An Authority Metric is a third-party comparative score or count that rolls a page or domain’s link strength, trust, and prominence into a single number, reported by an outside data provider rather than by Google.
| Term | Authority Metric |
|---|---|
| Category | Entities, Links and Authority |
| Also known as | Domain Metric |
| Where it appears | Basic Off Page and authority factors |
What it means in RankGear
In RankGear, an Authority Metric is any of the aggregate link-and-trust scores that an enabled off-page data provider attaches to a URL or domain during a run. It lives in the Basic Off Page and authority factor group, sitting next to raw counts such as backlinks and referring domains. Instead of measuring one thing, it compresses several off-page signals into one comparative figure, so you can line the pages in a run up against each other on a common scale.
How to interpret it
Read the number as a relative position, not an absolute grade. First separate whether the provider returned a value at all from what that value says: a blank means the provider had no data for that URL, not that the page has zero authority. Then compare authority evidence only among pages measured in the same run and from the same provider, because every provider samples and indexes the web differently, and their scales do not line up.
| What the score bundles | What it hints at |
|---|---|
| Link volume | How much the page or domain is linked to overall |
| Linking-domain diversity | How many distinct sites point at it, not just how many links |
| Trust or quality proxy | The provider’s estimate of how reputable those linking sources are |
| Prominence | Relative standing versus the rest of the provider’s index |
Example
You run a keyword with an off-page provider enabled and RankGear pulls in ten competing URLs. Two of them show authority scores in the 60s while the rest cluster in the 20s and 30s, and those same two also carry several hundred more referring domains. That spread tells you the leading results are backed by materially deeper link profiles, which is useful when you are judging how much off-page work a target page might need. It does not tell you the score itself moved anything.
Important considerations
- Providers use different indexes and scales, so a 50 from one is not a 50 from another, and none of them is a Google score.
- The value is a comparative indicator only. A higher Authority Metric correlates with stronger pages; it does not cause ranking, and RankGear does not treat it as a Google signal.
- Availability depends on the enabled provider and its coverage, so blank values reflect missing provider data rather than measured weakness.
- Compare within a single run and a single provider so the scale stays consistent across the pages you are weighing.
Related terms
Part of the RankGear glossary · how RankGear measures · the 870 factors.