What is Domain Rating (DR)?
Domain rating is a metric developed by Ahrefs that scores a website's backlink strength on a scale of 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating stronger authority. It is based largely on the quantity and quality of the websites linking to yours.
The scale is logarithmic, which means climbing from 20 to 30 is far easier than climbing from 60 to 70. Early gains come quickly from a handful of decent links; later gains require links from progressively stronger sites.
Domain rating is not a Google metric — Google does not publish a single authority score — but it is a useful proxy for how much link-based authority a site has accumulated relative to competitors.
Why it matters
Domain rating is a quick way to gauge whether you can realistically compete for a keyword. If the top results all have a DR of 70 and yours is 15, you will struggle to rank for that term until you build authority.
Tracking DR over time shows whether your backlink efforts are working, giving you a single number to watch as you build link authority.
How Distro helps
Distro's backlink builder taps a directory of 450+ submission opportunities and its domain rating tracker shows your DR climbing as links land. See your starting domain rating in your free growth report.
Related terms
Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website, serving as votes of confidence that improve search engine rankings.
Referring Domains
Referring domains are the number of unique websites that link to your site, which is a stronger ranking signal than total backlink count.
Domain Authority (DA)
Domain authority is a metric developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine results on a scale of 0 to 100.