Domain Rating: what DR measures and what a high-DR link is worth
Domain Rating is Ahrefs' 0 to 100 logarithmic score of a site's backlink profile. Google doesn't use it, and a link's worth depends on the page it sits on.
LLaunchScaler·Published ·7 min read
Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' score of how strong a website's backlink profile is, from 0 to 100 on a logarithmic scale, measured against every other site in Ahrefs' index. Google does not use it, and a "DR 70 backlink" tells you about the linking site as a whole, not about the page your link would sit on.
That second point is where most link offers go wrong. DR describes a domain; your link lives on one page of that domain, which may be new, unlinked, off-topic or not indexed. Below is what DR measures, how it differs from Moz's Domain Authority, and the checks that decide what a specific link is worth.
What does Domain Rating measure?
DR measures the quantity and quality of external backlinks to a whole domain. Ahrefs counts how many unique domains link to the site, weighs each by its own DR, divides each linking domain's weight across all the sites it links to, then scales the result onto a 0 to 100 range. Nofollow links pass no DR.
Ahrefs describes the calculation in four inputs:
How many unique domains link to the target (referring domains).
The DR of those linking domains. A higher-DR domain passes more.
How many other domains each linking domain links to. A site's rating is split equally among the domains it links to, so "a DR-10 domain which links to three other domains can influence your DR more than a DR-80 domain which links to a million other domains."
A final scaling of the raw scores onto 0 to 100.
Two consequences follow. The scale is logarithmic, so Ahrefs says the gap between DR 75 and 76 "is much bigger than between DR 20 and DR 21." And DR is relative: when other sites gain links, yours can drop without losing a single link, because a DR 100 site cannot become DR 101 and everyone else is pushed down the scale instead.
Ahrefs is also explicit about what DR leaves out: it "doesn't take into account any other variables like link spam, traffic, domain age, etc." A site can hold a high DR while its pages get no search traffic.
Does Google use Domain Rating?
No. DR is Ahrefs' own metric, computed from Ahrefs' own crawl. Google said in March 2024 that "some third-party services provide 'reputation' or 'authority' scores for sites. These don't correspond to any of Google's own signals nor come from Google." Moz says the same about its own score: Domain Authority "is not a Google ranking factor."
Questions, answered
What people ask about this
01
What is Domain Rating?
Domain Rating (DR) is a proprietary Ahrefs metric that scores the strength of a website's backlink profile from 0 to 100 on a logarithmic scale, relative to every other site in Ahrefs' index. It is built from how many unique domains link to a site, how strong those domains are, and how many other sites they link to.
Google's advice on hiring an SEO adds a caution about the tools themselves: "Google doesn't evaluate or endorse third-party SEO tools, and these tools don't have access to Google's internal ranking data."
That does not make DR useless. Ahrefs reports that DR correlates with the number of keywords a site ranks for, and it notes that its page-level URL Rating correlates with rankings better than DR does. Treat DR as a rough, outside estimate of link strength, useful for comparing sites in the same market and never as a Google number.
Domain Rating vs Domain Authority: how do they differ?
Domain Rating is Ahrefs' score of backlink strength; Domain Authority (DA) is Moz's score that predicts how likely a site is to rank. They are built by different companies, from different link indexes, with different formulas, so one site routinely gets two different numbers, and neither is Google's.
Domain Rating (Ahrefs)
Domain Authority (Moz)
Scale
0 to 100, logarithmic
1 to 100
What it claims to measure
Strength of a site's backlink profile compared with other sites
How likely a site is to rank compared with competitors
How it is built
Referring domains, their DR, and how many sites each links to
A machine learning model over link data, mainly linking root domains and link quality
Index behind it
Ahrefs states 209M domains and 35T historical external backlinks
Moz states 1 billion domains and 45.5 trillion links
Used by Google
No
No, Moz says it is "not a Google ranking factor"
Free way to check
Website Authority Checker; toolbar with a free account
Link Explorer, 10 free queries a month with a free account
Moz explains the scale effect the same way Ahrefs does: "it's easier to grow your score from 20 to 30 than it is to grow it from 70 to 80," so both scores work as comparisons, not grades. When the two disagree sharply about one site, that is information: the site's links may be counted very differently by each crawler, which is worth a closer look before you trust either number. Moz's other headline metric, Spam Score, is covered in Spam Score explained.
