URL Rating and Page Authority: page-level link metrics
URL Rating from Ahrefs and Page Authority from Moz score the link strength of a single page, not a whole site. They matter more than domain metrics when you judge the exact page a link will sit on, or the pages you compete with for one keyword.
In short
- Ahrefs defines URL Rating as the strength of a page's link profile on a 100-point logarithmic scale, counting both internal and external links.
- Moz defines Page Authority as a machine-learned score from 1 to 100 that predicts how well a specific page will rank, built from more than 40 link-based factors.
- Moz states that Page Authority does not take on-page elements such as keyword use or content into account.
- A link comes from one page, so a new article on a DR 80 site can start with almost no page-level strength of its own.
- Neither score is a Google metric, and both should be used to compare pages within one tool, not as absolute values.
URL Rating (UR) is Ahrefs’ score for the link strength of one page. Page Authority (PA) is Moz’s score for how likely one page is to rank. Both run to 100, both are built from links, and both describe a single URL where Domain Rating and Domain Authority describe a whole site.
They matter more than the domain numbers in two situations: when you judge the exact page a link will come from, and when you compare the pages that rank for a keyword you want. A link is always placed on a page, and a ranking is always held by a page.
What each metric measures
The definitions below are the vendors’ own, read in October 2026.
| URL Rating (UR) | Page Authority (PA) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Ahrefs | Moz |
| Scale | 0 to 100, logarithmic | 1 to 100, logarithmic |
| What it claims to show | Strength of the page’s link profile | Predicted ability of the page to rank |
| Method | PageRank-style calculation over Ahrefs’ link index | Machine learning model trained against search results, using Moz’s link index |
| Inputs | Internal and external links between pages | Link counts and dozens of other factors, more than 40 in total |
| Nofollow | Respected | Not stated on the definition page |
| On-page content | Not part of it | Moz states it is not considered |
URL Rating
Ahrefs’ help page defines UR as showing “the strength of a page’s link profile on a 100-point scale”. It says the calculation follows the principles of the original PageRank: it counts links between pages, respects the nofollow attribute and applies a damping factor. Both internal and external links are taken into account. Ahrefs also says it detects and cuts off linking loops built to inflate the number.
Two practical points follow. A page can have a respectable UR with no external links at all if the site links to it heavily from strong pages. And the HTTP and HTTPS versions of a page get the same rating, according to the same help page.
Page Authority
Moz’s Learning Center page, dated November 2024, defines PA as “a score developed by Moz that predicts how well a specific web page will rank”. The score runs from one to 100 on a logarithmic scale. Moz says it uses a machine learning model to find the calculation that best matches rankings across the thousands of search results it predicts against, the same method as Domain Authority applied at page level.
Moz adds two cautions of its own. PA does not consider on-page elements such as keyword use or content. And because the model is retrained as data changes, scores move without anything changing on the page, so Moz recommends using PA as a relative metric for comparing pages.
How they differ from domain metrics
A domain score sums up every link to every page of a site. A page score looks at one address. The gap between the two can be very wide.
Take a guest article on a large news site. The domain may be rated 85. The article is new, sits several clicks from the homepage and has no links from other sites. Its page score starts near the bottom of the scale and rises only if the publisher links to it internally or other sites cite it.
The reverse also happens. A small site with a modest domain score can own one page that hundreds of sites reference. That page may outrank pages on far bigger domains for its topic.
When page-level metrics matter more
Judging where a link will sit. Sellers quote domain scores because they are high and easy to compare. What you receive is a link on one page. Ask where the article will live, whether the site will link to it from a category or the homepage, and whether similar past articles hold any page-level strength a few months on. How to vet a publisher covers the wider checks.
Niche edits. With a niche edit the page already exists, so its page score, its own backlinks and its traffic can be checked before you pay. This is one of the few cases where you can measure the linking page in advance.
Keyword-level competition. To estimate what it takes to rank for a query, compare the pages in the top ten, not the domains. If the ranking pages each have few referring domains, a strong page on a modest site can compete. How many backlinks you need turns that comparison into a target.
Choosing which of your pages to push. Your pages with the highest page scores are where your link strength is concentrated. Internal links from those pages are the cheapest way to pass strength to commercial pages.
Reclaiming value. A deleted page that still has a high page score is a page with backlinks pointing at a 404. Redirecting it to the closest live page recovers that strength.
Limits you should know
They are not Google’s numbers. Google has its own page-level signals. UR is modelled on the published PageRank idea, and Ahrefs claims on its help page that it “correlates well with Google rankings”. That is Ahrefs describing its own metric. In Ahrefs’ study of one million keywords from January 2025, the count of referring domains to the page correlated with rankings at 0.255, which is a weak relationship even for the best link measure in that study.
They say nothing about indexing. A page can carry a score and still be absent from Google’s index. A link on a page Google has not indexed has little chance of counting.
They ignore content and intent. Moz says so directly for PA. A page with strong links and thin content can score well and rank badly.
They are logarithmic. Moving from 20 to 30 is far easier than moving from 70 to 80, as both vendors state. Ten points mean different things at different levels.
They depend on the vendor’s crawl. If the tool has not found a link, the link is not in the score. Two tools will disagree about the same page.
Internal links can inflate UR. Because UR counts internal links, a site can lift a page’s score by linking to it from every page. That is real strength in the PageRank sense, but it tells you nothing about what other sites think of the page.
A working method
When a page-level decision is in front of you, look at these in order. This is a working method, not a formula.
- Referring domains to the page itself, and whether they are relevant.
- Organic traffic to the page, as estimated by the tool. A page that ranks for something is a page Google has indexed and trusts to some degree.
- How the site links to it: from the main menu, a category, or nowhere.
- The page score, as a summary of the first three.
- The domain score, last.
Use one tool for the whole comparison. Our Ahrefs desk review and Moz desk review describe where each metric appears.
Where to go next
How to check backlinks shows where to find page-level reports in each tool. Definitions of UR, PA and related terms are in the glossary.
Common questions
What is URL Rating in Ahrefs?
URL Rating, or UR, shows the strength of a single page's link profile on a scale of 0 to 100. Ahrefs says it is based on PageRank principles, counts internal and external links and respects nofollow.
What is Page Authority in Moz?
Page Authority, or PA, is Moz's prediction of how well a specific page will rank, scored from 1 to 100. Moz calculates it with a machine learning model using link data from its own index.
What is a good Page Authority or URL Rating?
There is no good score in isolation. Both are relative, so a good score is one that matches or beats the pages you compete with for the same keyword, measured in the same tool.
Is URL Rating more important than Domain Rating?
For judging one page, yes. Domain Rating describes the whole site, while the link you get, or the page you want to outrank, is a single URL. Use the domain score as a first filter and the page score for the decision.
Does Google use Page Authority or URL Rating?
No. Both are third-party estimates. Google has its own page-level and site-level signals, and nothing shows that either vendor score matches them.
