What is a Good Domain Rating (DR)?

Our research team recently analyzed the Domain Rating required to rank in the top Google search results for high-competition keywords in 31 industries. The purpose of the study was to answer the question “What is a good Domain Rating (DR)?

We begin by defining Domain Rating, then explain how it works, and finally, we share what a “good” Domain Rating is, as defined by an ability to rank in the top 3 for high competition keywords in an industry.

What is Domain Rating (DR)?

Domain Rating is a third-party metric representing a domain’s ability to rank well on Google. It was invented by ahrefs.com, an SEO platform that tracks website backlinks and rankings. Along with Moz’s competing metric, Domain Authority, it is one of the most trusted measurements marketers use to track SEO performance.  

How Does Domain Rating Work? 

Domain Rating is a proprietary algorithm that measures the link popularity of a website. It takes into account the quantity of domains linking to a website and the quality of each of those domains, as measured by the number and quality of domains linking to each of them. It then rank-orders the websites and distributes them into 100 percentiles. The distribution is scaled logarithmically, meaning that moving from a DR of, say, 90 to 91 is exponentially more difficult than moving from a DR of 1 to 2.

To put the logarithmic scale into context, there are only 12 websites with a DR above 95 (Facebook, YouTube, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Instagram, X, Tiktok, Reddit, Yelp, and Baidu), and over 2 million with a DR lower than 10. 

Domain Rating is strongly correlated with ranking ability. Here is what the top 5 results for a high-competition keyword in the consulting world (“salesforce consulting firms”) looks like with the websites’ DRs annotated alongside each search result.

NOTE: Despite the strong correlation between DR and rankability, most search results aren’t simply in descending order of DR; there are other factors that help determine your ranking, described at the end of this article. 

What is a Good Domain Rating?

Our analysts ran the numbers on what it takes to rank in the top 3 Google search results for a competitive keyword in 31+ industries. The table below summarizes the results. Afterwards, we break down the data by industry, listing the DR of each of the first 3 Google search results for a competitive keyword in that industry.

Domain Rating Required for Top 3 Google Rankings, Summarized

Domain Rating	Impact on Google Rankings
75+	Able to rank Top 3 for competitive keywords in 95% of industries
50–75	Able to rank Top 3 for competitive keywords in 73% of industries
35–50	Able to rank Top 3 for competitive keywords in 39% of industries
20–35	Able to rank Top 3 for competitive keywords in 27% of industries
5–20	Able to rank Top 3 for competitive keywords in 12% of industries
< 5	Able to rank Top 3 for competitive keywords in 0% of industries

