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Grumpy SEO Guy
This is Grumpy SEO Guy. Episode 117, how to increase your doctor. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. I'm the grumpy SEO Guy, and I'm sharing with you the strategies that have helped me successfully run my SEO agency for the last 14 years. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my knowledge and experience, discussing tips and strategies, and trying to help you cut through the confusion that permeates this industry. If you listen to this podcast, you will know more about SEO than 99% of people on the planet. Ready? Let's get started. I'm the grumpy SEO guy. Let me tell you why I'm grumpy today. I'm grumpy today because a lot of people want to know, how do I increase my doctor? Okay, we're just. We're just going to talk about that. But before we do that, my lawyer tells me that I have to say this right now. A quick disclaimer before we get started. Everything I say here is based on my experience and opinion from 14 years in the industry. I don't officially know how Google or any other search engines work. Everything I say here is hypothetical and based on my experience, this podcast does not constitute advice or. Or services. What worked for me may or may not work for you. Okay, back to the show. But first, let's go over some. Some other stuff. Number one, okay, new episodes come out on Wednesday, 9:00am Central Standard Time. For the podcast on YouTube, it's a little bit later than that. If you leave a comment on YouTube, I try to reply on Wednesday, but sometimes it's gonna be a little bit after that. If you like the podcast and you're watching it on YouTube, please subscribe. That would be sweet. And if you want to support the podcast, you can do so on Patreon. The address is patreon.com Grumpy SEO Guy, for those of you who have complex questions. Okay, if you're like, oh, man, I got a. I got a question. And it's more than I can, you know, handle on, like, an email or something. If you want to set up an SEO Zoom advisory call, you can email me at hello at Grumpy SEO Guy, and we can talk about getting that planned. Okay, so here's a different reminder before we go, because we just did an episode on this, but everybody is still mentioning it. So everybody just stay calm about AI, okay? AI SEO is the same as regular SEO. Anybody telling you otherwise is probably a scammer. Anybody selling you AI SEO services that are different from regular SEO services is probably a scammer. Anybody telling you they can get you listed in LLMs is probably a scammer. And anybody who claims to know how this all works is probably a scammer. Do you guys remember when the helpful content update, when the HCU came out and there were people. By the way, these were scammers offering people HCU audits. HCU had literally, as far as I understand, and we have an episode on this, HCU was totally separate from the content on your site anyway. But of course there's people that are supporting the content is king myth, okay? And they're like, well, pay me a lot of money and I'll fix your content and I'll make it helpful. Content scammers, they were scammers. Okay, guys, I'm not saying that AI SEO is not something that we need to worry about in the future, but I'm saying right now it's the same as regular SEO. And the LLMs tools that people are using are pulling data from regular SERPs. So by the way, SERPs, it means your position. S E R P search engine result page. Okay? So look, there's. There's plenty of discussions on Reddit about this, but most of them are just, you know, like chaos and the sky is falling. Oh, no, guys, the LLMs pull data from the. I can't believe I'm even still talking about this. But maybe those of you missed the AI episode. That was two weeks ago. Okay, go back and listen to it if you want. It talks about SEO AI and it talks about why there's no reason to use LLMs Txt, but we're not going to get into that now. So you can go listen to that if you want. I'm just saying everybody's still talking about it. Oh, no. AI is stealing my traffic. No, it's not. By the way, by the way, on that episode, I said, if you have proof that AI is stealing your traffic, please post it in the comments. So far, 0 people have posted that in the comments. They're just. They probably just lost traffic anyway and they're blaming AI. I don't know. So anyways, look. Oh, here's. Here's another one. Just, Just for fun. Just for fun. Oh, and. And by. By the way, here's an update on something. So if some. Some of you may recall, I think it was over a year ago at this point. I had a public challenge to the world.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
I had A public challenge to listeners. And I said if you have a website that ranks without backlinks on, please let me know because I would love to be proven wrong.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
Because as you know, a lot of people say that content is king and you can rank with just content. Obviously you can't. Obviously you can't.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
You need authority. But there's people that still support this lie and are still lying to people and telling them that their content is so good and they will make you rank and just pay them for their content. No, they're scammers because that's not how SEO works. So I said, if you have a website, it doesn't have to be yours. But if you are aware, if you know of a website.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
That ranks in a medium to difficult keyword.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
With no backlinks, please let me know.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
And I will share it in a podcast if you want.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
Because I would just love to see this. And so let me give you a little update on this public challenge from over a year ago.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
One person messaged me and showed me a website that did in fact rank in the top 10 with no backlinks. Now hold on. There were only 10 results total.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
I searched for the keywords in quotes. There were only 10 websites total. So obviously it was in the first page because if there's only 10 websites total that rank, you're going to be in one of those 10.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
