TL;DR
Domain Rating (DR) is a proprietary metric from Ahrefs that shows the strength of a website's backlink profile on a 100-point logarithmic scale. It is calculated by assessing the quantity and quality of external backlinks a site has from unique domains. A higher DR generally indicates a stronger link profile, which correlates with a greater ability to rank well in search engine results. It is primarily used for competitor analysis and to evaluate potential link-building opportunities.
What Is Domain Rating (DR)?
Domain Rating, often abbreviated as DR, is a key performance indicator developed by the SEO tool provider Ahrefs. It is designed to measure the strength and authority of a website's entire backlink profile. The metric is presented on a 100-point scale, where a higher score signifies a more powerful profile. It's a comparative metric, meaning a site's DR is evaluated relative to all other websites in Ahrefs' extensive database.
The calculation of DR is based on two primary factors: the number of unique domains (referring domains) that link to a website and the authority of those linking domains. However, it's not just about getting links from high-DR sites. Ahrefs also considers how many other websites those high-DR sites link to. For example, a link from a DR-80 site that links out to millions of other domains may pass less "link juice" than a link from a DR-30 site that only links to a handful of others.
It's crucial to understand that DR operates on a logarithmic scale. This means that improving your score becomes progressively harder as you move up the scale. The effort required to jump from a DR of 70 to 80 is significantly greater than moving from 20 to 30. This reflects the reality of building website authority—initial gains are easier to achieve, while breaking into the top tier requires a monumental effort.
Importantly, Domain Rating is a pure backlink-focused metric. It does not directly account for other factors like website traffic, domain age, on-page SEO, or keyword rankings. Its primary function in an SEO strategy is to serve as a reliable gauge for assessing a site's link popularity, making it an invaluable tool for analyzing competitors and identifying high-quality targets for link-building campaigns.
Domain Rating vs. Domain Authority: Key Differences
In the world of SEO, two of the most frequently discussed authority metrics are Domain Rating (DR) from Ahrefs and Domain Authority (DA) from Moz. While they both aim to predict a website's ranking potential, they are calculated differently and serve complementary purposes. Understanding their distinctions is key to using them effectively in your SEO analysis.
Domain Rating (DR) focuses exclusively on a website's backlink profile, evaluating the quantity and quality of external links pointing to a site. In contrast, Moz's Domain Authority (DA) takes a broader approach. It is calculated using a machine learning model that incorporates multiple factors, including the number of linking root domains and the total number of links, to predict how likely a website is to rank in search results.
When asked which metric is superior, most SEO experts agree that neither is inherently "better." They are different tools that provide different insights. As noted by industry analysts, DR offers a clear view into a site's backlink power, while DA provides a more holistic estimate of its overall SEO strength. For a comprehensive strategy, it's best to use both metrics together to get a more complete picture of a website's off-page health.
To clarify the differences, here is a simple breakdown:
| Attribute | Domain Rating (DR) | Domain Authority (DA) |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | Ahrefs | Moz |
| Primary Focus | Strength of the backlink profile (quantity and quality of referring domains). | Predictive ranking ability based on multiple link-related factors. |
| Scale | 0-100 (Logarithmic) | 0-100 (Logarithmic) |
| Best Use Case | Competitor backlink analysis and vetting link-building prospects. | Gauging a site's overall ranking potential and competitive position. |
How to Check Your Website's Domain Rating
Checking your website's Domain Rating is a straightforward process, thanks to a variety of free tools offered by major SEO software companies. These checkers allow you to quickly assess your own site's authority and benchmark it against your competitors. The original and most direct way to check DR is by using Ahrefs' own tool, but other platforms offer similar metrics that serve a comparable purpose.
You can use the free Website Authority Checker from Ahrefs to find the DR score for any domain. Similarly, you can check Domain Authority using the free tool from Moz or find a comparable Authority Score using the checker from Semrush. These tools are designed to be user-friendly and provide instant results.
