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Understanding Domain Rating
Understand what your score measures, what changes with DR4, and how to put the comparison to work.
Domain Rating is Ahrefs’ measure of the relative strength of a website’s backlink profile, scored from 0 to 100. The scale is logarithmic: moving from 70 to 80 is harder than moving from 20 to 30. DR measures links, rather than the quality of your content or business.
How Ahrefs defines Domain RatingDR helps you compare backlink profiles, research competing websites, and assess potential link opportunities. Compare sites in your own market and use the same DR model for each. Consider relevance, real visitors, and individual links alongside the score; a higher DR alone does not guarantee better search rankings.
Ahrefs’ guide to a good Domain RatingDR4 uses a smaller, higher-quality pool of linking sites and puts more weight on sites Ahrefs estimates receive organic search traffic. Ahrefs reports that the updated model reduces inflated spam scores and correlates more strongly with rankings across hosts and subdomains in its testing.
Ahrefs’ DR4 announcementDR3 is the previous model; DR4 changes which linking sites influence the score and gives individual subdomains their own ratings. A subdomain no longer simply inherits its parent domain’s DR. Both models use a 0–100 scale. This checker shows DR4 minus DR3 as the point change.
What changes in DR4Ahrefs announced December 1, 2026 as the rollout date in its standard interface. DR4 is available to preview through its free Domain Rating API. Ahrefs says DR3 will remain available through the API for a short period after the switch.
Ahrefs’ rollout timelineA change in an Ahrefs metric does not itself change your Google rankings. Ahrefs says there is no evidence that search engines use Domain Rating as a ranking factor. Check your search traffic, ranking positions, and backlinks separately to understand how your site is performing.
Ahrefs on DR and search rankings
DR4 is Ahrefs’ new Domain Rating model for the strength of your backlink profile.
Compare it with DR3 before Ahrefs switches on December 1, 2026.
Domain Rating by Ahrefs. Scores run from 0–100. Recent checks may be reused for up to an hour.