Doesn't count. Also, there were a couple other. It was a non English keyword and there were like a couple other things. And I believe in the challenge I said english keywords on google.com but whatever, whatever. So anyways, about a week ago I got an email from somebody who said, here's a website that ranks without any backlinks. I think they said it has like one backlink from whatever, that's fine anyways. But this person didn't tell me what keywords it actually ranked for. So I responded and I said, can you give me some samples of some keywords that this website is ranking for? And I never heard back from them. So maybe, maybe, let's be fair, maybe my email went into their spam folder because that happens sometimes. Maybe they never heard from me. If that person is listening and they might be, I just want to let you know I emailed you back and asked for the keywords that they are ranking for and you never responded. Because I would still love to see a website that ranks with no backlinks in a medium to competitive industry. A couple people, like I said, have contacted me, but zero of them have shown me a website that ranks without backlinks. So I'm just. Just FYI, I just thought that maybe listeners would enjoy hearing what's going on with these questions. Okay, so on the topic of authority, I guess let's talk about doctor, because I see this question regularly. How do I increase my doctor? Okay, now let's be transparent for the remainder of this episode. Whenever I say doctor, you can also replace that with DA or any other authority metric.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Doesn't have to be doctor.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
It doesn't have to be doctor. I'm just going to say doctor because I feel like that's the one that gets asked about a lot. Anyways, Dr. Is an Ahrefs metric. It's domain rating. It's. It's a. It's an estimation of a domain's authority.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
But you can. You can. You can replace that with whatever authority metric you like. I'm just going to say doctor.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
All right. So anyways, I see this question a lot. How do I increase my doctor? Now, I think there's a few reasons people ask this question, and I'm going to explain what I think those reasons are. But let me begin by saying.
Listener
That.
Grumpy SEO Guy
If you're asking that question, you're asking the wrong question. So doctor is an estimate of authority. It is. I want you to think of it as being. As being completely separate from your rankings.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Nobody. You know what? You know what? Let's just wait a minute. Let me explain why I think people ask these questions. Number one question. I think somewhere somebody just learned about the concept of authority, and then they learned that Dr. Is an estimate of authority. I didn't say measure of authority. I said it's an estimate of authority.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Doctor, there's only. Let's be clear. There's only one measure of authority that matters when. It's when you're talking about Google, and that's pr.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Page rank. PR is secret. It's not published anywhere, so you cannot see it.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
Because of that. Ooh, this big history lesson for those of you. Most of you guys probably know this already, but in the event you're. You're just starting with SEO. You're just starting your SEO. This. This is actually an important history lesson. So there's authority, right? PR is Google's value of authority.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
PR stands for page rank. Back in the day, you could view page rank, you could see the page rank for any page on the Internet. It was cool. But obviously what happened was people started using it to do SEO, right? To build backlinks and stuff. So I don't know if this is the reason, but they. They made it private, and you can't see PR anymore. I'm pretty sure they still use pr, but nobody can see it. And it's been that way for a long time now. Because of that, other companies made their own versions of pr, and all of them are approximations.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
So, for example, Moz was either the first or one of the first to come out with an estimation of authority called DA Domain authority.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
It's not pr. It's. It's probably not even correlated with pr. It is Moz's guess at what your domain's authority is.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Ahrefs, a very popular SEO tool, has their own version called Dr. Domain Rating. It is a guess at what the domain's authority is. It's not pr. It doesn't actually mean anything. I mean. Well, I don't want to say that, but I'm going to. It doesn't actually mean anything. And let's be clear. I use Ahrefs constantly. It's a great tool. Okay, I'm not even saying that we don't use Dr. But we're going to talk a little bit more about that in a minute, so. And there's other tools out there. Semrush has one, Majestic has one. Some of them have a couple, but they've all, like. They're all estimates.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
None of them actually mean the real authority. Okay, just to be clear now, that's why these tools happened, okay? Because pr. I mean, look, I don't know if that's the real reason, but that seems like a. Seems like a neat reason, right? Google made their PR rating secret, and nobody can find it anymore. So, hey, guys, we need a way. Oh, no, we need a way to find out what the authority is. And then all these people decided to do. Well, not all these people, but these various tools decided to do that. Moz, Ahref, Semrush, Majestic, everybody, I think Uber suggests, has one. They've all, like. They've all got one. Whatever, whatever. Okay, so anyways, look, so now everybody is going, like, wacko about I need more authority. Which, by the way, is correct. You do need more authority. But they're like, I need to raise my doctor. I need to do. No. No, you don't. So listen, the first reason that I believe people are asking, how do I raise my doctor? Is because they think it's connected to where you rank. They think if I raise my doctor, I will rank Higher. And that is a nice understanding if you're a beginner, because it seems like it would make sense, but it's not necessarily true.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
It's like here's. Here's an example that maybe you will grasp.
