What the authority score means
The score estimates how strongly a domain is linked to from the rest of the web. It's HrefClub Authority: the domain's Open PageRank value (0–10, calculated from open web-crawl link data) multiplied by 10. Like Moz's DA or Ahrefs' DR, it's a third-party estimate — Google doesn't use any of them.
| Score | Band | HrefClub link tier |
|---|---|---|
| 0–19 | Emerging | Any authority (0–19) · 1 credit per link |
| 20–39 | Established | Authority 20+ · 2 credits per link |
| 40–59 | Strong | Authority 40+ · 4 credits per link |
| 60–100 | Very strong | Authority 60+ · 8 credits per link |
Relevance beats raw authority
A link from a modest, relevant site with real readers usually does more for you than one from a high-authority site in an unrelated niche. Use authority to filter out the weakest prospects, not to pick winners.
How to use it when vetting link prospects
- Paste your shortlist of prospect domains (up to 25) and sort by score.
- Drop anything with no data or suspiciously high authority but no real content — a common sign of expired-domain networks.
- Check the actual linking page with the indexability checker and the site's outbound links with the backlink checker (leave “your domain” blank to audit them).
How to increase your own authority
Authority metrics rise when more established, relevant sites link to you. That's the whole game of link building — start with how to get backlinks, and read domain authority explained to understand why different tools disagree.