What is Domain Rating (DR)?

Ahrefs compares DR to Google’s PageRank, calculated between whole websites rather than pages^[2]. Ahrefs describes three steps:

1. Find every domain with at least one followed link to the site. Only the first link from each domain counts; a hundred links from one site count once.
2. For each of those domains, take its own DR and the number of different sites it links out to.
3. Pass on a share of each linking domain’s rating, split among every site it links to, then repeat across the whole index and scale the result to 0–100^[1].

The scale is logarithmic. Ahrefs notes that the higher a DR gets, the harder it is to grow it by another few points^[2]: moving from 70 to 80 takes far more than moving from 20 to 30.

DR is useful for comparing how strong two sites’ backlink profiles are, and for judging how much a link from a given site is likely to pass on. Ahrefs reports that it correlates with Google rankings, though less closely than its page-level URL Rating^[1].

It does not measure:

• Traffic, age or brand. Ahrefs calls DR “purely link-based”; it does not consider a site’s search traffic^[2].
• Link quality beyond the math. DR does not filter spam, so a large number of low-quality links can raise it^[2].
• Any single page. As Ahrefs puts it, Google ranks pages, not websites^[2]. A strong domain can host a page that ranks for nothing.
• An absolute level. DR is relative. When other sites gain links, a site that stands still can lose points without losing a single link^[2].

There is no universal threshold. Ahrefs’ own answer is that a DR is good when it is higher than or comparable to similar sites^[1], so the useful comparison is with sites like yours: the same kind of product, the same age, the same market.

As one real reference point, here is how the Domain Ratings of the sites listed on domainrating.lol are spread right now.

Of the 329 rated sites listed here, half have a DR of 14 or less. A quarter are at 3.9 or below, a quarter are above 31, and one in ten is above 54.

Browse the sites behind these numbers by band:

• DR 0–20
• DR 21–50
• DR 51–100

Domain Authority (DA) is a different score from a different company. Moz describes it as a score that “predicts how likely a website is to rank on search engine results pages (SERPs) compared to competitors”^[3]. The two are often mentioned together, but they are not interchangeable:

Because the data and the formulas differ, the same site usually has a different number in each, and neither can be converted into the other. Moz states that DA is not a direct Google ranking factor and, like Ahrefs for DR, recommends using it to compare sites rather than as an absolute grade^[3].

domainrating.lol is independent of both companies. It shows Ahrefs’ Domain Rating only, read from Ahrefs’ free Domain Rating API, and has no Moz data.

Ahrefs advises against chasing DR as a goal in itself: publish things worth linking to, earn good links, and DR grows as a by-product^[2]. Within that, the calculation above says what moves it:

• More linking sites, not more links. A first followed link from a new domain counts; another link from a domain that already links to you does not.
• Strong sites that link out sparingly. A linking domain passes more when its own DR is high and it links to few other sites.
• Followed links. A nofollow link can still send visitors, but it adds nothing to DR.
• No bought links. Google’s spam policies name “buying or selling links for ranking purposes” as link spam^[4], and because DR does not filter spam, a DR pushed up by low-quality links says little about the site.
• Patience at the top. On a logarithmic scale every point costs more than the last, and the rest of the web keeps gaining links too.

To see one site’s current rating, the DR checker asks Ahrefs for it directly. It is free and needs no account, and a domain Ahrefs has not rated is reported as unrated rather than estimated.

What is DR in SEO?

DR stands for Domain Rating, a score from 0 to 100 that Ahrefs, an SEO tool company, calculates for every website in its link index. It describes how strong a site's backlink profile is compared with every other site Ahrefs has crawled. It is Ahrefs' own metric, not a figure Google publishes.

Is Domain Rating the same as Domain Authority?

No. Domain Rating is made by Ahrefs from Ahrefs' link index; Domain Authority is made by Moz from Moz's index with a machine-learning model. The two use different data and different formulas, so the same site usually has a different number in each, and one cannot be converted into the other.

Why did my Domain Rating drop when I didn't lose any links?

Because DR is relative. Ahrefs explains that when other sites gain links the scale has to make room for them, so a site that stands still can slip. A site that links to you can also lose links of its own, or start linking to more sites, and then pass on less.

Do nofollow links count towards Domain Rating?

No. Ahrefs counts followed links only, and only the first link from each linking domain. A site that links to you only with nofollow links does not raise your DR.

1. What is Domain Rating (DR)?, Ahrefs Help Center. The current definition, the calculation, and the advice to judge DR against similar sites.
2. Domain Rating: What It Is & What It's Good For, Ahrefs. The logarithmic scale, followed links only, why DR can fall without losing links, and what it ignores.
3. What is Domain Authority?, Moz. Moz's own definition of Domain Authority, its 1–100 scale and how it is calculated.
4. Spam policies for Google web search: link spam, Google Search Central. What Google counts as link spam, including buying links for ranking purposes.