What is the Semrush Authority Score?
Quick facts:
Domain Authority Score is a Semrush metric that grades a website's overall quality.
Generally, the website with more rankings on Google and links from other websites has a higher Authority Score.
The Authority Score is measured from 0 to 100.
A new, unknown website that doesn't rank in Google for a single word and has few or no backlinks has AS=0.
Amazon.com ranks in Google for over 100 million queries and has backlinks from over 4 million other websites, with AS=100.
The Authority Score distribution is exponential. It means that only a tiny percentage of all websites have AS=100. The vast majority has AS<10, and the higher the AS, the lower the number of websites with it.
How Semrush Authority Score is calculated?
There are three groups of factors - Links, Traffic, and Spam. The first two are straightforward:
1. Links
The more links a website has from other websites, the higher its Authority Score.
2. Traffic
The more rankings in Google and organic traffic the website has, the better.
3. Spam
The Spam is a composite factor tuning in to ensure the Authority Score will not be artificially inflated.
Spam Detection Parameters
The following parameters are considered suspicious for spam:
- % of "dofollow" domains is above 90%. Dofollow is a setting on a website link that tells search engines to notice and give importance to the link. Natural links organically established by other websites tend to be "nofollow" with rare exclusions. Opposite proportion usually means shady tactics, such as backlink purchases, are used to build the profile.
- The referring domains have a lot of backlinks but don't rank in Google. Websites with natural links usually have valuable content that should be ranked in Google search results. If a website has many links but doesn't rank, it's another sign of an unnatural, potentially spammy backlink profile.
- Many referring domains share the same IP address. Spammers used a tactic to build the so-called PBN (Private Blog Network) - a group of websites owned by spammers and referred to each other. They often keep all their sites on the same server, so they have the same IP address.
- Many referring domains share the same IP network. It's a little bit more advanced version of the previous point. Spammers use different servers but keep them on the same hosting provider to save costs and ease PBN control. Their IPs will differ, but all belong to the same network.
- The referring domains have profiles with similar backlinks. When spammers build their website networks, they tend to establish links from the same group of domains to their domains and client's websites. As a result, all PBN-linked websites often have backlinks from the same websites, helping to spot the unnatural links profile.
How is Semrush AS Different from the competitors?
Traditional metrics like Ahrefs' DR, Moz's DA, and Majestic's TF mainly counted backlinks without considering Google ranks, organic traffic and spam detection. These old methods are easily manipulated, often misleading about a site's value.
Why Semrush AS is tamper-proof?
The Authority Score algorithm ensures that only sites with genuine quality and visibility in Google score high.
- Beyond Backlinks: Includes organic traffic and spam factors.
- Organic Traffic Insight: A site's value in Google's eyes is based on its content and search visibility.
- Spam Factor Check: Verifies the quality and Google ranking of referring sites.
Generating content and buying backlinks can be cheap and straightforward. However, ranking on Google is tricky. It requires the website and content to be valuable to the visitors and stand out in severe competition with millions of other websites.