Documentation

1. Overview

This tool checks the Domain Rating (DR) — Ahrefs' 0–100 score for how strong a domain's backlink profile is — for domains you type (up to 100) or upload as a CSV (up to 1,000). Processing happens on the server and results update live as each domain finishes.

There are no accounts: every check gets its own private results link, kept for 7 days. Every domain that gets a DR is added to the public domains directory (the Domains page in the sidebar).

2. Checking domains

1. On the Check page, type domains one per line or comma-separated.
2. Click Check DR.
3. Up to 10 domains show their results right below the form (the page URL updates, so you can reload or share it). More than 10 open a dedicated results page.

• Full URLs are fine: https://www.example.com/page is checked as example.com.
• Only a leading www. is removed, so subdomains such as blog.example.com are checked separately.
• Entries without a dot (e.g. localhost) are skipped.
• Prefer a file? Click or upload a CSV below the button.

3. Preparing your CSV file

Two formats are accepted:

• One URL per line, no header row, e.g.:

https://example.com/page
https://another-site.org
www.athirdsite.net/blog

• A column named url, with any other columns ignored, e.g.:

url,notes
https://example.com/page,homepage
https://another-site.org,competitor

Notes:

• The scheme (https://) is optional — example.com works too.
• Only the first column of each line is read; anything after the first comma is ignored.
• Files exported from Excel (with a byte-order mark or Windows line endings) work as-is.
• Rows that can't be parsed into a valid domain are skipped and don't count toward the limit.
• Maximum 1,000 valid URLs per file.

4. Tracking progress

The results show a progress bar (processed / total) and an overall status:

• pending — queued behind other checks; nothing picked up yet
• processing — actively being checked
• completed — every URL has a result
• failed — finished, but none of the domains could be checked (every row is an error)

This updates automatically — there's nothing to click or refresh. Domains already in the directory (checked in the last 30 days) appear instantly; the rest fill in as each DR check finishes.

5. Reading the results

Each row in the results table shows:

• URL — exactly what you submitted
• Domain — the host the URL was resolved to (DR is scored per domain, not per page)
• DR — the Ahrefs Domain Rating, 0–100, or — if not available, with when it was checked (e.g. "checked 12 days ago")
• Status — done (DR found) or error (could not be checked)

A small badge next to the DR says where it came from:

• live — fetched from Ahrefs just now
• cached — from the directory, checked in the last 30 days
• stale — Ahrefs had no new DR (it was unavailable after 3 tries, or returned no data), so this is the last known DR
• retrying — the last try failed temporarily (e.g. Ahrefs rate limit); it is retried automatically, up to 3 attempts — hover it to see the error

An error saying "No DR data from Ahrefs" means Ahrefs has no rating for that domain; this is remembered for 7 days. Two URLs on the same domain always get the same DR.

6. Downloading results as CSV

Once results start coming in, a Download CSV button appears above the table. The exported file has one row per submitted URL with columns url, domain, domain_rating, status, source, checked_at. Results links are deleted after 7 days, so download the CSV if you want to keep them.

7. Domains directory

The Domains entry in the sidebar opens the directory: every domain the tool has found a DR for (across everyone's checks), with its latest DR and the date it was checked. Domains Ahrefs has no data for aren't listed.

• Search and filters — search by name, set a DR min–max, and pick a TLD. More filters adds checked-from and checked-to dates. Active filters show as removable chips, and Clear all resets them. If a search for a domain name finds nothing, you can check that domain right from the empty list.
• Sorting — click the Domain, DR, Δ or Checked column header to sort by it; click again to reverse. On a phone, use the Sort by menu above the list.
• Δ — the DR change since that domain's previous check; — when it has only been checked once.
• Trend — a small line showing the last 12 checks (on wider screens).
• Page size — 20, 50 or 100 rows per page.
• Sharing — the view (search, filters, sort, page) lives in the URL, so you can copy the link to share it.

Selecting rows. Tick the checkboxes to select domains. Your selection is kept while you browse across pages, until you close the tab (up to 1,000 domains).

Export selected downloads a CSV of your selection with columns domain, title, dr, dr_change, checked_at, page_url. You can export up to 1,000 domains at a time and 10 exports per minute. Domains that no longer have a DR are skipped.

Click a domain to open its page: current DR, DR history (one reading per day) and a form to check another domain. Once a DR is older than 30 days the page shows a Re-check button; before that it shows when the automatic re-check is due, because a check inside that window returns the same cached DR. Domain pages also show the site's favicon, title and description, refreshed monthly.

8. Limits and things to know

• Up to 100 typed domains or 1,000 CSV rows per check.
• Up to 10 checks per minute from the same network, and 10,000 result rows per day.
• Up to 2,000 new domains per hour from the same network (domains already in the directory don't count).
• Results links are kept for 7 days.
• A DR is reused for 30 days before it's checked again. Directory domains are also re-checked automatically about every 30 days, so their history keeps growing.
• DR is per host: blog.example.com and example.com are separate entries.
• Everything you check (with a DR) becomes visible in the public directory.
• Processing speed depends on Ahrefs' rate limits — large files take longer; keep the results link and check back.

9. Troubleshooting / FAQ