Free Domain Rating checker for serious SEO decisions
Check any website's DR in seconds, understand what the score means, and see the fastest next step to build authority.
Instant
No account needed for the first check.
0-100
Simple backlink authority score.
Free tracking
Optional alerts after your result.
Trusted by teams using MediaBoost
Website authority check
Enter a root domain or URL.
Backlinks
DR measures link profile strength, not traffic or revenue.
Benchmarking
Use it to compare your site against direct competitors.
Digital PR
Trusted media links can help build stronger authority over time.
Understand the score
What your Domain Rating actually tells you
Domain Rating is an Ahrefs metric from 0 to 100 that estimates the strength of a website's backlink profile. Higher scores usually mean the domain has more links from trusted, relevant websites.
DR is best used as a benchmark. It helps you understand whether your brand has enough authority to compete for search visibility, media credibility, and AI discovery.
Early backlink profile with room to build authority.
A credible start, usually seen on young companies.
Solid authority with enough links to compete.
Recognized domain with meaningful link equity.
Major publishers, global brands, and category leaders.
Need to grow the score?
MediaBoost gets you published across trusted outlets with reporting you can share.
How to improve it
The clean path to a stronger DR
Earn trusted mentions
Media coverage and partner pages are stronger than random directory links.
Prioritize relevance
A relevant DR 50 website can be more valuable than an unrelated DR 80 website.
Track movement
DR changes slowly, so watch the trend rather than a single day.
Avoid link schemes
Spammy links can be ignored or discounted, which wastes budget and adds risk.
How it works
How is DR calculated?
Ahrefs scores three things about your backlink profile, then places you on a logarithmic 0 to 100 curve.
Unique referring domains
How many distinct websites link to you. One link from 100 different sites counts for far more than 100 links from a single site.
Authority of those domains
The DR of the sites linking to you. A link from a DR 80 site passes more value than a link from a DR 10 site.
How much they link out
A site linking to 10 pages passes more value per link than one linking to 10,000.
DR vs DA
Domain Rating vs Domain Authority
DR is the Ahrefs metric, DA is the Moz one. They are constantly confused, and they do not measure the same thing.
| DR (Ahrefs) | DA (Moz) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it measures | Backlink profile strength | Predicted ranking ability |
| Data source | Ahrefs link index | Moz Link Explorer |
| Inputs | Backlinks only | Several signals, machine learned |
| Scale | 0 to 100, logarithmic | 0 to 100, logarithmic |
| Google ranking factor | No, third party metric | No, third party metric |
Benchmarks
What DR scores look like in practice
Approximate scores, checked August 2026. Use them to read your own number, not as exact values.
93
HubSpot
92
Wikipedia
91
Shopify
88
Nike
87
Amazon
15
Typical early startup
FAQ
No. Domain Rating is an Ahrefs metric, not a Google ranking factor. It is still useful because it reflects backlink strength, which is one of the signals marketers track when evaluating authority.
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