DR and referring-domain thresholds, sorted by severity
A rating without a threshold is a mood. This backlink checker website guide turns our public DR formula into a lookup table and gives you gap sizes you can quote on a call.
LinkSkimmr research team ·
Referring domains needed for each DR value
Computed from round(100 log(ref_domains + 1) / log(210^7)). Values are the smallest count that rounds to that DR.
DR
Referring domains (about)
Reading
10
5
Barely linked
20
28
Early stage
30
154
Small local or niche site
40
832
Established small business
50
4,472
Strong independent publisher
60
24,022
Large brand or media site
70
129,039
Top of most niches
80
693,144
Global brand territory
Why a ten-point gap is not ten points of effort
Every step of ten DR multiplies the referring domains by about 5.4. That is the whole trick of a log scale.
So a client at DR 30 chasing a rival at DR 50 faces a gap of about 4,300 referring domains, not twenty. Say that number out loud in the kickoff, because it resets expectations faster than any warning about patience.
This is also why sorting rivals by DR alone misleads. Two sites at DR 41 can differ by hundreds of domains; look at referring-domain counts when the DR is tied.
Severity of a gap against the nearest rival
A working scale for notes, not an industry standard. It is ours, tuned for triage.
Gap in DR
Severity
What to write
0 to 4
Level
Links are not the story; look at pages and content
5 to 9
Watch
Close the gap over several quarters, measured monthly
10 to 19
Material
Links are likely part of the story; scope a plan
20 and above
Structural
Do not promise a catch-up; propose a narrower target page
A hypothetical, clearly marked
Example only: a client sits at DR 38 with about 560 referring domains, and the rival is DR 47 with about 2,600. The gap is 9, so 'watch', but the rival has roughly four and a half times the domains. Both facts go in the note.
How to use the table inside a call
Keep it open in a second tab. When the client says a rival has 'a lot more links', ask for the rival's domain and run the free overview.
Then find the DR row, read the referring-domain figure beside it, and say it in plain words. A site at DR 50 has in the region of 4,500 referring domains, and a client with 150 is at DR 30, so the gap is a different job and not a stretch target.
Pair this with the ten-minute routine for the other four fields, and the bulk screen when the client hands you a whole list. Both reuse these numbers, and none of them depend on a mood.
One honest caveat: the table describes size in our own index. A million-dollar rival with few links but huge direct traffic will look small here, and the note should say so.
Threshold questions that come up on calls
Is DR 40 good?
It depends on the neighbours. DR 40 means roughly 830 referring domains on our scale, which is healthy for a local business and thin for a national publisher. Always set it beside two rivals measured with the same call.
Why does my DR differ from Ahrefs?
Ours is our own metric computed from referring-domain counts in our own index. Ahrefs DR and Moz DA use their own data and methods. Different inputs, different numbers, so never subtract one source from another.
Does a high DR protect a site from a Google update?
No. DR describes link breadth in our index and says nothing about how Google treats a page. The March 2024 core update hit sites of every size, so treat DR as sizing information only.