Listener
Okay. If.
Grumpy SEO Guy
Okay, let's take somebody who lifts weights, Right. Do you need bigger muscles to become stronger? No. In fact, some of the strongest people that you might ever find are lightweight powerlifters.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
Do they have visible muscles? Yes, of course they do. But do they look like bodybuilders? No, they don't.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
Are they stronger than bodybuilders? They very well might be.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
Big muscles do not make. This is not the best example. But you can get stronger without getting big muscles.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
You can increase your rank without increasing your doctor. Or. But that's. But that's not. That's not the way to say it. What I should say is concentrate on increasing your rank and basically ignore your doctor.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
When clients are paying us to bring them to the top of the search engines, they are paying us to get them to the top of the search engines, not to boost their doctor, okay? So anyways, I think the first reason people ask this question is because they think these things are, you know, equivalent and they're not. So look, that's. That's first reason, okay? Just like whatever. Number two reason that I think people want to elevate their doctor is their link sellers. And for some reason, people buy backlinks based on doctor. And look, I'm not going to tell you that you don't want to buy backlinks, okay? Because it's a big part of SEO. But I'm gonna tell you, like, going by Dr. Is probably not the way to do it. There's a lot of other things that you need to check. And I'm also not saying this is possible, but lots of the authority metrics can be spoofed, okay? And I'm not gonna tell you how. All right, but high doctor website doesn't necessarily mean anything, okay? And getting a backlink on a high doctor website also doesn't necessarily mean anything because there's a lot of other things that can be at play, right? So I'm just gonna say, look, for some reason, people buy Backlinks based on Dr. So when somebody says, how do I raise my doctor? I kind of assume they're trying to do it so they can sell backlinks for more money, okay? And I know that they're probably not concerned with this, but let me just tell you, if you're trying to raise your doctor so you can sell backlinks for more money. You're also doing it wrong.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
So because doctor, why? Because doctor is an estimate, and higher doctor doesn't necessarily mean better than lower doctor In. There's an episode we made which is titled, Is this lower Dr. Website actually outranking this higher Dr. Website? It might be. Or it might be titled, is this lower authority website actually outranking this higher authority website? And in this episode, I give you examples of keywords and websites that are specifically ranking for those keywords. And I explain why the one with lower doctor is ranking higher.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Because doctor is not. Is not linear with your rank. For some reason, people don't understand that. I'm not sure what to tell you. Anyways, here's the third reason I think people ask this question, how do I increase my doctor? I think it's because. And I truly think it's because they think that's a fancy way of asking, how do I increase my position?
