Domain Rating (DR)
What is Domain Rating?
Domain Rating (DR) is a metric created by Ahrefs that scores the strength of a website’s backlink profile on a scale from 0 to 100. It is based on how many unique domains link to the site and how strong those linking domains are. Higher means a stronger link profile. Google does not use DR.
The scale is logarithmic, so moving from 70 to 80 takes far more links than moving from 10 to 20. DR is also relative: as the web and the strongest sites grow, a site’s score can drift down even if its own links stay the same. DR measures the whole domain; the page-level counterpart is URL Rating.
Why Domain Rating matters for SEO
DR is a quick way to compare link strength between sites, to size up how hard a competitor will be to outrank, and to sort link prospects. It roughly reflects the same idea as PageRank: links from strong sites count more.
It is easy to over-trust. DR says nothing about relevance, traffic or whether the site is spam, and it can be inflated with manipulative links. Some people sell links from sites with high DR and no real audience. Use it as one input, not a goal.
How to use Domain Rating
- Compare your DR with the sites ranking for your target keywords to gauge competition, alongside their page-level links.
- When judging a link prospect, check its real organic traffic and topic, not just DR.
- Track your own DR as a long-term trend, not a weekly target.
Domain Rating FAQ
Does Google use Domain Rating?
No. DR is Ahrefs’ own metric. Google has said it does not use any “domain authority” style score from third-party tools.
What is a good Domain Rating?
It depends on your niche. What matters is how you compare with the sites ranking for your keywords, not an absolute number.
Related SEO terms
URL Rating (UR) is Ahrefs’ 0–100 score of the strength of one page’s backlink profile, including internal and external links.
Domain Authority (DA) is Moz’s 1–100 score predicting how well a website might rank, based mainly on its links. Google does not use it.
PageRank is Google’s original algorithm for scoring pages by the number and quality of links pointing to them. Google still uses a version of it.
A referring domain is a website that links to your site at least once. Each domain counts once, no matter how many links it sends.
A link profile is the full set of backlinks pointing to a site: who links, how many, with what anchors and attributes, and how it changes over time.