The discrepancy between Moz Domain Authority and Ahref Domain Rating

[Asia News]

One of our media outlets - Qatar Doha News  has high MOZ domain authority of 53 but gets a very low  Ahref's domain rating. What is the reason behind it?

Key Differences in How DA and DR Are Calculated

• Moz Domain Authority (DA): This is a score from 1 to 100, using a machine-learning model trained on actual search engine rankings. It factors in:
  • The quantity and quality of backlinks (links from other sites).
  • Linking root domains (unique websites linking to it).
  • Other signals like spam scores, link diversity, and even some on-page elements indirectly.
  • Moz's own link index (Moz Link Explorer), which crawls and indexes billions of pages but updates less frequently than some competitors (typically monthly).
  • It's logarithmic, meaning it's easier to go from 10 to 20 than from 80 to 90, and it's more forgiving for newer or smaller sites.
• Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR): Also a 0-100 scale, but it's more narrowly focused on backlink strength:
  • It measures the relative power of a site's backlink profile compared to others in Ahrefs' massive index (one of the largest, with trillions of pages crawled daily).
  • Key factors: Number of unique referring domains, the DR of those linking sites, and whether links are dofollow (pass authority).
  • A DR of 0 specifically means Ahrefs detects no backlinks from sites with any DR above 0, or the links are so weak/insignificant that they don't register. Ahrefs is strict about filtering out spammy or low-quality links (e.g., from private blog networks or automated directories).
  • Updates more dynamically, often reflecting changes within days or weeks.

In short, DA is a broader "ranking potential" predictor, while DR is a purer backlink strength gauge. They're not directly comparable, and correlations between them are around 0.7-0.8 (moderate but not perfect).

Source:

https://grok.com/share/c2hhcmQtMg_f72e6f39-918a-4b97-8846-a841049a35dd