Bulk Domain Authority Checker: Compare 25 Sites at Once and What the Scores Really Mean

You've got a list of 20 sites. Maybe they're guest post offers from someone selling "high authority" placements, maybe they're blogs you want to pitch, maybe they're the competitors that keep outranking you. Checking them one by one means pasting each domain into a paid tool, waiting, writing the number down and doing it all again.

This bulk domain authority checker does the whole list in one go. Paste up to 25 domains, one per line, and you get each site's authority score, its global rank and how many other sites link to it. Download it as a CSV, sort it however you like and move on with your day.

The number itself needs some context, though, because "domain authority" means different things depending on who's selling it. Below, we explain what our score measures and how to read it next to the other columns. We also ran 88 sites that rank on Google's first page through it, and the results surprised us.

What the bulk checker shows you

Every domain on your list gets one row. Domains the score doesn't cover show as "Not ranked", which usually means a site is very new or almost no one links to it.

The score is Open PageRank, a free score built from public web crawl data. It looks at which domains link to which, and gives more weight to links from domains that are themselves well linked. That's the same basic idea behind the PageRank Google used to explain how links pass value.

Scores run from 0 to 10, and the top of the scale is crowded with the biggest sites on the web. A small site that starts earning links can climb the low end fairly quickly. Each point near the top takes far more links from well-known sites.

Results come back in the order you pasted them. The CSV keeps that order too, so it drops straight next to your own notes in a spreadsheet.

What authority scores really mean

There's no single domain authority. The big SEO suites each sell their own 0 to 100 score, and you'll see them called DA or DR. Each one is built from that company's own crawl of the web and its own math. The same site can get very different numbers from two suites, and both are "right" by their own rules.

None of these scores come from Google. Google has its own way of judging pages and links, and it doesn't publish a domain score. Every authority number you see, including ours, is an outside estimate of one thing, which is how strongly the rest of the web links to a site.

That makes these scores useful for comparing sites, not for grading them. A site at 7 has earned far more links than a site at 2, and if you're weighing link prospects or sizing up competitors, that gap matters. What the score can't tell you is whether a page on that site will rank for a given search, or whether a link from it will help you.

Treat any authority score like a rough measure of reach. It's a good first filter for a long list, and a bad reason to stop thinking.

What we found on 88 sites that rank on page one

To see how authority lines up with real rankings, we ran 88 sites through the checker in October 2026. They were every site, other than forums and social networks, ranking in Google's top 10 for 12 everyday buyer searches across software, online shops, home services, insurance and legal help, and agencies.

Eighty-seven of the 88 had a score. The middle score was 5.9, with a low of 0.22 and a high of 9.54.

Software searches were a heavyweight contest. Every software site on page one scored above 3, and half scored 7.9 or more. If you sell software and your score is 2, you won't win "project management software" with links alone any time soon.

The other searches told a different story. Eleven of the 87 sites scored under 2 and still made page one. A roofing company with a score of 0.25 and a single linking domain ranked second for a search about what a new roof costs. A law firm scoring 1.58, with links from 19 sites, ranked first for a search about what a personal injury lawyer costs.

Higher scores did help on average. Sites in the top three spots had a middle score of 6.9, against 5.4 for spots four to ten.

The low scorers got there the same way, with one page that answered the exact question. The roofer's page was about new roof costs in its own state. The law firm's was a blog post on what its kind of case costs. A chiropractor even reached the bottom of page one for a mattress search, with an article on the best mattress for back pain.

For the record, our own site scores 0.59 today. We're a young domain, and we'd rather tell you that than pretend the number doesn't apply to us.

Five ways to use a bulk authority check

The checker is fastest when you've got a list and a decision to make. These are the jobs it's built for.

Vetting link and guest post offers

Paste the list from the offer, then download the CSV and sort it by score. Look at referring domains next to each score. A site with a decent score but very few referring domains can be a sign of a few strong links propping it up, or of links bought in bulk. Open the top few and check that they publish real articles for real readers in your field.

Picking sites to pitch

When you plan outreach, the best targets are relevant first and strong second. Use the score to sort a long list, then cut anything off-topic, however high it scores. A score of 3 on a blog your buyers read beats a 7 on a site they'll never visit.

Sizing up competitors

Put your own domain at the top and your competitors under it. If they all sit two or three points above you, broad searches are a long game for now. That's useful to know, because it points you at specific questions where a strong page can beat a strong domain.

Checking a domain before a deal

Thinking about buying a domain, sponsoring a site or agreeing a partnership? A quick score and referring domain count shows whether the site has a real link history or is mostly empty.

Tracking your own progress

Run your domain once a month and note the score. Authority moves slowly, so weekly checks mostly show noise. Over six months, a steady climb tells you your link work is landing.

How to read a score next to referring domains

The two numbers check each other. A score tells you how strong the links are on balance, and referring domains tell you how many sites are doing the linking.

A high score with lots of referring domains is the normal pattern for an established brand. A low score with very few referring domains is normal for a new or small site, and it's where most businesses start.

The patterns to look at twice are the odd ones. A high score with very few referring domains can mean a handful of powerful links, which is fine, or an expired domain with an old link history and nothing current on it. A large number of referring domains with a low score can mean many weak or spammy links. In both cases, open the site and judge it with your own eyes before you pay for anything.

Why authority grows slowly, and what actually moves it

Authority scores rise when real sites link to yours. There's no setting, plugin or file that changes the number. The sites that climb steadily usually do two things at once.

First, they publish pages that are worth linking to. A clear guide with real numbers, an honest price comparison or a checklist people keep open in a tab earns links over time without anyone asking. A thin service page rarely does.

Second, they ask. Most links still come from someone emailing the right person with a good reason to link. That's slow, repetitive work, and it's the part most small teams drop after a few weeks.

The low scorers on page one in our run show the shortcut while you build. You don't need a high score to win a specific question. You need the best page for that question, and then links make every page on your site a bit stronger.

Where RankControl fits

RankControl does both halves of that work. It finds the questions buyers in your market search, then writes and publishes up to 100 articles a month as native posts on your own site. Those are the pages that can rank before your authority catches up, and the ones other sites have a reason to link to.

For each article it publishes, Link Control finds sites worth pitching and the right person to email. Then it drafts the outreach and sends it from your own inbox after you approve it. Authority shows next to each prospect as a guide, and there's no cut-off that throws out small sites that fit your topic. If you'd rather hand the outreach off entirely, the Managed Backlinks add-on gets you 5 links a month from DR 25+ sites for $350 a month.

It also tracks 50 of your buyer questions every week across six AI engines, next to your Google rankings and the visits AI answers send you. Traffic from Google and AI search comes first. Mentions in AI answers come later, and they lean heavily on the same thing authority does, other sites linking to you and talking about you.

You can run all of this by hand. Build the prospect lists, check every domain, find the contacts, then write, send and follow up on every email. On top of that, publish two good articles a week so people have something to link to. That's 25 hours a month or more for a small team. Or RankControl can do it for $400 a month, with a 7-day free trial.