What is Domain Rating and URL Rating?
Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating (UR) are proprietary metrics developed by Ahrefs to assess the authority and backlink strength of a domain (DR) or an individual URL (UR). These scores help estimate how powerful a website or webpage is in terms of its backlink profile — a key factor in search engine rankings.
Both DR and UR are measured on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100, where each point increase becomes progressively more difficult. For example, increasing your score from 90 to 91 is significantly harder than moving from 20 to 21.
While DR and UR give valuable insight into link strength, a higher score doesn’t guarantee more organic traffic. That’s because many other ranking signals — like content quality, user experience, and relevance — also play major roles in search visibility.
DR and UR are similar to Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) scores developed by Moz. DR is often used interchangeably with terms like Authority Score, Domain Score, or Domain Authority Score.
Domain Rating (DR) vs. URL Rating (UR)
Domain Rating (DR): Measures the overall strength of a domain’s backlink profile.
URL Rating (UR): Evaluates the backlink authority of a specific page or URL.
How is Domain Rating (DR) Calculated?
Ahrefs uses a combination of factors to compute a domain’s DR:
Number of unique referring domains linking to your site.
Number of dofollow links pointing to your domain.
DR of the referring domains that link to you.
How many other websites those domains are linking out to.
Distribution of link equity, calculated through complex algorithms and scaled from 0 to 100.
Key Facts About DR
A high DR domain passes more link juice to the sites it links to.
The authority is divided among all outbound links on the source domain.
One dofollow backlink from a strong, unique domain has more value than multiple links from the same source.
No-follow links do not contribute to DR.
Only the first unique backlink from a domain is counted for DR purposes.
DR doesn’t consider content, spam signals, or domain age — only backlink data.
How is URL Rating calculated?
Ahrefs determines the UR of a page using a separate but similar algorithm that includes:
Total backlinks to the page — both internal and external.
Do-follow backlinks are prioritized in the calculation.
Detection and removal of link manipulation schemes, like excessive link exchanges.
HTTP and HTTPS versions of a page are treated with equal weight.
Backlink loops (mutual linking pages that artificially inflate metrics) are neutralized to maintain score integrity.
Key facts about UR
UR is a page-level metric, also scored from 0 to 100 on a logarithmic scale.
Ahrefs uses an algorithm similar to Google’s PageRank for UR.
Improving a page’s UR typically leads to higher SERP visibility for that specific page.
Unlike DR, which reflects domain-wide authority, UR gives insight into individual page performance.
Ahrefs states that UR correlates more closely with Google rankings than DR because Google ranks individual pages, not entire domains.
What Is a Good DR or UR?
The "goodness" of a DR or UR score is relative to your competitors:
A DR of 20 can be strong if competitors are below that threshold.
A DR or UR of 70–80 may still be weak if your competition is closer to 90.
Always benchmark your scores against similar websites in your industry.
How to Improve DR and UR?
Improving your DR and UR comes down to earning quality backlinks. Here are some ways to do that:
Focus on high-authority websites in your niche.
Avoid low-quality or spammy links — quality trumps quantity.
Secure backlinks to your homepage for DR, and to specific content pages for UR.
Build internal links to boost UR by funneling authority through your site structure.
How DR and UR Support SEO?
Although Google doesn’t use DR or UR directly in its ranking algorithm, these metrics are useful for:
Evaluating your domain or page strength versus competitors.
Prioritizing pages for link building and SEO campaigns.
Identifying high-authority websites to target for backlinks.
Monitoring performance of pages as you enhance their backlink profiles.
❗ A high DR or UR doesn't guarantee top rankings — other factors like content quality, intent, UX, and technical SEO are equally important. A DR20 site can outrank a DR35 site if the former delivers more relevant and optimized content.
DR vs. UR vs. Ahrefs Rank
Metric | Measures | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
Domain Rating (DR) | Strength of the entire domain's backlink profile | Assesses domain-level authority |
URL Rating (UR) | Strength of a single URL's backlinks | Evaluates page-level authority |
Ahrefs Rank | Rank of the domain based on its DR | Orders all websites globally by backlink strength |
Ahrefs Rank functions similarly to Alexa Rank, but while Alexa focused on traffic, Ahrefs Rank is based entirely on link profile authority.
Takeaway
Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating (UR) are powerful indicators of your website’s link-building health:
DR reflects domain-wide backlink authority.
UR focuses on individual page strength.
These metrics are best used as benchmarking tools — not direct ranking factors — to improve SEO strategy, guide link-building efforts, and assess competitive standing. Improving DR and UR by securing high-quality backlinks is one of the most effective ways to boost your search visibility.