Listener
Right?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Like, I'm not gonna be. I'm not gonna sound like a beginner. I'm not gonna say, how do I increase my position? I'm gonna say, how do I increase my doctor? Because I grasp SEO. And then I'm just like, look, maybe not, maybe not. Okay, But I'm just saying, like, feels that way. So I don't know. Anyway, so, no, like, the purpose. Your goal is to get to the top of the search engines.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Your goal is not to get as much doctor as possible. If you asked me, hey, if I gave you two choices between getting to the top of the search engines or getting like 100 out of 100 doctor, but your rank stays the same, which would you pick? You would obviously pick boosting to the top of the search engines, right? Let me ask. And for those of you who are like, well, maybe. Let me ask you a question.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
Visitors to your website who might buy something from you, do they care what your doctor is, or do they care what your position is so they can see you? Think about it. The answer is, go to the top of the search engines.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Anyway, here's the thing. I don't even know how to say this. Your concern should. Do you remember a couple episodes ago when I actually know. This was a long time ago, we were talking about when you're checking websites, and I said, I want you to ignore number of backlinks, I want you to ignore it.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
I want you to ignore that. Because everybody, just like with doctor, Everybody always thinks, oh, I need more backlinks. Higher number of backlinks is better. No, wrong. It's not better. Backlinks is better, but the number really doesn't even matter.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
One good backlink is better than a hundred garbage backlinks. Okay, so look, I told people, I said not forever, but when you sign into AHREFS or, you know, whichever tool you use, I want you to just ignore. I want you to ignore number of backlinks until you comprehend the fact that it's not as important as you think it is.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Same thing with doctor. I want you to ignore doctor until you get to the spot where you realize it's not as important as you think it is.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
So ultimately, to raise your doctor, you need good quality backlinks.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
But there's no reason to do this. There's obviously a reason to get good quality backlinks, but there's no reason to want to raise your Dr. Because Dr. Is an estimate of authority from Ahrefs.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
It has nothing to do with PageRank. It's an estimation, okay? And it has nothing to do with where you rank.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
You can increase your rank without increasing your doctor. You can increase your doctor without increasing your rank. You can have lower doctor and outrank websites with larger doctor. You can have larger doctor and be outranked by websites with smaller doctor. Okay, does not matter. So don't ask that question because it doesn't matter. That's my answer anyway. I can't. I can't wait until people start asking like, anyways. So, anyway, I hope this was a useful episode. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe and if you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review. It would really help the show out. I hope this episode was helpful. If you have any questions or want to suggest a subject for a future episode, you can contact me on Reddit. My username is Grumpy SEO Guy. You can visit the Grumpy SEO Guy subreddit on or you can email me@hellorumpyseoguy.com if you email me, please either whitelist my email address or check your junk folders because I've been told that my replies are going into the junk folder. And it's probably because we're talking about things like SEO and backlinks, and I think those words will classify an email as spam. And if you want to support the podcast because it's the best source of SEO information on the planet and it's free, you can do so@patreon.com Grumpy SEO Guy and I will talk to you later. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. Join us next Wednesday for another episode.
Podcast Summary: Grumpy SEO Guy – Episode 117: How To Increase Your DR (And an Update on My Public Challenge)
Release Date: July 16, 2025
Host: Grumpy SEO Guy
Title: How To Increase Your DR (And an Update on My Public Challenge)
Podcast Description:
Everything I've learned in 14 years of running an SEO agency. Learn how to get, and keep, websites at the top of the search engines. If you listen to this podcast you will know more about how the SEO industry works than 99% of SEO "professionals."
Grumpy SEO Guy kicks off Episode 117 with a candid tone, emphasizing his no-nonsense approach to SEO. He reiterates his mission to cut through industry confusion by sharing 14 years of agency experience. The introduction includes a brief overview of podcast logistics, a reminder about the release schedule, and a stern warning against falling for SEO scams, particularly those related to AI SEO services.
Notable Quote:
"This podcast does not constitute advice or services. What worked for me may or may not work for you."
— [00:46] Grumpy SEO Guy
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to demystifying AI SEO. Grumpy SEO Guy warns listeners about scams touting AI-driven SEO services, asserting that AI SEO is fundamentally the same as traditional SEO. He stresses that claims of being able to manipulate Large Language Models (LLMs) for SEO gains are unfounded and likely fraudulent.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"AI SEO is the same as regular SEO. Anybody selling you AI SEO services that are different from regular SEO services is probably a scammer."
— [02:45] Grumpy SEO Guy
Grumpy SEO Guy revisits a public challenge he issued over a year ago, seeking examples of websites ranking in competitive keywords without any backlinks. This challenge aimed to debunk the "content is king" myth by proving that authority through backlinks is indispensable.
Update Highlights:
Notable Quote:
"If you have a website that ranks without backlinks, please let me know because I would love to be proven wrong."
— [04:32] Grumpy SEO Guy
A central theme of the episode revolves around the misconception surrounding Domain Rating (DR) and its impact on search rankings. Grumpy SEO Guy critiques the overemphasis on DR, arguing that it is an estimate and not a direct measure of a website's actual authority or its ability to rank.
Key Points:
What is DR?
