What is Domain Rating & How to Improve It
If you're building a strong online presence, you've likely come across the term Domain Rating (DR), especially if you're using SEO tools like Ahrefs. Whether you're trying to grow your blog, scale a business website, or increase visibility on search engines, your domain rating plays a key role in how trustworthy and authoritative your site appears.
In this blog, we'll explain what is domain rating, why it matters in SEO, and most importantly, how to increase your domain rating to build a stronger digital presence.
What is Domain Rating?
Domain Rating (DR) is a metric developed by Ahrefs, a leading SEO and backlink analysis tool. It measures the strength of a website’s backlink profile on a scale from 0 to 100, with higher numbers indicating a more authoritative domain.
In simple terms, Ahrefs Domain Rating tells search engines and SEO professionals how strong your website appears based on the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to it.
What is domain rating in SEO?
It’s not a direct ranking factor used by Google, but it’s a useful third-party metric that helps estimate a site’s authority and link profile strength. A higher domain rating can lead to better visibility and improved keyword rankings.
What is a Good Domain Rating?
There’s no strict benchmark for what qualifies as a “good” DR, but here’s a general guide:
For most small to mid-sized businesses, aiming for a DR of 40–60 is a great target.
How to Check Domain Rating
To find your domain rating, simply use Ahrefs:
Go to Ahrefs Site Explorer
Enter your domain (e.g. www.example.com)
You’ll instantly see the Domain Rating (DR), along with referring domains, backlinks, and more.
Note: If you're wondering how to check domain rating, Ahrefs is the most reliable and widely used platform.
How to Increase Domain Rating
Now to the part you came for: how to increase your domain rating and build a stronger SEO foundation. Here’s what actually works:
1. Build High-Quality Backlinks
Domain Rating is directly tied to your backlink profile. The more high-quality websites that link to yours, the better your DR.
Focus on relevant sites in your industry.
Avoid spammy or low-authority links.
Guest posting, digital PR, and content marketing are effective strategies.
If you're using Ahrefs, you can use it to identify strong backlink opportunities, making it easier to know how to increase the domain rating Ahrefs style.
2. Create Link-Worthy Content
One of the best ways to earn backlinks is by publishing content that others want to reference:
Data-driven blog posts
How-to guides and tutorials
Industry reports or original research
Infographics or interactive content
This naturally attracts links and improves your domain rating over time.
3. Fix Broken Backlinks
Use Ahrefs to identify links pointing to 404 or broken pages on your website. Redirect those URLs to relevant live content or restore the missing pages.
This ensures you retain link equity, a crucial tactic when figuring out how to increase your domain rating of website.
4. Get Featured on High DR Websites
This includes:
Press mentions
Podcast appearances
Influencer or expert interviews
Business directories or awards
These mentions often come with valuable backlinks from high-authority domains, an efficient way to boost your own DR.
5. Improve Internal Linking Structure
While internal links don’t affect domain rating directly, they help spread link equity across your site. Make sure your top-performing pages link to other important ones. This enhances the overall authority flow.
6. Audit & Disavow Toxic Backlinks
Not all backlinks help. Low-quality or spammy links can hurt your SEO and possibly limit your domain rating growth. Tools like Ahrefs or Google Search Console can help you find and disavow harmful links.
How Long Does It Take to Increase Domain Rating?
Improving your DR isn’t overnight work. Depending on your starting point, it may take weeks or months of consistent link-building and content creation to see results.
Ahrefs updates DR regularly, so keep tracking your progress. And don’t be discouraged by slow growth. Focus on quality over quantity when building backlinks.
Summary: How to Increase Your Domain Rating
If you're wondering how to increase your domain rating, here’s a quick checklist:
Build high-authority backlinks
Publish linkable content
Repair broken links
Get featured on reputable sites
Improve internal linking
Disavow toxic backlinks
Stay consistent & patient
And remember, while domain rating isn’t a direct Google ranking factor, it’s one of the most helpful signals for understanding your site’s authority.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know what is domain rating, what is a good domain rating, and how to increase your domain rating, it’s time to apply those insights to grow your online authority.
Use tools like Ahrefs to track and optimize your backlink strategy. Whether you’re a blogger, business, or digital marketer, a better DR means more trust, more traffic, and better search visibility.
Ready to take control of your SEO? Start building that DR.