Original research · 2026-08-12
Most SEO tools have almost no editorial authority.
We measured the referring domains of 70 SEO, AI-SEO and GEO products against our own web graph — 236,700,000 domains, 7,120,000,000 links. Not a survey, not estimates: link data.
Established SEO tools
119
median links from DR 50+ domains
27 tools · highest: 1,130
AI-native SEO & content tools
33
median links from DR 50+ domains
31 tools · highest: 456
GEO / answer-engine tools
17
median links from DR 50+ domains
10 tools · highest: 61
The newer the category, the thinner the authority. Established suites have earned real editorial links for a decade. The AI-native wave has a median of 33. The GEO tools — the newest category — sit at 17.
Read this before you quote us
A high share of low-authority referring domains is normal — even ahrefs.com is 77% DR <15. That is simply what the web looks like. The number that separates brands is the absolute count of links from DR 50+ domains, which is the column we rank by here.
"DR unknown" domains are counted in the low bucket, so the low-authority share is a ceiling, not a precise figure.
Established SEO tools
| Tool | Ref. domains | DR 50+ | DR 30-49 | Authority density |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| semrush.com | 63,803 | 1,130 | 4,177 | 1.8% |
| moz.com | 49,653 | 1,045 | 3,334 | 2.1% |
| ahrefs.com | 113,450 | 1,022 | 4,720 | 0.9% |
| similarweb.com | 17,598 | 838 | 2,162 | 4.8% |
| yoast.com | 25,399 | 512 | 1,465 | 2.0% |
| screamingfrog.co.uk | 12,411 | 295 | 825 | 2.4% |
| seranking.com | 8,187 | 260 | 735 | 3.2% |
| brightedge.com | 6,841 | 243 | 563 | 3.6% |
| conductor.com | 3,775 | 213 | 367 | 5.6% |
| spyfu.com | 5,321 | 201 | 508 | 3.8% |
| majestic.com | 5,841 | 191 | 429 | 3.3% |
| serpstat.com | 3,304 | 145 | 301 | 4.4% |
| rankmath.com | 10,294 | 142 | 455 | 1.4% |
| mangools.com | 3,774 | 119 | 284 | 3.2% |
| aioseo.com | 3,871 | 111 | 318 | 2.9% |
| seobility.net | 3,054 | 108 | 265 | 3.5% |
| seoclarity.net | 2,074 | 101 | 183 | 4.9% |
| ryte.com | 2,726 | 98 | 221 | 3.6% |
| cognitiveseo.com | 1,721 | 83 | 196 | 4.8% |
| oncrawl.com | 1,240 | 68 | 122 | 5.5% |
| botify.com | 1,170 | 66 | 131 | 5.6% |
| sitebulb.com | 1,469 | 62 | 127 | 4.2% |
| linkody.com | 866 | 60 | 118 | 6.9% |
| squirrly.co | 973 | 37 | 110 | 3.8% |
| lumar.io | 866 | 31 | 73 | 3.6% |
| alliai.com | 929 | 27 | 59 | 2.9% |
| ubersuggest.com | 499 | 17 | 25 | 3.4% |
AI-native SEO & content tools
| Tool | Ref. domains | DR 50+ | DR 30-49 | Authority density |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| jasper.ai | 15,630 | 456 | 1,319 | 2.9% |
| copy.ai | 10,724 | 334 | 882 | 3.1% |
| writesonic.com | 9,092 | 282 | 726 | 3.1% |
| surferseo.com | 9,384 | 273 | 739 | 2.9% |
| frase.io | 4,610 | 141 | 368 | 3.1% |
| clearscope.io | 3,072 | 135 | 255 | 4.4% |
| seo.ai | 2,201 | 129 | 235 | 5.9% |
| marketmuse.com | 3,047 | 118 | 275 | 3.9% |
| contentatscale.ai | 1,417 | 72 | 165 | 5.1% |
| wordlift.io | 1,139 | 63 | 132 | 5.5% |
| scalenut.com | 1,665 | 55 | 135 | 3.3% |
| outranking.io | 948 | 43 | 110 | 4.5% |
| koala.sh | 4,369 | 40 | 110 | 0.9% |
| rankiq.com | 495 | 37 | 31 | 7.5% |
| neuronwriter.com | 1,207 | 33 | 85 | 2.7% |
| longshot.ai | 642 | 33 | 46 | 5.1% |
| junia.ai | 917 | 31 | 69 | 3.4% |
| keysearch.co | 700 | 30 | 61 | 4.3% |
| seowind.io | 486 | 23 | 41 | 4.7% |
| lowfruits.io | 438 | 18 | 43 | 4.1% |
| byword.ai | 798 | 17 | 43 | 2.1% |
| penfriend.ai | 352 | 16 | 29 | 4.5% |
| bramework.com | 279 | 8 | 29 | 2.9% |
| blogseo.ai | 193 | 8 | 12 | 4.1% |
| trysoro.com | 1,357 | 8 | 19 | 0.6% |
| seomatic.ai | 189 | 5 | 8 | 2.6% |
| autoblogging.ai | 834 | 5 | 21 | 0.6% |
| machined.ai | 223 | 5 | 11 | 2.2% |
| typedesk.com | 92 | 3 | 23 | 3.3% |
| indexrusher.com | 82 | 3 | 8 | 3.7% |
| zimmwriter.com | 22 | 0 | 1 | 0.0% |
GEO / answer-engine tools
| Tool | Ref. domains | DR 50+ | DR 30-49 | Authority density |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| peec.ai | 1,300 | 61 | 110 | 4.7% |
| otterly.ai | 1,442 | 47 | 101 | 3.3% |
| athenahq.ai | 691 | 23 | 45 | 3.3% |
| scrunchai.com | 220 | 17 | 27 | 7.7% |
| xfunnel.ai | 230 | 17 | 23 | 7.4% |
| evertune.ai | 278 | 16 | 29 | 5.8% |
| rankscale.ai | 362 | 14 | 36 | 3.9% |
| brandlight.ai | 148 | 10 | 8 | 6.8% |
| goodie.ai | 35 | 0 | 1 | 0.0% |
| profound.so | 27 | 0 | 2 | 0.0% |
Us (yes, really)
Publishing a study that measures everyone else and hides your own number would be worthless. Here is ours. We are at the bottom of our own index. Ask us again in six months.
| Tool | Ref. domains | DR 50+ | DR 30-49 | Authority density |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| seoluma.com | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% |
| rankmerit.com | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% |
Method
- Source
- Open web graph built on Common Crawl (cc-main-2026-may-jun-jul), 236,700,000 domains and 7,120,000,000 host-to-host links.
- Unit
- Referring domains, not individual links. One domain linking a thousand times counts once.
- Authority
- Domain Rating derived from harmonic centrality across the full graph. DR 50+ is the editorial-quality threshold used here.
- Density
- DR 50+ domains as a share of all referring domains — how concentrated a profile is, independent of size.
- Not measured
- Nofollow status, anchor text, traffic, or whether a link was paid. This is graph structure only.
- Reproducibility
- Crawl and date are stated above. Anyone with the same Common Crawl release can rebuild these numbers.
Cite this
Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0). If you need a cut of the data we did not publish — a specific vertical, a competitor set, a different threshold — ask and we will run it.
RankMerit, “The SEO Tool Authority Index” (2026-08-12). https://rankmerit.com/authority-indexWant this run on your own domain and your competitors?
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