What Is a Good Domain Rating? It Depends on Who You Compete With

A good Domain Rating is one that is close to, or higher than, the sites you actually compete with in search results for your topic; there is no single number that is “good” everywhere. Ahrefs, which created the metric, says the same: DR is relative by definition. This guide explains how DR is calculated, how to benchmark your site against your real competitors for free, and when a high DR means much less than it seems.

Published: 2026-10-16 · 7 min read · Satelo

The short answer

Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs’ score for the strength of a site’s backlink profile compared with all the other sites in its database, on a 0–100 scale. Ahrefs’ own article on what a good Domain Rating is answers the question with “it depends entirely on what you compare it to”, and notes that the overwhelming majority of domains sit at the bottom of the scale, DR 0 to 10.

So the useful version of the question is: good compared with whom?

• For a six-month-old hobby blog, single digits or low teens are normal.
• For a local business site, what matters is how you compare with other local businesses ranking for the same services in your city.
• For a software company competing with large SaaS brands, the bar is much higher.

If your DR is in the same range as the sites ranking on page one for your target queries, it is “good enough” for those queries. Beyond that, other things (content, relevance, intent match) usually decide who ranks.

How Domain Rating is calculated

According to Ahrefs’ help article on DR:

• DR is calculated at the domain level, from links from other domains to yours. The page-level equivalent is URL Rating (UR).
• It considers both the quantity and the quality of linking domains. A link from a domain with a high DR counts for more.
• A linking domain splits its rating equally among all the domains it links to. A strong site that links out to a huge number of domains passes less to each one than a smaller site that links out rarely.
• DR is relative: your score depends on how your link profile compares with everyone else’s in the Ahrefs index.

Ahrefs also describes DR as logarithmic in its good-DR article: moving from 20 to 30 can take a handful of links, while moving from 70 to 80 can take thousands. That is why a 10-point gap near the top is a very different thing from a 10-point gap near the bottom.

Two consequences follow. Your DR can drop even if you lost nothing, because other sites gained links faster. And DR measures links only: it does not look at your content, your traffic or whether your audience is real.

Why there is no universal “good” number

Every niche has its own link economy. Software, finance and marketing sites attract links from many other sites, so their scores run high. A wedding photographer, a plumber or a knitting blog lives in a smaller corner of the web, and the leaders there may have modest scores while still dominating their search results.

As one vendor’s sample, Ahrefs’ good-DR article reports that among 600 SaaS companies it checked, the median DR was 62 and the top quartile started at 77. That is a benchmark for SaaS, measured by Ahrefs on its own data, and it says nothing about a recipe blog or a regional law firm. The same article recommends comparing yourself with 20 to 50 companies in your sector and calculating your own median.

Ahrefs states plainly in that article that DR is not a Google ranking factor. DR is Ahrefs’ own model of the link graph, not a number Google publishes or reads.

How to benchmark your DR for free in 15 minutes

You do not need a paid subscription to answer “is my DR normal?”. You need a fair comparison set.

1. Pick 3–5 queries you want to rank for. Use queries with clear intent, the ones that would bring you customers or readers.
2. Collect the page-one domains. Search each query in a private window and write down the ranking domains. Skip giants that rank for everything (Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube, Reddit) into a separate column.
3. Look up their DR. Ahrefs’ free Website Authority Checker shows the DR of a domain. Do it for each domain on your list, including your own.
4. Calculate the median and the range of the comparable sites (without the giants).
5. Place yourself. Within the range: links are probably not your main bottleneck for these queries. Far below: you need more real mentions and links over time, and should target more specific queries meanwhile.

For illustration, a worksheet might look like this (made-up domains and numbers):

In that illustration, a DR of 18 is below the comparable median, but the site at DR 22 shows that a strong page can still rank. The gap is real but not hopeless, and the work is clear: better content for that query plus earning a few relevant links.

If you want more data points than one free tool gives you, our list of free Ahrefs alternatives covers other free ways to see links and authority scores.

DR vs DA vs Authority Score in one table

The question “what is a good domain authority score?” has the same answer: it depends on your competitors. Different tools just build their scores differently. Our guide to domain authority explained covers each metric in depth; here is the short version.

The same site can show different numbers in each tool. Compare like with like: DR to DR, DA to DA, and never one tool’s number against another’s.

DR and traffic are different things

DR counts links. Traffic depends on whether your pages answer queries people actually search for. Plenty of sites have a solid DR and almost no search visitors, and plenty of small niche sites with low DR get steady traffic from specific long-tail queries.

When you evaluate a site (yours, a competitor’s, or one you might write for), look at both: DR for the link profile and an estimate of organic visibility for the audience. If you need ways to see traffic without paid tools, read how to check website traffic for free.

When a high DR is misleading

Because DR is built from links alone, it can be inflated by links that exist mostly to raise the number. Warning signs:

• High DR, little or no organic traffic. The links do not come with an audience.
• Sudden jumps. A site goes from DR 10 to DR 50 in a few months with no visible reason, such as press coverage or a viral piece.
• Linking domains that look alike. Many referring domains with thin, generic content, often on unrelated topics.
• Everything is for sale. A “write for us” page that lists prices by DR and accepts any topic.
• Expired-domain history. A fresh site on an old domain that used to be about something else entirely.

These patterns overlap with link schemes described in Google’s spam policies. Our guides on how to spot PBN sites and Moz Spam Score go deeper. Before you pay for a placement based on DR, run through how to check a site before buying a guest post.

How to raise DR the honest way

DR follows real links from many different sites, so the honest way to raise it is to give people a reason to link: one genuinely useful resource, data others want to cite, expert quotes, partnerships and reclaiming mentions you already earned. Ahrefs’ own advice in its good-DR article is to focus on links from many distinct referring domains and not to chase small point changes. Our guide on how to increase domain authority lists practical tactics, and how many backlinks you need helps set realistic expectations.

Buying links to push the number up is a bad trade: it inflates a third-party score while risking exactly the link-spam pattern Google warns about.

What to do next

Build your comparison sheet today with five competitors from your own search results; it answers “is my DR good?” better than any generic chart. Then look at the part DR ignores. The free Satelo site check gives you a Quality Score built mostly from open data, such as Tranco rank, domain age, Common Crawl size and PageSpeed, with the evidence behind each number in about 30 seconds. It does not repeat DR, which is the point: it shows whether a site looks real and active, not just well linked.

FAQ

What is a good Domain Rating score?

There is no universal good score. A good DR is one in the same range as, or above, the sites ranking on page one for your target queries. Ahrefs itself describes DR as a relative metric, and most domains on the web sit between DR 0 and 10.

What is a good Domain Rating for a new website?

For a new site, a low DR, often in single digits, is normal. Compare yourself with other small sites ranking for specific, long-tail queries in your niche, and focus on earning real mentions and links over time rather than on the number.

Is Domain Rating the same as Domain Authority?

No. Domain Rating is made by Ahrefs and Domain Authority by Moz. Both are built from link data with different methods and indexes, so the same site gets different numbers. Compare DR only with DR and DA only with DA.

Does Google use Domain Rating?

No. DR is a third-party metric created by Ahrefs. Ahrefs itself says DR is not a Google ranking factor.

Why did my Domain Rating drop?

DR is relative, so it can fall when other sites gain links faster than you, even if you lost nothing. It can also drop if linking domains removed links or lost strength themselves. Check your referring domains before worrying.

Is a high DR site always good for a guest post?

No. A high DR with little organic traffic, sudden score jumps, or a price list for links by DR are warning signs. Check traffic, topic relevance and real readers, not only the score.

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