Domain Rating Checker
Check the Domain Rating (DR) of any website for free. Type a domain, see its DR and what it means, and add a badge to show it off.
What is Domain Rating?
Domain Rating (DR) is a score from 0 to 100 made by Ahrefs that shows how strong a website's backlink profile is compared with every other site in their index. The more unique websites link to a domain - and the stronger those websites are themselves - the higher its DR.
It is used to size up a site quickly: whether a link from it is worth chasing, how a competitor's authority compares with yours, or whether your own link building is working.
What is a good Domain Rating?
It depends on who you compare yourself with - a new SaaS and a national newspaper live on different scales. As a rough guide:
| DR | Level | What it usually means |
|---|---|---|
| 0-19 | Low | A young or lightly linked site. Most sites start here, and the first few good links move it fastest. |
| 20-39 | Fair | A site with a real backlink profile starting to form. Steady links from relevant sites keep it climbing. |
| 40-59 | Good | A well-linked site with authority most competitors do not have yet. |
| 60-79 | Strong | A strong backlink profile. Links from this site carry real weight. |
| 80-100 | Excellent | Among the most linked-to sites on the web. |
The scale is logarithmic: going from 10 to 20 takes far fewer links than going from 60 to 70. So the most useful comparison is with sites in your own niche, not with the top of the web.
How is Domain Rating calculated?
Ahrefs counts the unique domains that link to a site with at least one followed link, and weighs each by its own DR and by how many other sites it links to. A link from a strong site that links out sparingly counts for more than one from a site that links to everyone. The result is placed on the 0-100 logarithmic scale.
Only linking domains matter, not the number of links: a hundred links from one site count about as much as one. Nofollow links do not count at all.
How to increase your Domain Rating
- Publish things worth linking to. Original data, free tools and useful guides earn links on their own.
- Get mentioned where your audience reads. Guest posts, podcasts, interviews and roundups in your niche bring links from relevant sites.
- Turn mentions into links. Sites that already mention your product without linking are the easiest links you will ever ask for.
- Be patient. DR follows new links with a delay, and it counts domains, not links - ten new sites linking to you move it more than a hundred links from one.
Launch directories and leaderboards like outclimbed are mostly about visitors rather than DR - most of their links are nofollow, ours included. A place on the wall starts at $10.
Show your Domain Rating with a badge
Check a domain above and you get a free badge with its DR, in a brand or colour-by-level style, light, neutral or dark, with or without our logo. It updates itself weekly, so the number on your site is never out of date.
Questions
Is this Domain Rating checker free?
Yes. There is no sign-up and no paid tier. Check your own site and your competitors, and take the badge if you want it.
Where does the Domain Rating come from?
From Ahrefs. Domain Rating is Ahrefs' metric, and this tool shows their number as they publish it - we do not calculate or adjust it.
How often is the rating updated?
A domain's rating is fetched at most once a week, and a badge shows the latest rating we have. DR itself changes slowly, as a site gains or loses links from other sites.
Why is my Domain Rating 0?
A new site, or one that few other sites link to, has a DR of 0 or close to it. That is normal: DR measures links from other domains, and it takes a handful of links from established sites before it moves.
Is Domain Rating a Google ranking factor?
No. DR is a third-party estimate of how strong a site's backlink profile is. Google does not use it. It is useful because backlinks do matter to Google, and DR summarises them in one number.
What is the difference between DR and DA?
Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' score; Domain Authority (DA) is Moz's. Both estimate backlink strength on a 0-100 scale from their own crawls, so the same site gets different numbers from each. Compare DR with DR, not with DA.
Domain Rating data by Ahrefs. outclimbed is not affiliated with Ahrefs.