Defined as an estimate of a domain's authority, primarily provided by SEO tools like Ahrefs. It is not Google's official metric, such as PageRank (PR).
Historical Context:
Google’s original PageRank was once publicly available but was privatized due to misuse in SEO practices, leading to the creation of various third-party authority metrics like Moz's Domain Authority (DA) and Ahrefs' DR.
Misconceptions:
Many SEO professionals mistakenly believe that increasing DR directly correlates with improved search rankings, which is not necessarily the case.
Authority vs. Rankings:
Grumpy emphasizes that actual search engine rankings are more nuanced and cannot be solely attributed to metrics like DR.
Notable Quotes:
"DR is an estimation of authority. It is not linear with your rank."
— [08:20] Grumpy SEO Guy
"Moz was either the first or one of the first to come out with an estimation of authority called DA (Domain Authority). It's Moz's guess at what your domain's authority is."
— [10:15] Grumpy SEO Guy
Grumpy SEO Guy delves deeper into why focusing solely on DR is misguided. He uses an analogy comparing DR to physical strength versus muscle size to illustrate his point.
Analogy Explained:
Muscle Size vs. Strength:
Just as lifting weights to increase muscle size doesn't necessarily make you stronger, increasing DR doesn't inherently improve your search rankings.
Practical Implication:
Focusing on DR might lead to misplaced efforts, diverting attention from actual SEO strategies that enhance rankings.
Key Insights:
Quality Over Quantity:
Emphasizes that one high-quality backlink is more valuable than numerous low-quality ones. Similarly, building genuine authority through valuable content and reputable backlinks outweighs artificially inflating DR.
Authority Metrics are Estimates:
Since DR and similar metrics are third-party estimations, they don't accurately reflect Google's internal algorithms or true site authority.
Notable Quotes:
"You can increase your rank without increasing your DR. Or you can increase your DR without increasing your rank."
— [18:08] Grumpy SEO Guy
"One good backlink is better than a hundred garbage backlinks."
— [17:32] Grumpy SEO Guy
Grumpy SEO Guy explains that authority metrics like DR do not have a direct or linear relationship with search engine rankings. He provides examples where websites with lower DR outperform those with higher DR, highlighting the complexity of SEO beyond mere authority scores.
Key Points:
Non-Linear Relationship:
Higher DR doesn't guarantee better rankings. Numerous factors, including content relevance, user experience, and technical SEO, play significant roles.
Potential for Spoofing:
Authority metrics can be manipulated, leading to deceptive practices that do not align with genuine SEO advancement.
Client Focus:
When clients seek SEO services, the primary goal should be improving search rankings rather than boosting arbitrary authority scores.
Notable Quotes:
"Doctor is not linear with your rank. For some reason, people don't understand that."
— [15:19] Grumpy SEO Guy
"Clients are paying us to bring them to the top of the search engines, not to boost their DR."
— [13:07] Grumpy SEO Guy
Grumpy SEO Guy concludes the episode by reiterating the importance of prioritizing search engine rankings over vanity metrics like DR. He advises SEO professionals and website owners to focus on actionable strategies that enhance visibility and user engagement rather than getting sidetracked by fluctuating authority scores.
Actionable Advice:
Prioritize Rankings:
Focus efforts on improving SERP positions through comprehensive SEO strategies rather than chasing DR.
Quality Backlinks:
Invest in acquiring high-quality backlinks from reputable sources instead of accumulating numerous low-value links.
Ignore Vanity Metrics:
Metrics like DR should be secondary to actual performance indicators like traffic, rankings, and conversions.
Notable Quote:
"Your goal is to get to the top of the search engines, not to get as much DR as possible."
— [16:16] Grumpy SEO Guy
Closing Remarks: Grumpy SEO Guy wraps up by encouraging listeners to subscribe, leave reviews, and engage with him via Reddit or email for further discussions and support. He emphasizes that the podcast remains a reliable source of SEO knowledge, free from the fluff and scams prevalent in the industry.
Additional Resources:
Final Thoughts: Episode 117 of Grumpy SEO Guy provides a critical examination of commonly held beliefs about authority metrics in SEO. By challenging the prominence of DR and similar estimates, Grumpy SEO Guy urges listeners to adopt a more nuanced and strategic approach to SEO, focusing on genuine rankings and quality content over superficial metrics.