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What is Authority Score?

What is Authority Score?

Backlink Analytics on Semrush uses Authority Score to measure the impact of a webpage or domain’s links. Authority Score is our compound metric that grades the overall quality of a website or a webpage. 

The higher the score, the more assumed weight a domain’s or webpage’s outbound links to another site could have.

The calculation is based on three main facets: 

  1. Link Power: quality and quantity of backlinks
  2. Organic Traffic: estimated monthly average of traffic 
  3. Spam Factors (Natural Profile): indicators of manipulation or spam in the link profile

Authority Score widget with three factors contributing to the metric: Organic Traffic, Link Power, and Natural profile.

We pull our organic traffic and backlink data for Link Power and Organic Traffic straight from our databases. 

Natural Profile shows the result of a series of checks for suspicious SEO behavior. In other words, the result of manipulation.

Link Power, Organic Traffic, and Natural Profile break down into eight factors. They’re all weighted in the following order: 

  1. Link power 
  2. Organic traffic 
  3. No organic rankings on SERPs 
  4. Unnaturally high % of dofollow domains 
  5. An imbalance between links and organic traffic 
  6. Too many referring domains with the same IP address 
  7. Too many referring domains with the same IP network 
  8. Presence of another domain with an identical backlink profile 

The first factor describes the data powering the Link Power category. The second factor weighs in how much organic traffic a site approximately gets every month. It’s the data that powers the Organic Traffic category. 

The rest of the factors (3-8 in the list above) are what go into the Natural Profile category. They’re spam indicators. 

  • Link power is calculated by the amount of follow referring domains, along with the authority of those referring domains, that point to a website.
  • Organic traffic comes from our Domain Analytics and is estimated based on a website’s total keyword positions and the click potential of every position.
  • No organic rankings on SERPs mean that the site has 0 keyword rankings within Google’s top 100 organic positions.
  • An unnaturally high % of dofollow domains means that more than 90% of the website’s referring domains only send links without the “nofollow” attribute. This is an unusually high ratio, which is almost always the result of unethical and unnatural link-building to manipulate search engines.
  • An imbalance between links and organic traffic can indicate a site with a poor user experience that built an unnaturally large backlink profile, likely as an attempt to manipulate search engines.
  • Too many referring domains with the same IP address or network is also a sign of a manipulated link profile. Private Blog Networks (PBNs) are networks of fake blogs created for the sole purpose of providing backlinks for SEO value. They can often be identified when it's clear that a group of related sites link to each other and are hosted on the IP address or subnet.
  • The presence of another domain with an identical backlink profile means that we found at least one other domain with an identical backlink profile. This is a sign of unethical and unnatural link manipulation. 

The last factor (presence of another domain with an identical backlink profile) is based on data from this widget in the Overview report in Backlink Analytics (competition level at least 95%):

Similar Profiles widget in Backlink Analytics Overview that shows a list of domains with a similar backlink profile to the analyzed domain and the percent of competition.

If we see that there is a domain that has anything over a 95% competition level, there’s a chance this site might have bought backlinks or is part of a private blog network.  

We update the Authority Scores for all domains once every two weeks to keep them fresh. 

You can find more details on how to use Authority Score on our blog.

What do the Authority Score labels mean?

Label

Meaning

Low authority

This domain has few backlinks. While there are no signs of manipulation, a link from this domain is unlikely to benefit your profile.

Low authority but niche relevant

While this domain doesn't have a lot of backlinks, it does have some from highly niche-relevant domains. A link from this site could help your profile a little.

Average

This domain's link profile and organic traffic are fine but its link network isn't as relevant as other domains in the same niche.

Average but niche relevant

While this domain's authority isn't very high, it has some niche-relevant links. A link from this domain would likely benefit your profile.

Good

This domain has a well-rounded backlink profile and a decent amount of organic traffic. A backlink from this domain would likely benefit your profile.

Good and niche relevant

This domain has a good backlink profile and is niche relevant. A link from this domain would likely benefit your profile.

Very good

This domain has a strong brand and a great backlink profile. A link from this domain would benefit your profile.

Very good and niche relevant

This domain has a great backlink profile and is niche relevant. A link from this domain would benefit your profile.

Excellent

This domain has a great backlink profile and lots of organic traffic. A link from this domain would highly benefit your profile.

Superb

This domain has an excellent backlink profile and lots of organic traffic. A link from this domain would highly benefit your profile.

Industry leader

This domain has an excellent backlink profile and lots of organic traffic. A link from this domain would highly benefit your profile.

Heavy signs of spam

Take a closer look: this domain's backlink profile could be fabricated. A link from this domain might not be helpful to your site.

Some signs of spam

Take a closer look: this domain's backlink profile has signs of potential spam or manipulation. A link from this domain might not be helpful to your site.

Light signs of spam

Take a closer look: this domain's backlink profile has some signs of potential spam or manipulation. A link from this domain might not be helpful to your site.

Lacks organic traffic

This domain's organic traffic is low compared to domains with similar backlink profiles. While this domain's link profile is strong, the website itself may have technical issues or poor content, causing Google to send organic traffic elsewhere.

Poor traffic-to-backlink ratio

While this domain has a lot of backlinks, its organic traffic is low compared to domains with similar backlink profiles. The website itself might have technical issues or poor content, causing Google to send organic traffic elsewhere.

High traffic-to-backlink ratio

While this domain doesn't have many backlinks, it has a high amount of organic traffic compared to domains with similar backlink profiles. A link from this domain might benefit your profile if it's relevant.

How do you know if a score is good or not?

Generally speaking, the higher the Authority Score of a domain, the more trusted it is. It is based on a scale of 1 to 100 so the closer the Authority Score is to 100 the better.

As a website’s score increases, the impact of its outgoing links will increase. However, the impact of a link also strongly depends on your website’s niche. Authority Score is best used for domain comparison, and not for determining good/bad on an absolute scale.

For example, use these scores in the Backlinks Report or Bulk Backlink Analysis to compare the trust levels of multiple websites. By comparing these scores you can evaluate which domain’s link profile is strongest and will send the most link weight when linking to other sites.

Where can I find Authority Score? 

You can find this score in: 

  • Project Dashboard 
  • Projects 
  • Keyword Overview 
  • Domain Overview
  • Backlink Analytics
  • Backlink Gap
  • Backlink Audit
  • Bulk Backlinks Analysis 
  • Link Building Tool

Frequently Asked Questions

For further guidance, check out our blog and find answers to the following questions:
 

There are various reasons why your score can go down. Some possible explanations include being outperformed by competitors in the same niche, having less effective SEO efforts, experiencing a negative SEO attack, or having a weak backlink profile.
No, it is highly unlikely for Google Penalties to affect your score. Your site's Authority Score will not be changed immediately after receiving a penalty. However, it is advisable to disavow backlinks that are causing the penalty in order to lift it and avoid any potential negative effects on your Authority Score in the future.
No, a low score is not necessarily indicative of a spammy domain. However, it could suggest that the site lacks trust signals compared to a reputable one. It is advisable to investigate sites with low scores to determine if they are indeed spammy or simply new and not yet established.
Yes, you should report your client's increase in Authority Score to them in a regular report. However, it's important to explain to them what it means and not to solely rely on it for evaluating their domain's performance. It's best to use it in combination with other important metrics such as conversions, organic keyword positions, and traffic. Additionally, you can show your client how their site's Authority Score compares to other sites in their niche, as it's a comparative metric rather than an absolute one. 
No, getting more backlinks from the same referring domain does not boost Authority Score. Having one backlink from a website is sufficient, and obtaining additional backlinks from the same website will not improve the metric.
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