Glossary
What is Domain Rating (DR)?
Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' 0 to 100 score for how strong a website's backlink profile is compared with other sites in its index. It's based on how many unique sites link to it with followed links, and how strong those sites are. It's a third-party metric; Google doesn't use it.
How DR is calculated
Ahrefs explains it in three steps: look at how many unique domains link to the target with at least one followed link; consider the DR of those linking domains; and consider how many other sites each of them links to (a link from a site that links to few others passes more). The raw scores are then placed on a 0 to 100 scale. The scale is logarithmic, so going from 70 to 80 is far harder than from 10 to 20.
What a good DR is
DR is relative. A local bakery with DR 15 can rank fine for its searches; a SaaS competing on "project management software" faces pages on DR 90 sites. Compare your DR with the sites ranking for the searches you want, not with an absolute number.
DR vs traffic
DR measures links, not visitors. In our directory data, DR and the log of monthly traffic correlate at only 0.36, and 15 of 71 directories with DR 70 or more had under 10,000 monthly visits. A high-DR site can be a ghost town.
DR vs other scores
| Metric | Made by | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Domain Rating | Ahrefs | 0 to 100 |
| Domain Authority | Moz | 1 to 100 |
| Authority Score | Semrush | 0 to 100 |
| Trust Flow | Majestic | 0 to 100 |
They use different link indexes and formulas. In 165 directories we compared across sources, the median gap was 5 points and 30 differed by 20 or more. Our article on DR vs DA goes deeper.
Why your DR isn't moving
New links take weeks to be crawled; nofollow links don't count; links from weak sites barely move a logarithmic scale; and as other sites gain links, your relative position can slip. See why DR isn't increasing.
Example
A new product goes from DR 0 to DR 18 after 30 followed links from directories with DR 40 to 80. Getting from 18 to 35 takes a year of guest posts, podcast links and mentions, because each step up the scale needs more and stronger links.
FAQ
Does Google use Domain Rating?
No. DR is Ahrefs' own metric. Google uses its own link signals, which DR tries to approximate.
What is a good Domain Rating?
It depends on your competitors. Look at the DR of sites ranking for your target searches.
How do I check my DR?
Ahrefs has a free Website Authority Checker that shows DR for any domain.
Is DR the same as DA?
No. DA is Moz's metric with a different link index and model. They often differ by many points.