Domain Rating Required for Top 3 Google Rankings, By Industry 

Industry	Transactional Keyword		Domain Rating for Top 3 Positions
			#1	#2	#3
Addiction Treatment	High Competition	best addiction treatment centers	90	91	56
	Low Competition	best alcohol rehab center for women	67	56	36
Aviation & Aerospace	High Competition	flight simulator training at home	38	66	95
	Low Competition	flight simulator training center	65	18	7
Automotive	High Competition	remanufactured engines	76	24	21
	Low Competition	remanufactured engines texas	6	6	20
B2B SaaS	High Competition	iam tools	69	59	66
	Low Competition	open source iam tools	30	78	38
Biotech	High Competition	bone graft material types	77	84	94
	Low Competition	bone graft manufacturers	21	29	50
Construction	High Competition	kitchen remodel cost	64	89	86
	Low Competition	kitchen remodel contractor seattle	15	42	23
Cybersecurity	High Competition	cybersecurity solutions companies	77	69	80
	Low Competition	cybersecurity solutions specialist	52	55	30
eCommerce	High Competition	best stainless steel cookware	88	95	94
	Low Competition	best stainless steel cookware made in usa	33	40	31
Engineering	High Competition	electrical engineering firms	56	49	58
	Low Competition	electrical engineering firms dallas	49	4	33
Environmental Services	High Competition	civil engineering firms nyc	35	80	43
	Low Competition	geotechnical engineering firms nyc	36	49	32
Financial Services	High Competition	wealth management for doctors	68	49	57
	Low Competition	wealth management firms chicago	27	44	37
Fintech	High Competition	bnpl companies	74	59	85
	Low Competition	b2b bnpl companies	26	67	68
Healthcare	High Competition	healthcare analytics consulting firms	92	78	78
	Low Competition	healthcare revenue cycle management consultant	75	68	64
Higher Education	High Competition	education staffing agency	70	52	36
	Low Competition	special education staffing agency	33	36	28
Home Services	High Competition	pest control miami	75	36	34
	Low Competition	bee removal miami	16	30	11
HVAC	High Competition	top hvac companies	94	91	75
	Low Competition	hvac companies nyc	25	8	21
Industrial & Manufacturing	High Competition	plastic manufacturing companies	36	32	46
	Low Competition	injection molding companies	18	12	46
Insurance	High Competition	commercial insurance broker	80	85	55
	Low Competition	cybersecurity insurance broker ca	27	6	13
IT & Managed Services	High Competition	top msp companies	47	84	76
	Low Competition	msp company dallas	49	55	30
Legal Services	High Competition	business law firm nyc	69	55	90
	Low Competition	ip litigation firm nyc	55	53	23
Medical Device	High Competition	pelvic reconstruction plate	54	77	29
	Low Competition	pelvic bone graft for spinal fusion	71	35	12
Medtech	High Competition	medical records software	41	79	61
	Low Competition	open source medical records software	42	60	32
Oil & Gas	High Competition	oil and gas mapping	90	74	89
	Low Competition	reservoir engineering software	46	34	18
Pharmaceutical	High Competition	otc pain relievers	92	91	75
	Low Competition	otc pain reliever for kidney stones	37	23	11
Real Estate	High Competition	multifamily investment opportunities	50	76	56
	Low Competition	multifamily investment companies	36	30	35
Software Development	High Competition	ai software development companies	70	46	47
	Low Competition	offshore software development companies	34	61	36
Solar	High Competition	solar installation san diego	74	91	80
	Low Competition	solar installation encinitas	61	31	26
Staffing & Recruiting	High Competition	nurse staffing agency	59	62	74
	Low Competition	janitorial staffing agency	62	38	27
Transportation & Logistics	High Competition	best 3pl companies	78	91	95
	Low Competition	best 3pl for amazon sellers	73	29	47

In Addition to Domain Rating, What Determines Ranking?

As you can see in the table above, the search results aren’t ordered perfectly by domain rating, with the highest-DR website always achieving the highest ranking. The reason for this phenomenon is that there are 3 other major factors that impact ranking. Below we state each factor as well as its impact on a theoretical “Net DR” that equates directly with ranking ability. (For a full list of Google’s ranking factors, see here.)

Niche Expertise: +10-20 points

Niche expertise is a measure of a website’s degree of specialization in a particular topic. A 30-page website with 20 pages covering a niche topic like “CMMS software” would be considered a niche expert, whereas a 1,000-page website with 1 page on that topic would be considered a generalist. Google values niche experts’ coverage of the topic they specialize in over generalists’ coverage of the same topic. 

Engagement: +10-20 points

Engagement is a measure of time on page and user behavior. A page that keeps a searcher’s attention for 1 minute + and sees that searcher scroll down on the page and engage with elements of the site is considered by Google to be “high engagement.” 

Technical Factors (e.g. page speed, mobile friendliness, SSL certificate): -10-20 points

Speed, safety, and mobile-friendliness are prerequisites to ranking. If a website is experiencing technical issues that degrade the user experience, it will lower the site’s ranking ability until the issues are resolved.

The “Net DR” concept involves adding a domain’s DR to its estimated score in Niche Expertise and Engagement – and subtracting for technical issues – in order to estimate ranking ability. When you see, for example, a DR 40 domain outranking a DR 70 domain, the DR 40 site nearly always has substantially higher Nicher Expertise and Engagement. 

SEO Experts’ Website Domain Ratings

As a bonus, we thought we’d list the DRs of some of the most well-known SEO experts, so you can have a sense of what years of building ranking credibility can realistically achieve. 

SEO Expert	Domain Rating
Neil Patel	91
Evan Bailyn	77
Aleyda Solis	75
Marie Haynes	73
Vanessa Fox	51

Downloading This Report & Inquiries

If you would like a pdf copy of this report, you can reach out to us here to request it.

First Page Sage provides SEO services to increase your DR and overall ranking ability. If you’d like to learn more, inquire here.

Sources

• Research Study, June 2024 — September 2024, First Page Sage Offices, New York, NY
• Domain Rating: What It Is and What It’s Good For, Ahrefs, May 4, 2022
• Domain Authority, Wikipedia, August 27, 2024