What Is Domain Rating?
Domain Rating is Ahrefs' measure of the strength of a website's backlink profile, expressed on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100. A higher DR indicates a stronger, more authoritative link profile relative to other sites.
DR is comparative rather than absolute. It is most useful for benchmarking your site against direct competitors and for evaluating the relative authority of link prospects, not as a target in itself. It is similar in spirit to Moz's Domain Authority and Semrush's Authority Score.
How Domain Rating Is Calculated
DR is based primarily on the quantity and quality of unique domains linking to a site. Links from high-DR, relevant sites pass more value than many links from weak or unrelated ones, and the logarithmic scale means moving from 20 to 30 is far easier than 70 to 80.
Because DR depends on the wider link graph, your score can shift even without changes to your own links, as competitors gain or lose backlinks. Tracking the trend over time is more meaningful than any single reading.
What Is a Good Domain Rating?
A good DR depends entirely on your niche and competitors. Rather than chasing a universal number, compare your DR to the sites ranking for your target keywords. If competitors sit at 50 to 70 and you are at 25, building authority is a priority.
DR is not used by Google, but the factors that raise it, quality backlinks from relevant authoritative sites, also improve real rankings. Focus on earning those links and DR will follow as a byproduct.