How backlinks and authority scores fit together
A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Authority scores such as Moz's Domain Authority (DA) and Ahrefs' Domain Rating (DR) are third-party estimates built mostly from those links: how many different sites link to a domain, and how strong those linking sites are themselves. Google doesn't use DA or DR. They are tools SEO companies created to approximate how link-rich a site is, so treat them as a way to compare sites, not as a score Google reads.
Backlinks vs referring domains
The raw backlink count is easy to inflate: one site that puts your link in its footer can create thousands of backlinks across its pages. Referring domains, the number of different websites linking to you, is usually the more useful figure, because ten links from ten unrelated sites say more than ten thousand links from one. When you compare two sites, compare both numbers, and look at where the links come from rather than just how many there are.
Domain Authority, Domain Rating and trust scores compared
Domain Authority runs from 0 to 100 and is calculated by Moz from its own link index. Domain Rating also runs from 0 to 100 and comes from Ahrefs' link index. Because each company crawls the web differently, the same site often scores quite differently on each, and neither number is more correct. FeedPulse's DR checker computes a DR-style 0-100 score from the open OpenPageRank dataset rather than Ahrefs' data, and our DA checker serves Moz's score when Moz's free API has quota left, with a clearly labelled estimate otherwise. The trust score is different again: it blends traffic rank, domain age, HTTPS and Lighthouse scores, with every weight published on the page.
How to use these numbers without fooling yourself
Compare like with like: one site's DA against another site's DA, never DA against DR. Look at scores as bands, since a few points of difference is noise and every provider's index updates on its own schedule. Check trends over months rather than days. And remember that a higher score is the result of earning links from real sites, not the goal itself. Buying links to raise a score breaks Google's spam policies and can cost you rankings, even if the score goes up.
A simple monthly routine
Once a month, check your referring domains and note any new or lost sites, using Google Search Console's Links report for your own site and a backlink checker for competitors. Record your DA or DR in the same spreadsheet so you can see the direction over time. When a competitor's score jumps, look at which new sites link to them; that usually shows you a content format or outreach channel worth trying yourself.