What is a high-DR link actually worth?
A link is worth what the linking page gives it. The page has to be indexed, relevant to your product, followed, reachable from the rest of its site and read by people, and your link has to sit in the content rather than in a list of dozens. A DR 80 domain fails every one of those checks on a page nobody can find.
Ahrefs itself says to "never judge the quality of a website on site-wide 'authority' alone," and lists questions to ask about any linking site: whether its own backlinks are high quality, whether it has lots of pages, whether it links out to a lot of websites, whether it publishes high-quality content, whether it gets organic traffic, and whether it is relevant to yours.
Run these checks on the specific page before you accept or pay for any link:
Check
How to do it
What a worthless link looks like
Is the page indexed?
Search Google for site: followed by the exact URL
No result, or the page is noindexed
Is it relevant?
Read the page and the site's other articles
A cooking blog linking to a developer tool
Is the link followed?
View the page source and read the link's rel attribute
rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored", if you were sold "dofollow"
Does the page have links of its own?
Check its URL Rating or referring domains in a backlink tool
A new page with zero links pointing at it
How many outbound links share it?
Count the external links on the page
A "resources" page with 150 links
Does the site get search traffic?
Check estimated organic traffic in a backlink tool
High DR, near-zero traffic
For a new site, the links that pass these checks are usually the unglamorous ones: a relevant directory listing, a review, a mention in a roundup. How to get backlinks for a new website lists the safe ones in order.
Why do "DR 70 backlink" offers mislead?
They sell the domain's number and deliver a link on a page that doesn't carry it. A paid guest post is a new page, so it starts with no links pointing at it whatever the domain's DR, and the sale itself puts the link inside Google's definition of link spam.
Three problems stack up in a typical offer:
The number describes the wrong thing. DR is site-wide; your link sits on one page, and Ahrefs itself says Google cares more about the strength of the linking page than that of the linking domain.
A site that sells posts links out to every buyer. By Ahrefs' own formula, each extra domain it links to splits the rating it passes.
The purchase is the problem. Google lists "buying or selling links for ranking purposes," including "exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links," as link spam, unless the link is marked rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". A seller promising a followed link from a paid post is promising a policy violation.
If an offer quotes a DR, ask for the exact URL where your link would go, check it against the table above, and ask whether the link will carry rel="sponsored". What to demand from any provider is in link building for startups.
How do you check a site's Domain Rating?
Use Ahrefs' free Website Authority Checker for a single domain's DR, or install the Ahrefs SEO Toolbar, which shows DR and URL Rating as you browse once you have a free Ahrefs account. For Domain Authority and Spam Score, Moz's Link Explorer gives 10 free queries a month with a verified Moz account.
A quick routine for vetting a site:
Check the domain's DR and, if you have the Moz queries, its DA. Note how far apart they are.
Open the exact page your link would sit on and check its URL Rating, not just the domain's DR.
Search site: plus that URL in Google to confirm the page is indexed.
Read the page. If you would not send a customer to it, the link will not help you.
Get links placed on real sites, by hand
LaunchScaler's SEO / GEO boost does this vetting and outreach for you. Its guest-placement workstream is "editorial pitches to sites that actually publish, with a link a human approved," and the page states plainly that "we never fabricate signals or buy spam links." Every placement and fix is recorded, "linked and checkable." The work is scoped to your site from $299, and there is no checkout: you send an inquiry and get a scope and a quote within one business day. Talk to us.
Does Google use Domain Rating?
No. Google has said that third-party 'reputation' or 'authority' scores don't correspond to any of Google's own signals nor come from Google. DR is an outside estimate built on Ahrefs' own link index.
03
What is a good Domain Rating?
Ahrefs says DR is relative and can't be judged in absolute terms. Its rule of thumb is that your DR is good if it is higher than or comparable to similar sites in your market.
04
What is the difference between Domain Rating and Domain Authority?
DR is Ahrefs' score of backlink strength on a 0 to 100 scale; Domain Authority is Moz's 1 to 100 score that predicts how likely a site is to rank. They use different link indexes and formulas, so the same site gets different numbers.
05
How can I check a site's Domain Rating for free?
Ahrefs' free Website Authority Checker shows DR for any domain, and its browser toolbar shows DR and URL Rating with a free Ahrefs account. Moz's Link Explorer gives 10 free queries a month for Domain Authority and Spam Score.
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