RailwayDomain Rating explained for founders: what DR is, what it is not, and how to move it
DR is the one SEO number every launch platform shows. Here is what it measures, why DR 20 → 40 is easy and 60 → 70 is hard, and the three moves that actually change it.
Every startup on ExitFounder shows a Domain Rating in the header. Founders ask about it more than any other metric, so here is the honest version.
What DR measures
Domain Rating (Ahrefs) scores the strength of a domain's backlink profile from 0 to 100 on a logarithmic scale. It looks at how many unique domains link to you and how strong those domains are, then spreads that "vote" across the pages each linking site points to.
Three consequences that surprise people:
- It is logarithmic. Going from DR 10 to 20 takes a handful of decent links. Going from 60 to 70 takes hundreds from strong sites. Do not compare deltas linearly.
- It ignores traffic and content. A DR 70 site can have zero visitors. That is why we show DR next to a traffic estimate and never call either "verified".
- It is relative. DR is computed against every other site in the index, so your score can drop when others grow even if your links did not change.
What DR is not
- Not a Google ranking factor. Google does not use Ahrefs' number; DR correlates with rankings because links correlate with rankings.
- Not a measure of business quality. On ExitFounder you will find DR 20 companies with more revenue than DR 70 ones. Buyers look at verified MRR first, DR second.
- Not "authority" in the sense buyers mean. A sale listing that says "high authority domain" with DR 35 is using the word loosely.
Typical values
| DR | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| 0–10 | New domain, a few directory links |
| 10–30 | Launched, listed on directories, a couple of mentions |
| 30–50 | Real content or community; some editorial links |
| 50–70 | Established product; linked from large publications or popular open source |
| 70+ | Platforms, major publications, widely-used developer tools |
The ExitFounder rankings page lists startups by DR if you want a feel for your category.
The three moves that change DR
- Directory and launch-platform links (0 → 30). Cheap and fast; see the DR-ranked list. Diminishing returns after ~15 of them.
- One linkable asset (30 → 50). A free tool, a dataset, a benchmark, an original report. Tools are the most reliable — a calculator gets linked for years. Our free tools exist for exactly this reason.
- Integrations and open source (50+). Being in another product's integrations directory, a docs mention, or a popular GitHub repo's README beats any outreach campaign.
What does not work: buying links from "DR 70 guest post" marketplaces. Ahrefs' index sees the same link farms you do.
How ExitFounder uses DR
- Every profile shows DR with the source ("Domain Rating by Ahrefs") and the date we checked.
- Rankings by DR only include startups where we measured it — nothing is guessed.
- The Domain Rating checker is free for any domain and tells you whether the site is already listed here.
If you want a second number next to DR, watch referring domains (how many unique sites link to you). It is less gameable and moves before DR does.