Bulk Domain Rating Checker
Paste a list of domains and get every Ahrefs Domain Rating side by side. Built for the moment you have twenty directories to submit to and need to know which ones are worth the afternoon.
How to use this tool
- 1
Gather your list
Copy the domains you are weighing up: a directory shortlist, outreach targets, or competitors. Full URLs are fine, we reduce them to hostnames, and duplicates are removed automatically.
- 2
Paste and run
Drop them into the box, one per line. Up to 25 at a time, which is roughly one working session of submissions. The check takes a few seconds because we query in parallel.
- 3
Read the bands, not just the numbers
DR is logarithmic, so the gap between 60 and 70 is far bigger than between 10 and 20. The colour bands group domains into tiers that reflect that, which is usually the decision you are actually making.
- 4
Sort and cut
Sort by DR, then draw a line. For a new site, the top ten to fifteen relevant domains are a full launch wave. Everything below that line is next month, not today.
- 5
Export and track
Download the CSV and keep it beside your submission tracker. Add a column for the live listing URL once you submit, so you can verify each link later rather than guessing.
Getting more out of DR
Relevance beats authority more often than founders expect
A DR 25 directory that only lists AI tools will send you better traffic than a DR 75 general one where you sit on page nine. Filter for relevance first, then use DR to order what survives.
A high DR with nofollow links passes nothing
DR measures the domain, not the link. Plenty of high-authority sites mark every outbound link nofollow. Check the actual link type on a live listing before you judge a directory by its score.
Re-run the same list monthly
Results are cached for 24 hours but not longer, so a monthly re-run shows you which directories are growing and which are decaying. A directory losing DR steadily is one to stop recommending.
Include your own domain in every list
Seeing your DR sitting in the same table as your targets is the fastest way to calibrate expectations. If you are DR 5 and everything on your list is DR 70, you are looking at the wrong list.
Do not chase the number itself
DR is an Ahrefs estimate of backlink strength, not a Google ranking factor. It is a useful proxy for prioritising work, and a terrible KPI to optimise directly.
What to do with these numbers
Rank a submission list
Paste your directory shortlist, sort by DR, and work top down. The strongest domains take the same ten minutes to submit to as the weakest ones.
Sanity check an outreach list
Before you write twenty personalised pitches, find out which of those blogs actually carry authority. It usually changes the order you contact them in.
Watch your own domains
Keep your product, your blog, and two competitors in one list and re-run it monthly. Trend matters more than any single reading.
Do not stop at DR
A high score with a nofollow outbound link passes nothing. Check the link type too, which is what our dofollow guide covers.
Frequently asked questions
What is Domain Rating?
Domain Rating is Ahrefs' 0 to 100 score for how strong a site's backlink profile is, on a logarithmic scale. Moving from DR 10 to DR 20 is far easier than DR 60 to DR 70. It measures the linking domain, not any individual link, so a high DR site that marks its outbound links nofollow passes you nothing.
Why check domains in bulk?
Because the decision is almost always comparative. When you have a list of 20 directories to submit to, or a shortlist of guest post targets, what matters is the ranking between them, not any single number. Checking one at a time makes you hold nineteen numbers in your head.
How accurate are these numbers?
They come straight from Ahrefs' public Domain Rating endpoint, which is the same underlying data as their paid tools. DR updates as Ahrefs recrawls the web, so treat a score as accurate to within a point or two rather than exact to the decimal.
Why is a domain showing an error?
Usually the domain is too new or too small for Ahrefs to have data on it, which effectively means a DR near zero. Occasionally it means a typo, or that Ahrefs briefly rate limited us. Re-running the check normally resolves the second case.
Should I only submit to high DR sites?
No, and this is where DR gets misused most. Relevance beats authority for referral traffic and often for rankings too: a DR 25 directory in your exact niche can outperform a DR 80 generalist that buries you. Use DR to break ties within a relevant list, not to build the list.
Is there a limit?
Up to 25 domains per check, and results are cached for 24 hours, so re-running the same list is instant and does not count against the hourly limit. No account needed.
What counts as a good Domain Rating?
It depends entirely on age and niche. A startup site under a year old is typically somewhere between 0 and 20, and that is completely normal. Above 30 usually means months of consistent link building. Above 70 is generally a large established brand. Judge a domain against its peers, not against an absolute bar.
Does Domain Rating affect Google rankings directly?
No. DR is an Ahrefs metric, not something Google calculates or uses. It is a useful proxy because it correlates with the backlink strength Google does care about, but optimising for the number itself is a mistake. Treat it as a thermometer, not the illness.
Why do two similar sites have very different DR?
Usually age and the quality of the links pointing at them, not the quality of the sites themselves. A four-year-old site with a hundred referring domains will outscore a better product launched last month. This is the main reason DR is a poor way to judge a company and a decent way to judge a link opportunity.
Can I check subdomains or specific pages?
This tool works at the domain level, which is how Domain Rating is calculated in the first place. Paste a full URL and we reduce it to its hostname. If you need page-level comparison, our website comparison tool inspects individual pages including title, canonical, and Open Graph tags.