How link metrics and traffic numbers get faked
Sellers raise Domain Rating with links that exploit the formula, such as expired domain redirects. Traffic estimates are inflated with junk keywords and bots. You spot both by checking what a site ranks for, where its links come from and whether the numbers agree.
In short
- Ahrefs wrote in 2022 that black hat SEOs had found ways to inflate Domain Rating with link spam, and that it had identified and closed many of those methods.
- Ahrefs' 2022 article on Domain Rating admits that large amounts of low-quality backlinks may increase the score instead of lowering it.
- Semrush rebuilt its Authority Score on 31 January 2023 to include organic traffic and six spam signals, such as more than 90% followed referring domains or zero organic rankings.
- Semrush's 2023 study of 24,000 domains found that 8.12% of sites rated 60 to 80 by Ahrefs and 3.8% of those rated 60 to 80 by Moz had under 10,000 monthly organic visits.
- BuzzStream's June 2026 study of about 257,000 guest post sellers found 39.6% had no organic traffic, so a traffic check removes a large share of inflated sites.
Sellers fake Domain Rating by pointing links at a site that are chosen to move the formula, not to help it rank. They fake traffic by ranking for junk keywords, sending bots, or showing figures that cannot be checked. Both tricks exist because buyers pay by the number.
You spot them by cross-checking. A real site has a score, traffic, rankings and a link history that agree with each other. A faked one has a high score and little else. This lesson describes the methods so you can recognise them. It is not a guide to using them.
Why the numbers are worth faking
Placement prices rise with authority scores. ESBO’s September 2026 analysis of 16,625 publishers found median list prices of $355 at DR 30 to 39 and $1,840 at DR 80 and above. A seller who can lift a site from one band to the next can charge more for the same page.
Most of the supply is weak to begin with. BuzzStream’s June 2026 study of roughly 257,000 guest post sellers rated 96.2% as low quality and found that 39.6% had no organic traffic.
How Domain Rating gets inflated
Domain Rating (DR) is built from followed links between domains. Ahrefs’ help page explains that each linking domain splits its rating equally among the domains it links to. Ahrefs’ 2022 article on the metric says that large amounts of low-quality backlinks may increase the score, not decrease it.
That design produces the known methods. Our research lists them:
- Expired domain redirects. An old domain with a strong profile is bought and redirected to the site. The links transfer on paper. See expired domains and 301s.
- Links from high-rated sites that link out to very few domains. Because rating is split among outbound domains, a link from such a site passes a large share.
- Spam on high-rated platforms. Profile pages and subdomains on large platforms borrow the parent’s score.
- Cross-linking groups. A set of sites link to each other and rise together, which is how a private blog network can look strong in a tool.
- Packaged services. Marketplaces list offers to deliver “DR 70+” for a fee, using the methods above.
Ahrefs acknowledged the problem in the same 2022 article: “some black-hat SEOs found ways to inflate Ahrefs’ DR with link spam”. It said it had identified many of those methods and made sure they could no longer be exploited. We could not find a dated Ahrefs statement describing later changes, so we make no claim about the current state.
Domain Authority and Trust Flow
Moz’s Domain Authority is a machine-learned prediction built from link data. Moz also publishes a Spam Score, which estimates how similar a site is to ones that were penalised. A high DA beside a high Spam Score is a contradiction worth noticing. We found no primary source documenting specific DA inflation methods, so we will not describe any.
Majestic’s Trust Flow measures closeness to a hand-reviewed set of trusted seed sites. Our research notes that it is inflated with links from pages near those seeds, such as old directories and university profile pages. Majestic also splits the score by topic, and a mismatch between a site’s stated subject and its Topical Trust Flow is a useful warning.
Authority metrics explained covers what each score is meant to measure.
How Semrush responded
Semrush changed its Authority Score on 31 January 2023 and said the aim was resistance to manipulation. The score now has three parts: link power, organic traffic and spam factors. Semrush’s announcement lists six spam signals, and its help page gives the thresholds:
- No organic rankings in the top 100 results.
- An unnaturally high share of followed referring domains, above 90%.
