What is Domain Rating (DR)?
Domain Rating (DR) is a score from 0 to 100 that Ahrefs gives every website to show how strong its backlink profile is compared with other sites in the Ahrefs index [1]. A higher DR means the site has more, and stronger, followed links from other websites.
For example, a new local bakery site with links from a handful of small blogs might sit at DR 5, while a national newspaper linked from hundreds of thousands of domains sits in the 90s. The number says nothing about whether either site gets traffic, sells anything or ranks for anything. It only describes links.
DR is a proprietary metric. Ahrefs invented it, Ahrefs calculates it, and only Ahrefs data feeds it. Google does not see it or use it.
How is Domain Rating calculated?
Domain Rating is calculated from the followed links a website receives from other domains, with each linking domain passing on a share of its own strength. Ahrefs describes the process in three steps [1]:
- Find every domain that links to the target site with at least one followed link.
- Check how many unique domains each of those linking sites links out to.
- Pass "DR juice" from each linking domain to the target, by dividing the linking domain's DR by the number of domains it links to.
Ahrefs calls this "obviously a severely oversimplified explanation" [1], and the full formula is not published. Three consequences of the method matter in practice:
- Only the first link from a domain counts. Ahrefs states that a second, third or hundredth link from the same domain does not raise DR any further [1].
- Links get weaker as the linking site links out more. If a site that links to you keeps adding links to new websites, the share it sends you shrinks over time [1].
- Nofollow links do not count. Only followed links feed the score.
Why is the DR scale logarithmic?
The DR scale is logarithmic, so each point is harder to gain than the one before. Ahrefs puts it plainly: the gap between DR 70 and DR 71 is much bigger than the gap between DR 20 and DR 21 [1]. A site can climb from DR 10 to DR 30 with modest link building, while moving from DR 80 to DR 85 takes links from many very strong domains.
Is Domain Rating a Google ranking factor?
No. Domain Rating is not a Google ranking factor, and Ahrefs says so itself, noting that Google ranks pages, not websites [1]. Google has never used or referenced DR.
What Google does use is link analysis. Google's own guide to its ranking systems says PageRank was one of its core ranking systems at launch and is still used, though "how PageRank works has evolved a lot since then" [3]. DR borrows the same basic idea, that a link from a strong source passes more value than a link from a weak one, but applies it to whole domains instead of individual pages and runs it on Ahrefs' crawl, not Google's.
Ahrefs reports that DR correlates strongly with a website's search traffic [1]. Correlation is not cause: sites that earn many good links also tend to have good content, strong brands and long histories, all of which drive traffic on their own. See correlation vs causation in SEO.
What does Domain Rating not measure?
Domain Rating does not measure traffic, relevance, content quality, domain age, brand strength or spam. Ahrefs lists most of these exclusions directly [1], and the spam point is the one that matters most to anyone buying or vetting links:
DR doesn't account for backlink SPAM. In fact, large amounts of low-quality backlinks may actually increase your DR, not decrease it. [1]
That single limitation is the root of DR inflation. Because DR rewards the number and DR of linking domains without judging why the links exist, a site can carry a high DR built entirely from link networks that Google's spam policies treat as link spam [4]. Google may ignore those links completely, while DR keeps counting them.
DR also says nothing about a single page. A DR 70 site can host a brand-new page with no links of its own, and a link from that page carries far less weight than the site's DR suggests.
What is the difference between Domain Rating and Domain Authority?
Domain Rating is Ahrefs' link score and Domain Authority (DA) is Moz's. Both run 0 to 100 and both try to estimate how strong a site's link profile is, but they use different crawlers, different link indexes and different formulas, so the same site often gets noticeably different numbers.
| Domain Rating (DR) | Domain Authority (DA) | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | Ahrefs | Moz |
| Scale | 0 to 100, logarithmic | 0 to 100 |
| Data source | Ahrefs' own link index | Moz's own link index |
| Used by Google | No | No |
| Counts spam links | Yes, may raise the score [1] | Formula differs; not comparable to DR |
Neither score is "right". Comparing DR from one site with DA from another is meaningless; compare like with like, from the same tool, on the same day.
What is the difference between Domain Rating and URL Rating?
Domain Rating scores a whole website, while URL Rating (UR) is Ahrefs' score for a single page. A link sits on a page, not a domain, so the page's own strength is often the better guide to what a specific link is worth.
How has Domain Rating's role changed over time?
Domain Rating grew in importance as Google withdrew its own public link score. Once Google stopped showing PageRank, SEOs needed a substitute, and third-party scores like DR and DA filled the gap [2].
1996 to 2001: PageRank sets the model
Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed PageRank at Stanford in 1996, and the PageRank patent was granted on September 4, 2001 [2]. PageRank scored pages by the links pointing at them, weighted by the strength of the linking pages. Every link-based authority score since, DR included, follows that template.
2009: Google steps back from public PageRank
On October 15, 2009, Google removed PageRank data from Webmaster Tools, saying it had long told people not to focus on PageRank so much [2]. The public Toolbar PageRank number stayed, but updates became rare, with the last one in November 2013 [2].
2016: Toolbar PageRank switched off
On April 15, 2016, Google turned off the display of PageRank in the Google Toolbar [2]. From then on there was no public Google link score at all, and DR became one of the default numbers the industry used to describe a site's link strength.
2022 to 2024: Ahrefs documents the limits
Ahrefs' own explainer, first published May 4, 2022 and last updated October 4, 2024, states openly that DR is not a Google ranking factor and does not account for link spam [1].
How do you check a website's Domain Rating?
To check a website's Domain Rating, enter the domain in Ahrefs Site Explorer, where DR appears in the overview alongside the number of referring domains [1].
Then check what is behind the number:
- Look at referring domains, not just DR. Open the list of linking domains and read the top 20 or so. Are they real sites in real industries, or sites with unrelated names and no visible audience?
- Look at the DR history chart. A smooth climb over years is normal. A jump of 20 or more points in a few weeks with no news, launch or campaign behind it is a warning sign.
- Compare DR with organic traffic. A high DR with almost no estimated organic traffic often means the links are not doing anything Google rewards.
- Check your own site in Search Console. Google's Links report shows a sample of the sites Google itself has found linking to you [5]. If a domain appears in a third-party tool but never in Search Console over months, Google may not value it.
Should you use Domain Rating to judge a link?
Use Domain Rating as a first filter, never as the decision. DR is useful for quickly sorting a long list of sites: a DR 3 site and a DR 60 site clearly sit at different levels. It is not useful for deciding whether a specific link is worth having, because it ignores relevance, traffic, spam and the strength of the individual page [1].
A practical rule for buyers and link builders:
- Use DR to shortlist, then judge each site on real organic traffic, topical relevance, editorial standards and the page the link would sit on.
- Distrust DR thresholds on their own. "DR 50+" is easy to meet with manufactured links. Link farms and private blog networks are built to pass exactly this kind of filter [6]. Search Insider does not support or suggest the use of private blog networks.
- Prefer a traffic-checked link from a modest DR site in your field over a high DR site that nobody visits. See traffic-validated link.
DR describes a site's link profile as Ahrefs sees it. It is a good map and a poor verdict.