Semrush Authority Score is Semrush's own compound metric for grading the overall quality of a website or webpage, on a scale of 1 to 100. It combines three things: the strength of the links pointing at the domain, the organic traffic Semrush estimates for it, and a set of checks for an unnatural link profile. There is no fixed "good" number. Semrush itself says the score is best used to compare domains with each other, especially domains in the same niche. And like every third-party score, it is not a Google metric.
For an expired domain, one detail matters most: traffic is an input, so a domain that has been offline can score low even when its backlinks are still strong.
What Semrush Authority Score measures
According to Semrush's knowledge base article on Authority Score, the score is built from eight weighted factors grouped into three parts.
Link power. The number of followed referring domains and their own authority.
Organic traffic. An estimate calculated from the keywords the site ranks for, their positions and the clicks those positions can bring, using Semrush's own keyword data rather than the site's analytics.
Natural profile. A series of checks for suspicious SEO behavior. Semrush lists these signals:
- no organic rankings at all
- an unusually high share of referring domains that send only dofollow links
- an imbalance between links and organic traffic
- too many referring domains on the same IP address
- too many referring domains on the same IP network
- another domain with an almost identical backlink profile
Semrush notes that near-identical backlink profiles can point to bought links or a private blog network. Those are exactly the patterns an expired-domain buyer wants to catch.
What is a good Authority Score?
Semrush does not publish a threshold. Its guidance is to judge the score against similar sites in the same or neighboring niches: a modest score can be strong where competitors sit lower.
Instead of numbers, Semrush attaches labels to the score. They run from "Low authority" through "Average," "Good," "Very good," "Excellent" and "Superb" up to "Industry leader," and some come with a "niche relevant" variant. Other labels describe the profile rather than the strength: "Lacks organic traffic," "Poor traffic-to-backlink ratio," "High traffic-to-backlink ratio," and three spam warnings ("Light," "Some" and "Heavy signs of spam").
The practical test is the same one that works for Moz Domain Authority: search the keywords you want, look up the sites on the first page, and compare. The number alone tells you little.
Why expired domains often show a low score
An expired domain usually lost its site, and with it its rankings. Once the rankings are gone, Semrush's organic traffic estimate falls toward zero, and two of the inputs suffer:
- The organic traffic part contributes little or nothing.
- The natural profile checks may flag the domain for having links but no organic rankings, which is the "imbalance between links and organic traffic" signal.
The result can be a domain with a solid link profile, a reasonable Domain Rating and a low Authority Score, often labeled "Lacks organic traffic" or "Poor traffic-to-backlink ratio."
What this does and does not mean:
- It does not mean the links are bad. The gap may simply reflect that the site went offline.
- It does mean you should find out why the traffic is gone. If the archive shows a real site that stopped when the domain expired, the low score is expected. If the site was live and still had no rankings, that is worth a closer look.
- It is not a penalty signal. Semrush says Google penalties are highly unlikely to affect the score, and the score does not change immediately after a penalty. A clean Authority Score proves nothing about Google's view of the domain.
Reading the spam labels when you vet a domain
For a buyer, the natural profile part is often more useful than the score itself. A "Heavy signs of spam" label on an expired domain is a reason to open the backlink report before anything else. Look for the patterns Semrush checks:
- Many referring domains on the same IP or the same network: a classic footprint of link networks.
- A backlink profile that mirrors another domain: often a sign that both were fed by the same seller.
- Almost every link followed, with few of the nofollow mentions that real sites collect naturally.
A label is a prompt to investigate, not a verdict: a small, legitimate site can trip one check, and a careful network can pass all of them.
Authority score vs Domain Authority vs DR
The three most quoted authority metrics come from different companies and measure different things. None is used by Google.
| Metric | Owner | Scale | Built from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authority Score | Semrush | 1–100 | Link power, estimated organic traffic, natural profile checks |
| Domain Authority (DA) | Moz | 1–100 | A model predicting ranking potential from Moz's link data |
| Domain Rating (DR) | Ahrefs | 0–100, logarithmic | Strength of the backlink profile from referring domains; ignores topic, traffic and spam |
For expired domains, the key difference: DR and DA are link metrics that can stay high after a site disappears, while Authority Score falls with the traffic. Our article on DR vs DA covers the other two in more detail, and a high DR next to a low Authority Score and no traffic history is one of the patterns described in inflated DR.
How the score changes
Semrush updates Authority Score for all domains once every two weeks, so a change you make today will not show up at once.
What can raise it:
- New followed links from referring domains that did not link before. Semrush states that more backlinks from a domain that already links to you do not boost the score, which is why referring domains matter more than raw backlink counts.
- Growth in organic rankings and the traffic Semrush estimates from them.
- A link profile that stays clear of the natural profile flags.
On a rebuilt expired domain, the score usually moves once the new site starts ranking and organic traffic returns.
A worked example
Say you are looking at an expired domain with these readings:
- Ahrefs DR in the forties, with a few hundred referring domains
- Majestic Trust Flow not far below Citation Flow
- Semrush Authority Score in the low teens, labeled "Lacks organic traffic"
- Wayback Machine: a regional news blog that published steadily for years and stopped the month the domain expired
Here the history explains the low score: the site disappeared, the rankings went with it, and the links stayed.
Now change one reading: the label says "Heavy signs of spam," and the archive shows the site was live until recently. A live site with strong links, no rankings and spam signals looks like a domain built to sell links. That one goes to the bottom of the list, whatever its DR.
The lesson is to treat Authority Score as one voice among several, as described in our guide to expired domain metrics. On hunter.domains, Semrush Authority Score is one of the inputs to the 0–100 Hunter score, next to DR, Trust Flow, referring domains, archive history, Open PageRank, price and age; how the scoring works explains the rest. To see a domain's metrics, history and spam checks side by side, run it through the domain checker or browse the current list of expired domains.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good Authority Score in Semrush?
There is no universal threshold. Semrush recommends comparing the score with sites in the same or neighboring niches, because a score that is strong in one market can be average in another. Look up the sites ranking for your target keywords and see where your domain falls among them.
Is Authority Score a Google ranking factor?
No. Authority Score is Semrush's own metric, calculated from Semrush's link and keyword data. Google does not use it, and Semrush says Google penalties are unlikely to affect it, so a good score does not show that a domain is in good standing with Google.
Why did my Authority Score drop?
Semrush lists several causes: competitors in your niche outperforming you, less effective SEO, a negative SEO attack, or a weak backlink profile. A fall in organic rankings also lowers the traffic part of the score. Because scores update every two weeks, check the trend over several updates before drawing conclusions.
How often does Semrush update Authority Score?
Semrush updates the score for all domains once every two weeks. Links you earn or lose in between will show up at the next update, not immediately.
