles with their actual rankings and fits the factor weights. In 2024, Moz updated the algorithm (DA 2.0), so many sites’ values changed.
Alongside DA there is PA (Page Authority), the same logic applied to an individual page. When buying links, the PA of the specific referring page is often more useful than the DA of the whole domain: the link sits on a page, not “on a domain.”
DA’s weak spot: Moz’s link index is smaller than Ahrefs’ or Majestic’s, so for young and niche Ukrainian sites DA is often understated or updated with a delay.
What Trust Flow and Citation Flow in Majestic are
Majestic calculates two related metrics, both on a 0–100 scale:
- Citation Flow (CF) is “quantitative” strength: how many links point to the site and how influential they are. Similar to DR in its logic;
- Trust Flow (TF) is “qualitative” strength: Majestic takes a manually verified set of trusted (seed) sites and measures how close your domain is to them in the link graph. The fewer “steps” from trusted sources, the higher the TF.
The most valuable thing in Majestic is not the numbers themselves but the TF/CF ratio. If CF is high and TF is low, the site has many links but few quality ones, a typical picture for spammy and oversold referring sites. Topical Trust Flow is also useful: it shows which topics the site is trusted in. A site with TF in the “Health” category is a poor fit for links to a law firm’s website.
DR vs DA vs Trust Flow: comparison table
| Metric | Tool | Scale | What it measures | Weak spot |
| DR | Ahrefs | 0–100, logarithmic | Backlink profile strength based on unique referring domains | Easy to inflate, ignores topic and traffic |
| DA / PA | Moz | 0–100, ML model | Predicted ability of a domain/page to rank | Smaller index, lag for new sites |
| Citation Flow | Majestic | 0–100 | Number and influence of links | Doesn’t distinguish quality links from spam |
| Trust Flow | Majestic | 0–100 | Proximity to trusted sites | Niche sites have low TF even with a quality profile |
What DR, DA, and TF values are considered normal
There are no universal thresholds: for a local niche in Ukraine, a referring site with DR 25 and real topical traffic is worth more than a “general” site with DR 70. The benchmarks below are for the Ukrainian and Russian-language segment:
| Range | What it usually means | How to treat it |
| DR 0–10, TF 0–5 | New or abandoned site, few referring domains | Only if there is real topical traffic |
| DR 10–30, TF 5–15 | Typical niche blog, forum, regional media outlet | Normal working zone for crowd links and articles |
| DR 30–50, TF 15–30 | Strong topical resource or large media outlet | Good referring sites; check the price and number of outbound links |
| DR 50+, TF 30+ | Large media, services, aggregators | Valuable, but check whether they sell links in bulk |
More important than absolute numbers is consistency between metrics. DR 60 + TF 8 + 50 visitors per month is not a strong referring site but an inflated domain.
How DR and DA get inflated and how to spot it
Since link buyers rely on DR and DA, site owners have learned to raise them artificially. Typical schemes:
- Links from link farms: hundreds of high-DR sites that link to each other and to anyone who pays.
- Expired domains with history: someone buys an expired domain with a strong profile and puts new content on it.
- Redirects: a 301 redirect from a strong domain “passes” metrics to a site that hasn’t earned anything on its own.
- Footer and sidebar links from thousands of sites: DR goes up, profile quality goes down.
Signs of inflation you can spot in 5 minutes:
- high DR, but organic traffic is close to zero or falling;
- a sharp jump in referring domains over 1–2 months on the Ahrefs chart;
- TF/CF below 0.3–0.5;
- referring domains include directories, sites in other languages, casino, pharma, adult;
- the site has dozens of articles linking to unrelated commercial projects with no connection to its topic.
Most of these signs are checked automatically by our free referring site checker: it shows the domain age, Wayback Machine history, number of outbound links, and traces of link selling.
How to assess a referring site as a whole: 6 steps
- Topic. The site and the specific page should be about your niche or a related one.
- Traffic. Organic traffic should be real and stable, not zero or in a steep decline.
- Metrics together. DR, DA, and TF should be consistent with each other; TF/CF no lower than 0.5.
- Indexing. The site’s pages are in Google’s index, and the site is not blocked from crawlers.
- Outbound links. Few outbound links on the page and no “walls” of commercial anchors.
- Domain history. No topic changes, downtime periods, or past use for doorway pages.
A detailed breakdown of site trust is in the article how to check a site’s trust, and how referring sites shape your own profile is covered in what a link profile is.
Does Google use DR, DA, or Trust Flow?
No. Google representatives have confirmed many times that they don’t use Domain Authority or other third-party metrics. Google has its own internal signals (including ones derived from PageRank), but their values are not shown publicly.
DR, DA, and TF are useful as a quick filter: they let you weed out clearly weak and suspicious referring sites from a list of a hundred in a minute. The decision to buy a link should be based on the full set of signals: topic, traffic, page quality, and how natural the placement is matter more than any number.
Bottom line
Don’t chase “DR 50+”: a link from a relevant, active site with DR 20 often does more than one from an inflated DR 70 domain. To avoid picking the wrong site, check it with our referring site checklist, and before ordering, go through the checklist before buying links. Unfamiliar terms are explained in our SEO glossary.