Follow these simple steps to check a website's authority score:
- Navigate to one of the free checker tools mentioned above.
- Enter the full domain URL (e.g., yourwebsite.com) into the search bar.
- Click the "Check Authority" or equivalent button to initiate the analysis.
- Review the results, which will typically display the authority score (DR, DA, or another metric) along with other data like the number of backlinks and referring domains.
When you analyze the results, don't just fixate on the score itself. The accompanying data provides crucial context. A high score is often supported by a large number of referring domains and a healthy volume of total backlinks. Use this information to benchmark your performance. By comparing your DR to that of your direct competitors, you can determine if your link-building efforts are on par or if you need to intensify your strategy to gain a competitive edge.
What Is a Good Domain Rating and How Can You Improve It?
A common question is, "What is a good Domain Rating?" The answer is that a "good" DR score is entirely relative. There is no magic number that signifies success. Instead, a strong DR is one that is higher than or comparable to that of your direct competitors within your specific niche. A DR of 40 might be excellent for a local business, while a global e-commerce site might need a DR of 80+ to be competitive.
The only way to improve your Domain Rating is by acquiring more high-quality backlinks from unique websites (referring domains). However, the focus should be on quality over quantity. Earning links from reputable, high-DR websites that are topically relevant to your own will have the most significant impact on your score. The goal is to build a natural and authoritative backlink profile that signals trust and credibility to search engines.
Here are several actionable strategies to improve your Domain Rating:
- Create Link-Worthy Content: The most sustainable way to earn backlinks is by producing exceptional content that people naturally want to link to. This includes original research, comprehensive guides, data-rich studies, and free tools. For instance, one company created a report on conversion benchmark statistics using their own app data, which generated hundreds of valuable backlinks.
- Strategic Guest Posting: Write articles for reputable websites in your industry. This not only puts your brand in front of a new audience but also allows you to place a relevant backlink to your own site. Focus on contributing genuine value to the host site's audience.
- Digital PR and Outreach: Promote your best content to journalists, bloggers, and industry influencers. When your content gets featured in publications or mentioned by authoritative figures, it often results in high-quality backlinks.
- Analyze Competitor Backlinks: Use an SEO tool to see where your competitors are getting their links from. This can reveal new link-building opportunities that you can pursue for your own website.
Creating high-quality, link-worthy content consistently can be a challenge. Tools can help scale this process. For instance, marketers and creators can use an AI blog post generator like BlogSpark to transform ideas into engaging, SEO-optimized articles, which helps free up time for strategic outreach and promotion. Finally, remember that improving DR is a long-term strategy. It requires consistent effort in content creation and relationship building. Avoid black-hat tactics like buying links, as these can lead to penalties and damage your site's reputation.
Frequently Asked Questions About Domain Rating
1. Is Domain Rating better than Domain Authority (DA)?
Neither metric is inherently superior; they are designed to measure different aspects of a site's authority and are best used together. Domain Rating (DR) from Ahrefs provides specific insight into the strength of a website's backlink profile. Domain Authority (DA) from Moz is a more general predictor of a site's ability to rank in search results. Using both gives you a more comprehensive understanding of a site's off-page SEO health.
2. Does Domain Rating directly affect Google rankings?
While Google representatives have stated they do not use "domain authority" as a direct ranking factor, they have acknowledged using sitewide signals that are conceptually similar. There is a strong correlation between a high Domain Rating and higher keyword rankings. Therefore, while DR itself isn't a ranking factor, the strong backlink profile it represents is a crucial component of achieving top search positions.
3. Why did my Domain Rating drop even though I didn't lose any links?
Your Domain Rating can decrease even if your backlink profile remains stable. Because DR is a relative metric, a drop can occur if other websites—especially those at the very top of the scale—gain a significant number of new, high-quality backlinks. When a DR 100 site gets more links, it can't become DR 101, so it effectively pushes other sites down the 0-100 scale to maintain relativity.
