The email arrives while you're finishing a quote. It says your website has a "domain authority" and shows a screenshot with a red arrow at a small number. Ninety days, it promises, and the number goes up.
You didn't know your website had an authority. Now you wonder if that's why the phone's been quiet.
Before paying anyone to move that number, I'd read what the companies that publish it say on their help pages. Those pages are more candid than the pitch.
What do these scores actually measure?
Each big SEO tool estimates how strong a site is, mostly from who links to it. Moz calls its score Domain Authority, Ahrefs calls its Domain Rating, and Semrush calls its Authority Score.[1] Each is a number out of 100 from that company's own data and formula, so one website gets a different number in every tool.[1][2]
Does domain authority matter to Google?
Not the score itself. Ahrefs's own help center says there's no evidence that search engines use Domain Rating, or similar scores such as Domain Authority, as a ranking factor.[3]
Semrush's page says website authority isn't an official metric used by Google or other search engines. It calls the idea an approximation the SEO industry created.[1]
That doesn't mean links don't count. Google says its systems read how pages link to each other, and PageRank, the system it launched with, is still part of its core ranking.[4]
A tool's score is its own guess at what those systems see, from its own database of links. Ahrefs and Semrush say higher scores tend to go with higher rankings.[1][2] That's a correlation, not proof that raising the number raises your rankings.
What is a score still good for?
A rough yardstick. Look up the three or four contractors you compete with in one tool, since numbers from different tools don't compare.
Watch it over months. A sudden drop deserves a look at your links, though Ahrefs says scores also fall when other sites gain links.[2]
It can't say whether anyone will call or where you'll land on the map. And it can't say whether the sites linking to you are real, local or relevant to your trade.
What should you look at instead?
Four things, in this order:
- The relevant sites that link to you. Google says how many sites link to your business is one input to local ranking, next to reviews.[5]
- Calls, plus what people do on your Google profile: tapping call, visiting your website, asking for directions.[6]
- Google Search Console impressions and clicks: how often your site showed up on Google, and how often someone clicked.
- Whether your name turns up where buyers check: your Maps listing, a search for your trade and town, and ChatGPT.
Search Console is free, and its Links report lists your top linking sites, though it's a sample and can include links that no longer exist.[7][8] Bing Webmaster Tools is free too, and Bing says its backlink report covers competitors.[9] Ahrefs's free plan shows who links to sites you've verified as yours.[10]
Read the list like a customer would. Keep the manufacturer's dealer page, the chamber of commerce and the local paper. Cross out sites that exist only to sell links, then name and count what's left.
Earning more links honestly is a bigger job than this page covers. If you'd rather have someone check the basics, our local SEO audit goes through your Google profile, listings, reviews and service pages.
What should you ask anyone promising to raise your score?
Ask these before the first invoice:
- Which sites will link to me, by name?
- Who writes and edits those pages, and would the sites exist without the links?
- Are the links marked sponsored?
- Would you be comfortable if Google read the contract?
Google allows paid links marked sponsored or nofollow, and calls buying links to influence rankings link spam.[11] So a paid link is either marked and not meant to help your ranking, or unmarked and against Google's rules.
A pitch to a Boise plumber, decoded
- "Raise your domain authority to 50 or more in 90 days." That's one tool's number, and it moves when other sites change.
- "Premium links on high-authority sites." That's the same tool score, and it says nothing about whether locals read the site.
- "A monthly report on your score." A score report isn't a calls report, so ask for calls too.
Illustrative example
What does Google say about trust?
Google's helpful content guidance says trust is the most important of the qualities it calls E-E-A-T. It also says E-E-A-T itself isn't a ranking factor.[12]
For a contractor, trust looks like a named owner, a license number and real job photos. Our piece on naming the owner without oversharing explains how.
The part nobody outside Google can tell you
A high score can sit next to a quiet phone, and a low one next to a full schedule. Nobody outside Google knows exactly how links are weighed, and every tool works from its own database of them. Search Console's list is a sample, so treat your count as rough.