Domain Rating Checker
Check the Domain Rating (DR) and website authority of any domain — or up to 10at once in bulk mode. DR is Ahrefs' measure of backlink profile strength on a 0–100 scale. Free, no sign-up required.
What is Domain Rating?
Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' website authority metric. It scores a domain's backlink profile from 0 to 100 based on how many unique websites link to it and how strong those linking sites are themselves. It is the most widely used measure of “website authority” in SEO — when someone asks how strong a domain is, DR is usually the number they mean.
DR does not directly measure rankings or traffic. A high-DR site can still rank poorly for competitive terms, and a low-DR site can win specific queries with great content. But DR correlates strongly with ranking ability, which is why SEOs use it to size up competitors, vet link prospects, and track their own link building progress. For a deeper explanation, read our guide on what Domain Rating actually measures.
What is a good Domain Rating?
There is no universal “good” DR — it depends entirely on your niche and your competitors. The benchmarks below are a practical way to read any score:
| DR range | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| 0–10 | Brand-new or barely linked domain. Every new site starts here. |
| 11–20 | Early traction — a handful of referring domains, often directories and first mentions. |
| 21–40 | Established small site. Competitive in low-difficulty niches. |
| 41–60 | Solid authority. Most successful small businesses and SaaS sites live here. |
| 61–80 | Strong authority — large publications, popular tools, well-known brands. |
| 81–100 | Internet giants: major platforms, news sites, and institutions. |
The most useful comparison is against sites ranking for your target keywords, not the whole internet. Use bulk mode above to check your domain against your top competitors in one run, or run a full side-by-side SEO comparison to see where each site wins beyond backlinks.
Domain Rating vs Domain Authority vs Authority Score
Every major SEO tool has its own authority metric. They all score 0–100 and all measure roughly the same thing — backlink strength — but the numbers are not interchangeable because each vendor uses its own crawler and formula:
| Metric | Tool | Based on |
|---|---|---|
| Domain Rating (DR) | Ahrefs | Quantity and quality of referring domains |
| Domain Authority (DA) | Moz | Link profile, modeled to predict ranking likelihood |
| Authority Score (AS) | Semrush | Backlinks plus organic traffic and spam signals |
Pick one metric and track it consistently. Comparing your DR to a competitor's DA tells you nothing — the scales are different. This tool reports Ahrefs DR.
How to improve your Domain Rating
- Earn links from new referring domains. DR is driven by unique linking websites — the tenth link from the same site moves it far less than the first link from a new one.
- Prioritize high-DR sources. Links from strong domains pass more weight. Guest posts, digital PR, and genuinely useful free tools are the most reliable ways to earn them.
- Watch your competitors' link sources. If a site links to a competitor with similar content, it has a reason to link to you too. Our guide on tracking competitor SEO moves covers how to find these opportunities.
- Don't chase toxic links — or panic about them. Spammy links mostly get ignored rather than counted. Disavow only in clear cases — see when you actually need to disavow links.