How Link Building Affects Your Site's Authority
"Authority" means two things: how Google weighs links to your content, and scores like Ahrefs DR and Moz DA. Links raise both, but not equally. Below: how each works, and which sites actually linked in MentionAgent's outreach.
Followed links from new domains raise scores like DR, most from strong sites that link out to few others. Google weighs links too, as one signal of many. Paid followed links are link spam and can cost you rankings.
Google: checks if "prominent websites link or refer to the content"
DR and DA: third-party scores, not Google's
Sites at DR 60 or above were roughly a quarter to a third as likely to add a link as sites under DR 30. 60% of links came from sites under DR 30.
Median DR: 26 for sites that linked, 38 for sites pitched
Links seen live 26 September to 17 October 2026. Method.
What authority means to Google
DR and DA come from Ahrefs and Moz, not Google. Google's How Search Works page says: "one of the factors used to determine quality is understanding if other prominent websites link or refer to the content." Its link algorithm, PageRank, is one input among many. The SEO Starter Guide: "We have many ranking signals, and PageRank is just one of those." How links weigh against content: content vs backlinks.
How links change DR and DA
Ahrefs' Domain Rating "shows the strength of a website's backlink profile compared to the others in our database on a 100-point scale" (Ahrefs). Moz's Domain Authority "predicts how likely a website is to rank on search engine results pages (SERPs) compared to competitors" (Moz).
Both are relative. Ahrefs: "Domain Rating is a relative metric by definition." So your DR can drop with no links lost; Ahrefs' answer is "Most likely, other websites gained a lot of backlinks" (why domain authority drops). And Moz says DA "is not a direct ranking factor."
How fast scores climb, from 2,891 sites checked twice: how long it takes to increase domain authority.
Which links raise authority most
Ahrefs' help page spells out how a link passes rating:
- A new linking domain. DR "looks at the quantity and quality of domains linking to your entire website": it counts domains, not links.
- A strong site that links out sparingly. Both rules in the screenshot: higher DR passes more, split across fewer sites.
- A followed link. Ahrefs: "If a website is only linking to you via nofollow links, it won't increase your DR" (DR explainer). Check any page with the nofollow link checker; what nofollow is still good for: do nofollow links help SEO.
- A site on your topic. DR ignores topic, but Ahrefs' own checklist for judging a link asks "Is this website topically-relevant to yours?" See relevant backlinks.
Which sites actually add a link
When an editor agrees to a link, MentionAgent fetches the page and records the link once it's live. How likely a pitched site was to end up linking, by its Ahrefs DR when pitched:
| DR of the site pitched | How likely to link | Share of all links |
|---|---|---|
| Under 30 | Baseline | 60% |
| 30 to 59 | About half as likely | 29% |
| 60 and up | A quarter to a third as likely | 11% |
Strong links are worth chasing, but in this data most links came from smaller sites. By Ahrefs' rule above, a small site that links out to few others still passes rating, so keep them on your list. To estimate how many you need, see how many backlinks do I need, and check a site's score with the free Ahrefs domain checker.
Links that can cost you authority
Google's spam policies (updated 28 August 2026) define link spam as "creating links to or from a site primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings," and the first example is "Buying or selling links for ranking purposes." Before you buy, read buying backlinks. To clean up bad links, see how to disavow backlinks. For links that stay live and keep counting, see sustainable link building.
Earn the links that raise your authority
MentionAgent finds relevant sites in your niche and the editor's email, drafts each pitch for you to approve or send on auto, and checks every link once it's live. It doesn't buy links. From $99/mo.
See how MentionAgent worksMethod
Data: every site pitched from the workspaces that had at least one link go live, and the links MentionAgent's checker saw live between 26 September and 17 October 2026 (26 September is the earliest date the checker recorded). DR is the Ahrefs value stored when the site was evaluated.
Ranges: the low end counts every pitch, the high end only pitches sent from 15 August 2026. Pitches go back further than the checker, so the page shows likelihood relative to sites under DR 30, not absolute rates. Sites without a stored DR are left out.
Frequently asked questions
Does link building increase domain authority?
Yes. Ahrefs DR and Moz DA are both calculated from the links pointing at your site, so new followed links from new domains raise them. Because both scores are relative, other sites gaining links can still pull yours down.
Do links from low DR sites help?
They can. Ahrefs says a linking domain splits its rating across every domain it links to, so a small site that links out to a few sites can pass more than a big one that links to a million.
Is domain authority a Google ranking factor?
No. DA and DR are third-party scores. Moz says Domain Authority is not a direct ranking factor. Google does use links: it checks whether other prominent websites link to the content.