“Is DR 35 good?” There is no single answer, because a good Domain Rating depends on your niche, your competitors and what you are using the number for. This guide gives you practical benchmarks and a simple way to decide what is good for you.
A quick reminder: what DR measures
Domain Rating is Ahrefs’ 0–100 score for the strength of a website’s backlink profile. It is relative: your DR shows how your link profile compares with every other site in the Ahrefs index. It does not measure traffic, content or rankings directly.
General DR benchmarks
- 0–10: new sites, personal blogs, small local businesses
- 11–30: growing sites with some real links
- 31–50: established blogs and businesses; good guest post targets
- 51–70: strong niche authorities and well-known brands
- 71–100: major publishers, platforms and global brands
For most small and medium websites, reaching DR 30–40 is a solid milestone, and DR 50+ puts you among the stronger sites in most niches.
Good DR depends on your niche
The best benchmark is your own competition. Search your main keywords, collect the top 10 ranking domains, and check them all with a multi-site DR checker. If the top results average DR 25, then DR 35 is excellent for you. If they average DR 75, you will need a lot more authority, or a different set of keywords.
Good DR for guest posts and links
Many link builders set a minimum between DR 20 and DR 40 for guest posts. More important than any cut-off is that the site is relevant and gets real organic traffic. A relevant DR 25 site with steady traffic is usually a better link than an unrelated DR 60 site that only sells posts.
How to grow your Domain Rating
- Create resources people want to reference: data, tools, guides.
- Get links from new unique domains; many links from one site add little.
- Focus on sites that are themselves strong and relevant.
- Reclaim lost links and unlinked brand mentions.
- Be patient. DR grows slowly, and faster at the low end of the scale.
Check your DR and your competitors’
Use our free bulk Ahrefs DR checker to see your current DR next to your competitors. Your first checks are free with no signup.