- 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 a near-identical backlink profile.
Semrush published a study of 24,000 domains with the change. It reported that none of the sites it scored 60 to 80 had under 10,000 monthly organic visits, while 3.8% of sites rated 60 to 80 by Moz and 8.12% of those rated 60 to 80 by Ahrefs did. That is Semrush testing its own product against competitors, using its own traffic estimates. The list of signals is still useful as a checklist, whatever tool you use.
How traffic gets faked
Buyers learned to check traffic, so sellers learned to fake that too.
| Method | What it looks like | How to catch it |
|---|---|---|
| Ranking for junk keywords | High estimated traffic from misspellings, unrelated brand names or odd high-volume terms | Read the top keywords and top pages. They should match the site’s topic |
| Wrong-country traffic | An English business blog whose visits come from countries it does not serve | Check traffic by country against the claimed audience |
| Bot visits | High numbers in panel-based tools with no matching rankings | Compare with a tool that estimates from rankings |
| One-page traffic | Nearly all visits go to a single unrelated page | Check the share of traffic by page |
| Edited screenshots | An analytics image with no URL bar or date range | Ask for a screen share or a view with the property name visible |
Estimates differ between tools for honest reasons too. A 2026 guide from Setproduct treats a spread of about two times as normal and a spread above five times between Ahrefs, Semrush and Similarweb as a sign of manipulation. That is a rule of thumb. Estimates for small sites and smaller languages can be badly wrong with nobody cheating.
When the link itself is faked
A related trick fakes the placement, not the metric. The seller shows you a live page with your link while serving search engines a version without it, or sets the page to noindex after you have paid. Check the page as a search engine crawler would see it and confirm it is indexed. How to track backlinks covers those checks.
A quick check
This is a working method drawn from publisher vetting practice. It does not prove a site is clean. It finds the common fakes.
- Score against traffic. A site at DR 60 or more with a few hundred estimated visits needs an explanation.
- Traffic trend over 24 months. Look for a collapse after a Google update, or a sudden spike with no cause.
- Top keywords and pages. Do they match the topic? Junk terms mean inflated estimates.
- Referring domains graph. The Setproduct guide describes the warning shape as a hockey stick: 200 to 3,000 new referring domains in six months, then flat or falling.
- Where the links come from. Sort referring domains by strength and open the top ten. Redirected domains, profile pages and unrelated foreign sites are the signature of inflation.
- Outbound links. A site that links out to casino, loan and essay sites from unrelated posts sells links to anyone.
- A second tool. If Ahrefs says 70 and Semrush says 12, believe neither until you know why.
- Ask for proof. A Search Console view with the property name visible is harder to fake than a number in an email.
How to vet a publisher gives the full scoring method, and the backlink tools comparison lists the tools that provide these reports.
What this does not tell you
Inflation is a matter of degree, and some faked sites pass every check for a while. A clean result means the site is not an obvious fake. It does not mean a link there will help. Why tools show different numbers explains the honest reasons two tools can disagree.
Terms such as Trust Flow, Spam Score and cloaking are defined in the glossary.
Common questions
Can Domain Rating be faked?
Yes. It is calculated from links alone, so links chosen to exploit the formula raise it without adding any value in search. Ahrefs has acknowledged this and says it has closed many of the methods.
How can I tell if a site's Domain Rating is inflated?
Compare the score with organic traffic and with what the site ranks for. A high score with little or no traffic, a sudden jump in referring domains, or links that come mostly from redirects and unrelated sites all point to inflation.
Can website traffic numbers be faked?
Estimates can be. Tool estimates rise if a site ranks for junk or misspelled high-volume terms, and panel-based tools can be distorted by bots. Screenshots of analytics can also be edited.
Is Semrush Authority Score harder to fake than Domain Rating?
Semrush says so, and its 2023 redesign added traffic and spam checks for that purpose. The supporting study is Semrush's own, so treat it as a vendor claim.
Is Domain Authority easier to manipulate than Domain Rating?
We found no independent comparison. Both are link-based scores and both have been inflated by sellers. Check any score against traffic and the site itself.
