{"id":10475,"date":"2025-05-15T04:50:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T04:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linkpublishers.com\/blog\/?p=10475"},"modified":"2025-08-28T04:45:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T04:45:45","slug":"seo-metrics-comparison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linkpublishers.com\/blog\/seo-metrics-comparison\/","title":{"rendered":"SEO Metrics Comparison: What We Learned by Comparing 5 Domains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A few weeks ago during one of our regular SEO catchups at Link Publishers, someone asked a simple but important question \u2013 Which SEO metrics actually tell the truth about rankings?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opinions came in fast. Someone mentioned Moz DA<\/strong>. Someone else said Backlinks<\/strong> and Referring Domains<\/strong>. Then came the obvious follow-up \u2013 What about actual traffic?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when we knew it was time to dig into the numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we pulled SEO data for 5 websites across five very different industries. Then we compared them using Moz<\/strong>, Ahrefs<\/strong>, and Semrush<\/strong><\/a>. We looked at Domain Authority, total referring domains, and organic traffic \u2013 all side by side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our goal wasn\u2019t to prove a point. We just wanted to see what\u2019s working, what isn\u2019t, and which numbers actually reflect real performance. The findings? Some results were expected. Others caught us off guard. A few made us rethink how we look at SEO audits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, we are sharing it all with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SEO Metrics That Matter (and Why We Chose Them)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When we decided to compare five websites, we didn\u2019t want to go after every SEO metric out there. That would only clutter the analysis and confuse the goal. So we narrowed it down to three core metrics that SEOs everywhere tend to rely on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not because they are perfect, but because they are widely used and often used to make important decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what we picked and why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Moz Domain Authority (DA)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You have probably used it a hundred times. We have too. Moz\u2019s Domain Authority is one of the most quoted numbers in SEO conversations. It is a score (from 1 to 100) that predicts how likely a website is to rank on search engines, based mainly on its link profile. Higher DA usually means a site has more strong backlinks pointing to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here is the thing \u2013 DA is not a Google metric. It is Moz\u2019s best guess based on their crawler. It doesn\u2019t tell you why a site ranks \u2013 just gives you an idea of its perceived authority. We included DA because it is still used as a quick filter. Many agencies, SEO professionals, and clients ask for “high DA” links. So it is worth testing how well it actually reflects real performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Referring Domains (Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This one is simple. Referring domains show how many different websites are linking to a site. It is one of the strongest trust signals in SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We pulled this data from Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz. In Moz, it appears as \u201cLinking Domains\u201d, but it means the same thing \u2013 the number of unique websites sending at least one link to your domain. These tools use their own crawlers and indexing methods, so the numbers don\u2019t always match. Sometimes they are close, sometimes way off. That\u2019s why we included all three \u2013 to get a fuller picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why does this metric matter? Because if hundreds of different sites are linking to you, it usually means your content is either helpful, popular, or worth talking about. That kind of diversity in backlinks often signals genuine authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But don\u2019t rely on totals alone. Not all links are equal. Relevance, placement, and intent matter. That\u2019s the part tools can\u2019t measure \u2013 but we will talk about that soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Organic Traffic (Ahrefs and Semrush)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is the one that really matters at the end of the day. Traffic. Because what\u2019s the point of high authority or a strong link profile if no one is visiting the site?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organic traffic tells you how many users are coming to your site from unpaid search results. It reflects how well your pages are actually ranking, and how often people are clicking on them. It is the real-world output of all those SEO inputs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here is the catch \u2013 even traffic estimates can be misleading. Ahrefs and Semrush both use their own data models to predict traffic \u2013 and sometimes the gap between them is wild. That\u2019s why we used both. Not to get exact numbers, but to compare trends and see if there is a consistent story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Multiple Tools?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We used both Ahrefs<\/strong> and Semrush<\/strong> because no single tool shows the full picture. Also, every tool crawls and estimates data differently. That\u2019s why comparing them helped us spot gaps and inconsistencies. It gave us a broader and more balanced view. We also did not want to rely on just one source. Cross-verifying made the analysis more accurate and honest<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 5 Websites at a Glance <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We did not randomly pick these websites. Each one was chosen because it operates in a different industry + has a different SEO footprint + follows a unique growth strategy. That mix gave us better variety and made the analysis more meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a quick look at each one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Website 1 \u2013 Ticket Aggregator<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This site helps users find, compare and book event tickets online. It is a competitive niche where SEO often depends on both authority and content freshness.  We picked it because it has strong backlinks and decent traffic \u2013 a good candidate for testing if authority scores line up with real results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n