Domain Rating (DR) Checker

What is Domain Rating (DR)?

Domain Rating (DR) is an Ahrefs metric that scores the strength of a website's backlink profile from 0 to 100 on a logarithmic scale. It's the most widely used proxy for a site's website authority — a quick read on how much link equity a domain has earned compared with every other site in Ahrefs' index. The more high-quality, unique websites that link to you, the higher your Ahrefs DR climbs. A brand-new domain starts at 0; the most-linked sites on the web — Google, YouTube, Wikipedia — sit at 100.

DR doesn't measure your traffic, content quality, or rankings directly — it's purely a backlink-strength score. That's what makes it such a fast, comparable benchmark: you can check the Domain Rating of any site, including competitors, and instantly see who holds the link-authority advantage in your niche.

How is Domain Rating calculated?

Ahrefs calculates DR from how many unique domains link to a site and how strong those linking domains are themselves. Per Ahrefs' own documentation, a few mechanics are worth knowing:

• Only dofollow links from unique referring domains count — ten links from one site don't help more than one.
• Each linking domain passes a share of its own DR, so a link from a DR 80 site moves the needle far more than one from a DR 10 site.
• The scale is logarithmic, so climbing from DR 20 to 30 is much easier than 70 to 80.
• Nofollow links are largely ignored, and spammy links don't lower your DR — they simply don't raise it.

What's a good Domain Rating?

There's no universal "good" DR — it's relative to your niche and the sites you compete with in Google. As a rough guide, 0–10 is a brand-new site, 11–30 is growing, 31–50 is established, 51–70 is strong, and 71+ is elite. A DR that beats your direct competitors is the only one that really matters. For the full breakdown by site age and industry, read what counts as a good Domain Rating.

Domain Rating vs Domain Authority and Authority Score

Domain Rating sits alongside two other popular SEO metrics, and they're easy to mix up. Moz's Domain Authority (DA) and Semrush's Authority Score are also 0–100 measures of a domain's backlink strength and likely ranking power — but each company runs its own crawler, link index and formula, so the numbers rarely match. DR is the most transparent and purely link-based of the three; a domain authority score from Moz or Semrush blends in extra signals. Whichever authority checker you use, the rule is the same: only compare like-for-like (DR to DR), and watch the trend rather than the absolute number. We unpack the differences in DR vs DA: Domain Rating and Domain Authority explained.

Domain Rating vs URL Rating (UR)

Domain Rating scores an entire domain; Ahrefs' URL Rating (UR) scores a single page. A site can have a high DR but a low UR on a specific URL that hasn't earned links of its own yet — which is why a strong homepage doesn't guarantee that every page ranks. When you check domain rating here, you're measuring the whole site's authority; to win a specific search engine results page, that target URL needs its own backlinks too.

How to check your Domain Rating for free

Ahrefs' own plans start at over $100/month, which puts a domain rating checker out of reach for most people. This free online tool is, in effect, an Ahrefs domain rating checker — it surfaces the same Ahrefs DR with no subscription. Enter any domain and we pull and display your website's domain rating on a 0–100 scale in seconds, with no login and no credit card. Want the full set of SEO metrics behind the score? The optional $4.99 report adds your referring domains (the unique sites linking to you), total backlinks, 12-month DR trend, strongest links and a competitor comparison, plus an AI breakdown of how to improve.

How to increase your Domain Rating

Because DR is driven by links from unique, authoritative domains, raising it comes down to earning more of them: publish linkable assets (original data, free tools, definitive guides), run digital PR so journalists and industry sites cite you, and tighten internal linking so authority flows through your site. Avoid shortcuts like link farms and paid link networks — they won't lift your DR and can put your rankings at risk. For a step-by-step playbook, see how to increase your Ahrefs Domain Rating.

Does Domain Rating affect Google rankings?

DR is not a Google ranking factor — Google doesn't use Ahrefs' (or anyone's) third-party score. But the thing DR measures, a strong backlink profile, is one of the closest correlates of ranking ability. That's why DR works as a practical proxy for website authority: track it over time, compare it against competitors, and use it to gauge whether your link building is actually moving you forward. Learn more in our guide to website authority and how to check it.

Frequently asked questions