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Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' metric for the overall strength of a website's backlink profile, on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100. A DR of 70 is dramatically stronger than a DR of 35 — the scale is not linear.
DR is calculated based on the quantity and quality of referring domains pointing to a site. It is useful for comparing relative authority between domains and for assessing the difficulty of outranking a competitor.
DR is Ahrefs-specific. Moz uses Domain Authority (DA), Semrush uses Authority Score. These metrics are directionally similar but use different algorithms and data sets, so comparing DR on one site to DA on another is not meaningful.
Example
A DR of 6 (like theprojectseo.com's current baseline) means the site is building authority. Linkgraph.com at DR 60+ has a large authority advantage that requires sustained link building to close.
Apply this in practice
Definitions are step one.
Our team implements Domain Rating (DR) correctly for clients across 15 active engagements. If you want a technical SEO audit that covers this and 100+ other checkpoints, talk to us.