What is Domain Rating?
Domain Rating (DR) is a metric developed by Ahrefs that measures the overall strength of a website’s backlink profile on a scale from 0 to 100. A higher DR indicates a stronger and more authoritative backlink profile compared to other websites in Ahrefs’ database.
DR is logarithmic, meaning it’s much harder to move from 70 to 80 than from 20 to 30. It is influenced by both the quantity and quality of backlinks pointing to a domain.
Why Domain Rating Matters
Although DR is not used by Google as a ranking factor, it is a useful comparative metric for SEOs and marketers. It helps assess the authority of a website, spot link-building opportunities, and benchmark against competitors.
Key uses include:
- Evaluating link-building prospects
- Benchmarking domain strength over time
- Comparing authority across competitors
- Supporting outreach and PR strategies
- Filtering backlink quality in audits
DR is best used alongside other metrics like URL Rating (UR), organic traffic, and relevance to get a full picture.
Example in Use
An SEO specialist is building a backlink strategy and wants to prioritise outreach to websites with DR 40 and above. They filter a list of potential sites using Ahrefs to find high-DR targets that are relevant to their niche. These links are more likely to pass value and boost rankings.
At the same time, they monitor their own DR score over time to evaluate campaign effectiveness.
Related Terms
- Domain Authority (DA)
- URL Rating (UR)
- Backlink
- Link Building
- Referring Domains