I still remember the first time a client casually asked me about How to Increase DR Ahrefs like it was some switch you flip inside Ahrefs. I nodded confidently… then went back to my desk and Googled half of it. That’s kind of how DR feels when you’re a couple years into content or SEO. Everyone talks about it on Twitter, LinkedIn threads, even random Reddit comments, but nobody explains it without sounding like a textbook.
DR, or Domain Rating, is basically Ahrefs trying to judge how strong your site looks compared to others. Think of it like street credibility. You might be really good at what you do, but if no one important knows you or vouches for you, people hesitate to trust you. DR works the same way. It’s not traffic, it’s not rankings directly, but it still messes with your head when you see competitors flexing DR 70 while you’re stuck at 18.
Backlinks Are Like Borrowed Reputation
This is where most people roll their eyes because yeah, we all know backlinks matter. But here’s the thing nobody says loudly: not all backlinks help DR equally, and some are just dead weight. Early on, I chased every link opportunity I saw. Blog comments, weird directories, “free DA 90 links” offers flooding my inbox. My DR barely moved, and once it even dropped. That was a humbling week.
DR grows when strong sites link to you, not when random corners of the internet whisper your name. It’s like getting recommended by someone respected in your field versus your cousin hyping you up at a family dinner. Ahrefs counts the strength of the linking domain heavily, and also how many other sites that domain links out to. Lesser-known fact here, a DR 70 site linking to 500 domains spreads its juice way thinner than a DR 40 site linking to only 20. People forget that.
Content Alone Doesn’t Magically Raise DR
There’s a popular belief floating around Instagram SEO reels that “just write great content and links will come.” I love the optimism, but reality is messier. I’ve written some genuinely useful articles that got exactly zero backlinks. Meanwhile, a slightly rushed comparison post picked up links because it solved a very specific problem.
Content helps DR indirectly. It gives people a reason to link to you. But it needs to be linkable content. Stats posts, original opinions, mini case studies, even controversial takes. Safe, boring content rarely attracts links. One niche stat I came across said less than 10 percent of published pages get even one backlink. That hit me harder than it should have.
Internal Linking Is Underrated and Kinda Lazy SEO
This part feels almost too simple, which is why people ignore it. Internal links don’t directly increase DR, but they help distribute whatever authority your site already has. When I cleaned up internal linking on one site, making sure stronger pages pointed to newer ones, Ahrefs re-crawled and the DR bump was small but real.
It’s like organizing your house. You’re not buying new furniture, just placing what you already own in smarter spots. Search folks on X (still feels weird not calling it Twitter) often joke that internal linking is “free SEO,” and honestly they’re not wrong.
Stop Obsessing Over DR Daily
Confession time. I used to check DR almost every morning. Coffee, inbox, Ahrefs. Bad habit. DR doesn’t update in real time, and obsessing over it makes you impatient. It’s more of a slow burn metric. Sometimes you do the right things for weeks and nothing happens, then suddenly it jumps by 3 or 4 points.
I’ve seen online chatter where people panic because DR dropped by 1. That’s normal. Links disappear, sites lose strength, Ahrefs recalculates. It’s not a personal attack, even if it feels like one.
Outreach Isn’t Dead, It’s Just Awkward
Cold outreach still works, despite what some gurus claim. It’s just uncomfortable and a bit soul-crushing. Sending emails that might get ignored feels like shouting into the void. But when done right, it builds DR faster than waiting around.
The trick I learned late is to stop asking for links directly. Start conversations. Comment on someone’s post, reply to their newsletter, then later mention your content naturally. Feels human, because it is. People can smell template emails from miles away.
Quality Over Quantity Sounds Cliché Because It’s True
At one point, I removed around 20 low-quality backlinks from a site. Everyone told me I was crazy. Guess what, DR improved after a few weeks. Not dramatically, but noticeably. Spammy links can hold you back, especially if they come from irrelevant or link-farm style domains.
This doesn’t mean disavow everything that looks small. Some low DR sites are legit and growing. Context matters more than numbers, even though DR itself is a number. Irony, right.
Wrapping It Up Without Really Wrapping It Up
If you’re serious about How to Increase DR Ahrefs, you kind of have to accept that it’s part strategy, part patience, and part not losing your mind over metrics. Focus on earning links, not collecting them. Build content that people actually reference. Talk to people online like a normal human.
And when you finally see that DR tick upward, enjoy it for five minutes, then move on. Because chasing DR forever is exhausting, and honestly, the goal was never just to Increase DR Ahrefs anyway. It’s to build something people trust enough to link to, even when you’re not watching the numbers.
