Free Domain Rating Checker
Instantly check your website's DR score and see how it compares.
What is Domain Rating (DR)?
In short
Domain Rating is an Ahrefs metric that scores your website's backlink strength from 0 to 100. The higher your DR, the stronger your link profile compared to other sites on the web.
Introduced by Ahrefs in 2016, DR evaluates the quality, relevance, and diversity of websites linking to your domain to produce a single authority score. Unlike simple link counts, it uses a logarithmic scale, meaning going from 20 to 30 is significantly easier than going from 70 to 80.
This mirrors how backlink authority actually works: it becomes exponentially harder to gain authority as your profile grows. Before DR, SEO professionals relied primarily on Google's own PageRank (deprecated publicly in 2016) and Moz's Domain Authority.
What made DR stand out was its focus on backlink profiles specifically, rather than trying to predict Google rankings directly. Today, DR is one of the three most-cited authority metrics in SEO, alongside Moz's DA and Semrush's Authority Score, used by hundreds of thousands of professionals worldwide.
Why Domain Rating Matters
Competitive benchmarking
Instantly compare your backlink authority against competitors and industry leaders to understand where you stand.
Link-building prioritization
Evaluate potential link opportunities by checking a site's DR before investing time in outreach.
Tracking progress over time
Monitor your DR trend to measure the impact of SEO campaigns, PR efforts, and content marketing strategies.
Stakeholder reporting
Provide a clear, single-number metric to executives and clients that represents your site's online authority growth.
Keep in mind that DR is one useful signal among many. It only reflects backlink strength, so it won't capture content quality or technical SEO. It's also a third-party metric, not a Google ranking factor. Use it to benchmark and track progress, but pair it with other data for the full picture.
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How is DR Calculated?
Ahrefs calculates Domain Rating by analyzing three main factors about your backlink profile:
Number of unique referring domains
How many distinct websites link to your domain. One link from 100 different sites matters more than 100 links from one site.
Authority of linking domains
The DR of the websites linking to you. A link from a DR 80 site passes more value than a link from a DR 10 site.
Link distribution of those domains
How many outgoing links each referring domain has. A site linking to 10 pages passes more value per link than one linking to 10,000.
Understanding the DR Scale
Domain Rating scores range from 0 to 100. Here's what different ranges typically indicate:
New websites, personal blogs, or sites with very few backlinks.
Small businesses, niche blogs, or young startups building their presence.
Established companies with active link-building or PR strategies.
Well-known brands, popular industry publications, and authority sites.
Major global brands, top news outlets, and platforms like Wikipedia.
Who Uses Domain Rating?
DR is used daily by a wide range of professionals and organizations:
SEO Professionals
Use DR to evaluate link-building opportunities, audit competitors, and measure campaign effectiveness.
Marketing Teams
Track brand authority over time and justify PR/content investment to stakeholders.
PR & Communications
Pitch media outlets based on DR to ensure coverage on high-authority sites that move the needle.
Founders & Executives
Use DR as a quick health indicator of online presence, alongside traffic and revenue metrics.
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DR vs. Domain Authority (DA)
Domain Rating (Ahrefs) and Domain Authority (Moz) are often confused, but they measure different things:
| DR (Ahrefs) | DA (Moz) | |
|---|---|---|
| Measures | Backlink profile strength | Predicted ranking ability |
| Data source | Ahrefs link index | Moz Link Explorer |
| Algorithm | Backlinks only | Multiple SEO signals (ML) |
| Scale | 0–100 (logarithmic) | 0–100 (logarithmic) |
| Google factor? | No (third-party metric) | No (third-party metric) |
Neither DR nor DA is an official Google ranking factor. They are third-party estimates used for comparative analysis.
How to Improve Your Domain Rating
Increasing your DR requires building high-quality backlinks from authoritative, relevant websites. Here are proven strategies:
Earn media coverage
Getting featured in news publications, industry blogs, and online magazines provides high-authority backlinks. Digital PR is one of the fastest ways to move your DR.
Create linkable content
Original research, data studies, infographics, and comprehensive guides naturally attract backlinks from other websites that reference your work.
Guest posting on relevant sites
Contributing valuable articles to reputable websites in your industry builds quality backlinks and establishes topical authority.
Broken link building
Find broken links on high-DR websites and offer your content as a replacement. This provides value to the site owner while earning you a backlink.
Build relationships, not just links
Genuine relationships with journalists, bloggers, and industry peers lead to organic mentions and links over time. Think long-term.
Real-World DR Examples
To give you context for what different DR scores look like in practice:
92
Wikipedia
87
Amazon
93
HubSpot
88
Nike
91
Shopify
15
Typical startup
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