Here's a quick test. Would you still pick that backlink if you couldn't see its Domain Rating?
Say you've got two sites on your shortlist. One is DR 72, the other DR 38. Most of us would grab the 72 and move on. It's the bigger number, after all.
Now cover the scores and actually open both sites. The DR 72 one turns out to be a news portal that writes about anything: celebrity gossip on Monday, car insurance on Tuesday. Your article would end up in a "partner content" section that nobody clicks on. The DR 38 site is a small independent publication that has written about your industry every week for years. Its readers are exactly the people you're trying to reach.
Still want the 72? Probably not. But to make that call with confidence every time, you need to know what these scores actually measure, and what they don't.
What is domain rating?
Short answer: Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' score for how strong a website's backlink profile is, from 0 to 100.
The basic idea: the more different websites link to a domain, the higher its DR. Links from sites that are strong themselves count for more.
The scale isn't linear, either. Going from DR 20 to 30 is fairly easy. Going from 70 to 80 is a whole different story. So a high DR does tell you something real. The site has earned a lot of links, many of them from solid places, which is why people tend to call high-DR sites authoritative websites.
DR vs. DA rankings
Plenty of SEOs use Moz's Domain Authority (DA) instead, and sort their prospect lists by DA rankings. The two look alike, but they're not quite measuring the same thing:
| Domain Rating (DR) | Domain Authority (DA) | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | Ahrefs | Moz |
| Scale | 0–100 | 1–100 |
| What it reflects | How strong a domain's backlink profile is | A prediction of how likely a domain is to rank, mostly based on link data |
| Based on | Ahrefs' own link index | Moz's own link index |
Each tool crawls the web on its own and does its own maths, so don't be surprised when one site gets a 45 from one tool and something quite different from the other. That's normal. Both are estimates.
And here's the part people forget: Google doesn't use DR or DA. Neither score is part of how Google ranks pages. They're handy for comparing sites quickly. They can't tell you whether one particular link will actually help you.
What makes an authority domain worth a link?
When people say "authority domain", they usually mean a site with a strong backlink profile, which in practice means a high DR or DA. Fair enough. But a domain can look great on paper and still be the wrong home for your link.
A score can't tell you what the site writes about. It can't tell you who reads it, in what language, or from which country. It doesn't show which pages people actually visit, where your link would sit, or whether a reader would even notice it.
That matters, because links get judged in context, by search engines and by readers. A link on a relevant page that people really read, pointing to a page that delivers what it promised, looks natural and can bring visitors who stick around. A link buried on an off-topic page of a big site? It looks out of place, sends nobody, and won't do much for the page you're trying to rank.
So next to the score, ask five more questions.
The five-point check
1. Topic: Does it regularly cover subjects connected to your niche?
Ignore the "we accept guest posts on all topics" page. Look at what the site actually publishes. Scroll through the last few months of articles and the category pages. Is your subject something they cover every month, or did it show up once? Does it appear in their own editorial pieces, or only in sponsored posts? Would your article look at home next to what's already there?
Watch out for the site that covers everything. If a blog goes from crypto to gardening to dentistry in the same week, it isn't really relevant to any of them, whatever its DR says.
2. Audience: Does it reach the right market and language?
A big English-language site won't do much for you if your customers are in Denmark searching in Danish. It works the other way round too.
Check the language first, and make sure it matches the page you're linking to. Then look at where the visitors come from. Most SEO tools split traffic by country, so this takes a minute. Finally, think about who reads it. Consumers or businesses? Beginners or people who've been in the industry for years?
Watch out for traffic that mostly comes from countries you don't sell to, or content that's been machine-translated into six languages with no obvious home market.
3. Traffic: Which pages attract visitors, and are those topics relevant?
Total organic traffic is a single number, and it can hide a lot. What you really want to know is where that traffic lands.
Look at the top pages. Are they about things related to your niche, or is most of the traffic coming from one viral post that has nothing to do with you? And how has it moved over the last few months: steady, growing, or sliding?
A site can look healthy overall while the section on your topic gets close to nothing. That section is where your article will live, so that's the number that counts.
Watch out for a sharp drop in traffic, or a site where a handful of unrelated pages get all the visits and the rest gets none.
4. Context: Would the link genuinely help someone reading the article?
This is the most human question of the five, and often the one that tells you the most. Read the article (or the plan for it) as an ordinary reader would. At the point where the link appears, would you actually want to click it? Does the anchor text read like part of the sentence, or like it was jammed in? Is there real, useful content around it, or does the whole article exist just to carry the link?
A simple test: if an editor who cared about their readers would cut the link, it's not a good placement. And the links that help readers are the same ones search engines are built to reward.
Watch out for thin articles stuffed with several commercial links, or anchors that clearly don't belong in the sentence.
5. Destination: Does your page deliver what the anchor text promises?
Half of every backlink is on your own site, and it's the half people forget. A great placement pointing at the wrong page is wasted.
If the anchor says "how to compare business loans", the page should actually compare business loans. It should be in the same language as the article that links to it. And it should be good enough that someone who clicks through stays to read.
When the anchor, the article and your page all tell the same story, the link makes sense to people and to search engines. When they don't, visitors bounce and the link loses most of its value.
Watch out for every link pointing at your homepage, or at a sales page that has little to do with the anchor text.
Use DR and DA rankings as a filter, not a verdict
None of this means you should throw authority scores away. DR and DA rankings are a quick first filter, and that's exactly how they should be used. A simple way to combine them with the five checks:
- Start with the metrics. Use DR, DA, organic traffic and the like to cut a long list down to something manageable.
- Run every site that's left through the five questions: topic, audience, traffic, context and destination.
- Judge the fit, not just the domain. A DR 35 site that passes all five checks is often a better buy than a DR 70 authority domain that fails two.
- Pick the target page first. Know which page on your site each link is meant to support before you agree to the placement.
If you want more on sizing up a placement before you pay for it, read our guide on how to evaluate a link opportunity. And once your links are live, here's how to tell if your link building is working.
Your quick checklist
Keep this handy for your next campaign:
| Check | Question to ask |
|---|---|
| Topic | Does it regularly cover subjects connected to your niche? |
| Audience | Does it reach the right market and language? |
| Traffic | Which pages attract visitors, and are those topics relevant? |
| Context | Would the link genuinely help someone reading the article? |
| Destination | Does your page deliver what the anchor text promises? |
FAQ
What is domain rating?
It's Ahrefs' 0–100 score for how strong a website's backlink profile is. It goes up when more websites link to the domain, and links from strong sites count for more.
What is the difference between DR and DA?
DR is made by Ahrefs and measures the strength of a domain's backlinks. DA (Domain Authority) is made by Moz and tries to predict how well a domain will rank, mostly from link data. Each uses its own link index, so the same site often gets different scores.
Does Google use DR or DA rankings?
No. Both are estimates from third-party SEO tools. Google doesn't use either one to rank pages.
The bottom line
DR and DA are useful, and we use them too. They just don't tell the whole story. Next time a big number catches your eye, cover it with your thumb for a second and ask: would I still want this site?
At Zemvoq we supply link placements on iGaming and general-niche sites around the world. If you'd like to compare sites and rates with what you're getting now, get in touch.