Reading a Backlink Export Column by Column
How to read a backlink export from Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz: which columns actually matter and which are just noise.
A backlink export from Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz typically runs to a dozen or more columns, but only about six of them actually determine whether a given link is worth your attention: referring domain, a domain-level authority score, a page-level authority score, anchor text, link type (dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, or UGC), and first-seen date. Everything else — traffic estimates, linked-domain counts, IP addresses — is secondary context that supports a judgment those six columns already point toward. Most of the confusion people have with backlink exports isn’t about finding the columns, it’s about which ones to trust and which ones to treat as directional only.
Key takeaway
- Domain-level authority scores (DR, Authority Score, DA) describe the whole site’s link profile — they say nothing about whether the specific linking page is relevant or trustworthy.
- The link type column (dofollow / nofollow / sponsored / UGC) determines whether a link is even eligible to pass ranking credit, and it’s the single most-skipped column in a quick review.
- A high referring-domain authority score paired with a low page-level score, or an unusually high linked-domains count, is one of the clearest red flags in an export — it usually means the page is a link farm, not a legitimate source.
- No column in any export tells you whether a link is editorially placed. That judgment requires opening the actual page, which is a separate step from reading the spreadsheet.
The columns every export shares, and what each one actually tells you
Column names vary slightly between tools, but the underlying data is functionally the same across Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz. Here’s what each one means and how much weight it deserves.
| Column | What it shows | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Referring domain / Source URL | The exact page linking to you | Always open a sample of these directly — this is the column everything else supports |
| Domain Rating / Authority Score / DA | A composite score for the whole linking domain’s link profile | Directional only. Useful for triage, not a final judgment on any single link |
| URL Rating / Page Authority | A composite score for the specific linking page, not the whole domain | More relevant than the domain score for judging one link’s value |
| Anchor text | The clickable text of the link | Scan for repeated exact-match commercial phrases — a common spam signal |
| Link type (dofollow / nofollow / sponsored / UGC) | Whether the link is eligible to pass ranking credit at all | Filter by this first if you’re auditing for links that could actually be helping rankings |
| First seen / Last seen | When the crawler first and most recently found the link | Useful for spotting sudden batches of links added on the same date |
| Linked domains (outlinks) | How many other external domains the linking page links out to | A very high count on one page is a strong signal of a link farm or paid directory |
| Traffic estimate | Modeled organic traffic to the linking domain | Low-confidence for small sites, but near-zero traffic on a domain claiming high authority is worth a manual check |
Domain-level vs page-level metrics — the distinction that trips people up
The most common misreading of a backlink export is treating the domain authority score as if it describes the specific link you’re evaluating. It doesn’t. A domain score like DR or DA is an aggregate across the entire site’s link profile — a major news outlet can carry a very high domain score while a specific low-traffic archive page on that same domain, three years stale and rarely crawled, contributes almost nothing on its own. If you want to know more about how these composite scores are built and why they diverge from actual ranking impact, our piece on DA, DR, and authority scores in context covers the mechanics in more depth. For a quick triage, weight the page-level score (UR, Page Authority) more heavily than the domain-level one whenever the two disagree noticeably.
Reading the link type column correctly
Every major export includes a link-type flag showing whether the link is dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, or UGC (user-generated content) — attributes Google introduced specifically to distinguish editorial links from paid placements, comments, and forum posts. This is the column people skip most often when scanning a large export visually, because it doesn’t map to a familiar “good/bad” scale the way an authority number does. In practice: nofollow links are still worth having for referral traffic and brand visibility, but they generally don’t pass ranking credit; sponsored and UGC links are explicitly meant to be excluded from your count of link-based ranking signal. If you’re building a report on link-building progress, filtering to dofollow-only links before counting “wins” avoids overstating what actually happened. Our full breakdown of dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, and UGC — which to use when covers the practical difference in more detail.
- Sort by link type first and separate dofollow from everything else — this alone reframes most exports significantly.
- Within the dofollow set, sort by page-level authority (UR or Page Authority), not domain-level, to prioritize what’s worth reviewing manually.
- Scan the anchor text column for repeated exact-match phrases across many different domains — a strong indicator of a manufactured link campaign rather than organic citation.
- Check the linked-domains (outlinks) column for outliers — a page linking out to hundreds of unrelated domains is very unlikely to be an editorial source.
- Group by first-seen date to spot clusters — dozens of links appearing on the same date from unrelated domains usually points to a single coordinated placement, whether that’s a past campaign of yours or something else entirely.
Outlink count is a real tell
A referring page that links out to an unusually large number of external domains is one of the more reliable red flags in a backlink export, because genuinely editorial pages rarely cite dozens of unrelated external sources in one piece of content. Pages built mainly to host outbound links — directories, footer link farms, low-quality resource pages — are the main source of this pattern.
Source — standard methodology used by Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz backlink reports
Red flags worth scanning for on a first pass
Before doing any deep manual review, a fast spreadsheet scan catches most of what matters: a spike of new links from unrelated domains all sharing the same first-seen date, a cluster of identical or near-identical exact-match anchor text, referring domains with an authority score that seems disconnected from their traffic estimate, and pages with an outlink count in the hundreds. None of these alone confirms a problem — plenty of legitimate resource pages and roundups genuinely link to many sources — but a link that trips two or more of these flags at once is worth opening manually before you draw any conclusion about it, good or bad.
What the export doesn’t tell you
No column in any backlink tool’s export tells you whether a link was editorially placed — that judgment requires reading the actual page and the sentence the link sits in, which no spreadsheet field captures. A link can have a strong page-level authority score, a clean dofollow attribute, and a perfectly natural-looking anchor, and still have been paid for without disclosure; conversely, a link with a modest score can be a completely genuine citation from a small, relevant blog. The export is a triage tool, not a verdict. Our guide to judging whether a link is editorially placed covers the manual check that picks up where the spreadsheet columns leave off, for any link the export flags as worth a closer look.
Frequently asked questions
Which backlink export column matters most?
Link type (dofollow vs nofollow vs sponsored vs UGC) is the most-skipped and most consequential column, since it determines whether a link is even eligible to pass ranking credit before any authority score is relevant.
Should I trust the domain authority score on its own?
Treat it as directional, not definitive. It describes the entire domain’s link profile, not the specific page linking to you — a page-level score, when available, is a better indicator of that individual link’s likely value.
Why do different tools show different numbers for the same link?
Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz each calculate authority scores with their own proprietary formulas and crawl their own independent index of the web, so the same domain will show a different score in each tool. Compare scores within one tool consistently rather than across tools.
What does a high outlinks count on a referring page mean?
It usually means the page exists mainly to host external links rather than to genuinely inform readers — legitimate editorial content rarely links out to dozens or hundreds of unrelated domains in one piece.
How often should I review a fresh backlink export?
Monthly is reasonable for most active sites, giving enough new links to review in a batch without missing sudden spikes for too long. Sites running active outreach campaigns may want a tighter weekly check during that period.
The bottom line
A backlink export is only useful once you know which columns to trust and which to treat as directional — link type and page-level authority carry more weight than the domain score most people fixate on. For the fundamentals of how backlinks function as a ranking signal in the first place, see our link building guide. If you’re reviewing an inherited or unfamiliar link profile in full rather than just a fresh export, our backlink profile audit guide covers the complete process.
Want a professional read on what your backlink export actually shows? See our one-time SEO services for a full link profile review.
