What is Domain Rating?

Domain Rating, or DR, is a score from 0 to 100 that measures how authoritative a website is. The higher the DR, the more valuable a citation from that site is for your own rankings.

Where does DR come from?

DR is a metric created by Ahrefs, one of the leading SEO tools. It is calculated based on the number and quality of other websites linking to a given domain. A site like Yell.com has a DR of 82 because thousands of reputable sites link to it.

The score is logarithmic, not linear — so the gap between DR 70 and DR 80 is far bigger than the gap between DR 10 and DR 20.

Why does it matter for citations?

When your business is listed on a high-DR directory, that site passes some of its authority to your website. A citation on a DR 80 site is worth dramatically more than one on a DR 10 site. Not all directories are equal — and spending time on low-DR directories is often a poor use of resource.

What DR range should I target?

For UK local businesses, focusing on directories with a DR of 40 or above gives strong results. CitationHQ targets directories ranging from DR 20 to DR 100, with the majority of tier-one directories sitting between DR 60 and DR 85.

Our full list, with each directory's current DR, is on the UK directories page.

DR vs other metrics

DR measures the whole domain. You may also see:

• DA (Domain Authority, from Moz) — similar to DR, different algorithm
• UR (URL Rating, Ahrefs) — measures a specific page, not the whole site
• PA (Page Authority, Moz) — Moz's page-level equivalent

Both domain-level metrics (DR and DA) are useful proxies for directory quality — they correlate strongly with real-world ranking impact.