Domain Rating (DR)
Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' 0–100 score measuring the strength of a website's backlink profile relative to others in its index.
Ahrefs' Domain Rating measures the size and quality of a site's referring domain set. Like DA, it uses a logarithmic scale, so higher scores are exponentially harder to earn.
Why Domain Rating (DR) matters
DR is the most commonly used metric in SaaS link building because Ahrefs has one of the largest crawled link indexes. Most outreach campaigns set a minimum DR threshold (typically DR 30, 50, or 70).
How Domain Rating (DR) works in practice
DR alone is not enough — a high-DR site with no traffic, irrelevant content, or a manipulated link profile is still a poor placement. Always combine DR with organic traffic, topical relevance, and a manual quality review.
Best practices
- Set DR floors per campaign goal (DR 30+ for volume, DR 50+ for authority, DR 70+ for digital PR).
- Cross-check DR with organic traffic (Ahrefs 'Traffic' column).
- Reject DR-inflated link farms even if they meet the threshold.
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