Increasing Your Domain Rating with Ahrefs
Those serious about SEO will come across “Domain Rating” (DR) and tools like Ahrefs, which measure it. But why is Domain Rating such an important metric for evaluating the success of your SEO efforts? More importantly, how can you boost your DR to improve your website’s authority and ranking in the search results?
How to increase domain rating ahrefs?
In this guide, I will explain the basics of Domain Rating, how Ahrefs computes it, and offer some practical tips to increase your DR. You’ll learn how to grow your website’s authority, and in turn, increase attention from search engines.
What is Domain Rating and why is it important?
Domain Rating is a ranked metric produced by Ahrefs on a scale of 0-100. It assigns a rating to a domain based on the backlinks pointing towards it. As the DR score increases, it indicates a stronger domain’s backlink profile, which tends to support improved search visibility.
Although Domain Rating (DR) may not influence a Google ranking directly, it is indicative of how other websites and search engines perceive the authority of your site. An increase in DR can help with:
Boosting your organic traffic.
Enhancing your website credibility.
Improving collaboration opportunities like partnership and guest posting deals.
But what helps improve the Domain Rating of a site? Let’s discuss some proven strategies.
Using Ahrefs To Improve Domain Rating
Know Your Domain Rating and Backlink Profile
The DR score is an important metric that needs improvement for any website. Ahrefs’ Site Explorer tool makes this process effortless:
Input your domain URL in the Site Explorer.
Check your DR score along with comprehensive details regarding your backlink profile, referring domains, anchor text, and dofollow/nofollow ratios.
Pro Tip: Rather than focusing only on the number of backlinks, focus on having high-quality backlinks. A few links from high-authority websites will yield better results than multiple links from low-quality sources.
Generate Backlinks
Building quality backlinks increases domain rating. High-quality backlinks affect domain rating significantly. The following techniques can be used to gain them:
Guest Blogging
Searching for and writing guest blog posts on reputable sites in your domain is one of the best methods of acquiring backlinks. Look for opportunities with these operators:
“Write for us” + [your domain]
“Submit guest post” + [title or subdomain related to your niche]
Make sure to write good content that is appropriate and fulfills the needs of the audience who read the website.
Broken Link Building
This consists of looking for broken hyperlinks on other sites, informing them, and offering your content as a substitute. You can look for broken links related to your field with Ahrefs’ Broken Link Checker.
Skyscraper Content
Skyscraper strategy suggests thoroughly studying existing high-ranking content and then creating better content that competes with it and includes links to important resources. Ahrefs also assists with analyzing top-performing articles and identifying their backlinks so they can be contacted afterward.
Digital PR Campaigns
Writes newsworthy press releases or creates shareable assets such as studies and infographics. Contact news journalists and bloggers to make noise (and links) for your brand.
Analyze and Repair Your Backlink Profile
Not all backlinks are advantageous. Backlinks of low-quality domains that are spammy or toxic can harm your site’s DR and overall SEO health.
Ahrefs’ Backlink Audit Tool lets you:
Detect irrelevant or toxic backlinks.
Use Google’s Disavow Tool to remove harmful links.
Regular audits of your backlink profile help maintain a reliable and clean trust score which is critical to increasing your DR.
Elevate Content Quality and Relevance
Quality content improves your chances of getting backlinks and increasing your DR. Here is how you can improve your content strategy:
Blog about frequently asked questions within your niche.
Create evergreen content that remains relevant long after it is published.
Support your articles with data-backed insights and present them in fresh ways to differentiate them from others.
Take advantage of Ahrefs’ Content Explorer to discover trending topics and keywords in your niche that receive a lot of backlinks.
Internal Link
While internal linking does not boost Domain Rating, it enhances the overall site architecture and user experience. Link relevant pages within the domain to share authority fairly. For example:
Utilize keyword-rich anchor text as and descriptive for the target text.
Directing internal traffic to authoritative pages on your domain helps to distribute equity and traffic.
Collaborate with Other Websites
Networking is important for relationship building and backlink earning. Here’s the impact collaboration can have:
Exchange guest posts with other credible sites.
Participate in interviews or industry roundups.
Co-create content like webinars or guides with non-competing businesses in your niche.
These collaborations can help access new audiences while diversifying backlinks.
Monitor Competitor Backlinks
Competitor backlink strategies can be informative. With Ahrefs’ Site Explorer you can:
See where competitors are getting backlinks from.
Check if those domains might link to your content.
Adopting competitor backlink strategies can close gaps in domain authority and provide a competitive advantage.
Optimize for Dofollow Links
Links can be divided into two categories, dofollow and “nofollow.” Only dofollow links contribute to Domain Rating. Filter out dofollow backlinks using Ahrefs and ensure that a greater proportion of links to your website are passing link equity.
Some strategies to gain dofollow backlinks include:
Writing guest posts (the majority of guest post backlinks are dofollow).
Providing testimonials or reviews for products and services in the industry.
Creating unique tools or calculators that allow other websites to link back to them as references.
Set Realistic Expectations
As with any other metric, improving your Domain Rating necessitates time, especially when it comes to acquiring authoritative backlinks. It could take months before you notice a significant improvement. Keep trying and evaluate yourself in Ahrefs every few weeks.
Why You Should Focus on Quality over Quantity
Chasing after a higher DR score can lead to poor-quality links being accepted, and this should be avoided at all costs. Although these links may temporarily raise your DR score, they pose a threat of Google penalties, thus impairing your overall SEO services. Always comply with white-hat link-building practices and maintain quality.
Take Steps Today to Boost Your Domain Rating
With Ahrefs, raising your Domain Rating becomes a mixture of strategic link building and content creation revolving around industry-relevant topics. Audit your existing backlink profile, develop high-value content, and network within your community to make substantial industry impact.
There is always scope for growth, and paired with the right tactics, your potential is unbounded. Strengthen your long-term SEO strategies and start implementing these techniques to enhance your DR.
Related posts:
