Every SEO conversation eventually lands on "what's their DR?" Domain Rating is a single number between 0 and 100 that tries to summarize how strong a site's backlink profile is. It's not a Google ranking factor directly, but it correlates tightly with ranking ability. Here's what DR actually measures, how to read it, and how to improve yours.
Domain Rating in one sentence
What the score means
| DR range | Tier | Typical profile |
|---|---|---|
| 0 – 10 | New / weak | Few or no referring domains; fresh sites |
| 10 – 30 | Developing | 10–200 referring domains; small blog / starter SaaS |
| 30 – 50 | Average | 200–2,000 refs; established niche site |
| 50 – 70 | Strong | 2k–20k refs; recognized brand in niche |
| 70 – 85 | Elite | 20k–200k refs; major publisher / scale SaaS |
| 85 – 100 | Top global | 200k+ refs; Wikipedia, Google, NYTimes tier |
DR is logarithmic: going from 30 → 40 takes 3× the work of 20 → 30. The gap from DR 70 to 80 is larger than from 0 to 50.
How Ahrefs calculates DR
The real formula is proprietary but the inputs are known:
- Crawl the backlink graph (Ahrefs has ~22B pages indexed).
- Count unique referring domains (not total backlinks — 1,000 links from one domain still counts as 1).
- Weight each linker by its DR (recursive signal).
- Apply a logarithmic transform so the scale stretches cleanly from 0–100.
- Decay outputs slightly when linker DR doesn't rise over time.
Result: DR rewards quality of linkers more than quantity, which matches how Google's link graph works.
DR vs DA vs PageRank — what's different
| Metric | Owner | Based on | Free to check? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain Rating (DR) | Ahrefs | Ahrefs backlink crawl | Yes (Site Explorer login) |
| Domain Authority (DA) | Moz | Moz backlink crawl | Yes (MozBar / DA Checker) |
| Authority Score (AS) | Semrush | Semrush data + organic signals | Yes (Semrush login) |
| Page Rank (decimal) | OpenPageRank | Open web crawl | Yes (SiteWorthIt shows it) |
| PageRank (Google) | Private | No (killed publicly 2016) |
They all move together roughly — a DR 60 site usually has DA 55 ± 10. But the absolute numbers aren't comparable across tools. Pick one metric and track it over time; don't mix apples and oranges.
How to check any site's DR for free
Ahrefs gates DR behind a paid account for competitor domains. Workarounds:
- Ahrefs Free Backlink Checker — shows DR + top 100 backlinks, no account.
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools — free for sites you verify.
- SiteWorthIt — shows OpenPageRank decimal (~DR equivalent × 0.1) and a derived Domain Authority score for any site, unlimited and free.
- Moz Link Explorer — 10 free queries/month without sign-up.
How to improve your DR
- Quality over quantity. 10 links from DR 50+ sites beat 100 from DR 10 sites.
- Relevance matters. A DR 60 in-niche link > a DR 80 irrelevant link.
- Diversify root domains. Adding 500 links from 5 new domains rarely moves DR; adding 50 links from 50 new domains does.
- Avoid PBNs. Algorithmic demotion eats short-term DR gains.
- Be patient. DR updates monthly at Ahrefs; real changes take 60–90 days to show.
Why DR isn't everything
- DR doesn't measure content quality, topical authority, or technical SEO.
- Sites with DR 30 regularly outrank DR 60 sites on specific keywords.
- Google's actual ranking algo weighs hundreds of factors; DR proxies only the backlink slice.
Frequently asked questions
What is Domain Rating (DR)?
DR is Ahrefs' 0–100 score of a domain's backlink profile strength. DR 30 is average, 50+ is strong, 80+ is elite.
What's the difference between DR and DA?
DR is Ahrefs' metric; DA is Moz's. Both are 0–100 logarithmic backlink scores but use different crawlers — a site can have DR 60 and DA 45.
How do I increase my domain rating?
Earn backlinks from high-DR, in-niche sites. 5–10 links from DR 40+ domains moves a new site from DR 0 to DR 15–20.