Your authority-score filter cannot be pasted into a different backlink export

A filter such as "authority at least 50" is incomplete until you name the metric and data source. A value from one backlink provider is not a portable threshold for another provider's score, even when both fit on a 0-to-100 scale.

I maintain crawlgraph. This is the export worksheet I recommend when somebody wants to replace a backlink tool while keeping the old spreadsheet's filters.

Keep the metric's identity in the column name

These headers make different promises:

score
moz_da
ahrefs_dr
cg_authority

The generic first header hides information you need later. Keep the provider's actual metric name. Store the source, observed release or date, export limit and filters beside the file.

If the next report uses a different score, give it a different column. Do not silently rename it to the old metric because the spreadsheet formula expects that name.

For example, crawlgraph's cg_authority is a graph-derived score documented in its API contract. It is not a DA or DR conversion. The same numeric range does not supply a conversion formula.

Start with the report's purpose

An authority cutoff is often standing in for a more useful question.

A score can help sort a list. It does not establish those other facts by itself.

Before changing tools, write down which decision your existing threshold supports. If nobody can explain why the report uses 50 rather than 40, preserve that as an assumption to test rather than an industry requirement.

Test the candidate list, not just the totals

Choose a small sample from above and below your proposed cutoff. Open the sites and record whether each candidate is relevant and worth further investigation.

A simple worksheet is enough:

referring_hostname,metric_name,metric_value,source,release_or_date,relevance_note,next_action

The columns deliberately separate the score from the human research result. Add an actual source-page URL once you locate one; a referring hostname alone is not a page-level backlink record.

This is a way to assess your prioritization rule on the data you have. It is not a new vendor-neutral authority formula or a claim that the sampled sites represent the whole web.

Preserve unknowns

Do not replace a missing authority value with zero unless the provider explicitly defines that behavior. A missing value and a measured value of zero are different observations.

Keep truncated exports visible too. If a list contains only a top-ranked slice, it cannot establish that a lower-scored hostname has no link to the target.

For recurring reports, keep these four checks beside the import:

1. The metric name and source match the report definition.
2. The release or observation date is recorded.
3. Missing values remain distinguishable from measured zeros.
4. Returned rows and reported totals are kept separately.

Buy the fields your workflow needs

Changing the provider can change the index, observation dates, available records and metric definition at the same time. Check each before treating the new export as interchangeable with the old one.

If you need referring-domain research and competitor overlap, check a domain free and inspect crawlgraph's current plans. Its free web preview shows five referring domains. Paid core access supports expanded results and CSV/JSON exports capped at 100,000 rows per domain, with the total reported separately. It does not replace daily rank tracking, keyword research or every field in a full SEO suite.

The longer authority-metric guide covers the distinctions. Keep a provider-specific score when it is useful; keep the research decision explicit as well.