Website owners and SEO professionals worldwide reported an unexpected Ahrefs DR drop last week, with Domain Rating scores declining sharply without warning. The sudden shift left many scrambling for answers about what triggered such dramatic changes.
Ahrefs has now confirmed this wasn’t a technical error or data anomaly, it was an intentional algorithm update to their DR and UR calculation system, deployed on September 26th.
What Actually Happened
Ahrefs engineers rolled out a new algorithm designed to more accurately reflect website authority based on current backlink data. The update resulted in widespread fluctuations, with some sites experiencing significant drops while others saw unexpected increases in their Domain Rating.
This recalibration represents Ahrefs’ continued effort to refine their link-based metrics. Essentially, it’s a correction to reflect actual authority, sites benefiting from inflated link equity saw their scores adjusted downward, while those maintaining stronger, higher-quality backlink profiles experienced positive movement.
The update aims to provide a more realistic assessment of domain authority rather than perpetuating artificially elevated numbers.
Why Domain Rating Scores Declined
Beyond the algorithm update itself, Ahrefs identified several factors that naturally contribute to DR fluctuations:
Competitors strengthened their backlink profiles: Your DR can decline even without losing a single link. When other sites in your space acquire stronger, more authoritative backlinks, the relative scoring adjusts accordingly.
Loss of high-authority dofollow links: When premium referring domains remove links or convert them to nofollow, the impact on DR is immediate and significant.
Referring domains lost their own authority: If websites linking to you experienced their own DR decline, they pass less link equity to your site, creating a cascading effect.
Backlink evaluation refinements: As Ahrefs updates their crawling technology and link assessment criteria, previously counted links may now carry reduced weight in their system.
Relative metric shifts: DR functions as a comparative measure. Even maintaining your current backlink profile can result in score decreases if the broader competitive landscape improves faster than your site.
How to Address an Ahrefs DR Change
The most effective response? Focus on building stronger, higher-quality backlinks consistently.
Here’s the recommended recovery approach:
Conduct a thorough link audit: Utilize Ahrefs’ Referring Domains report and Lost Backlinks feature to identify which valuable links disappeared. Prioritize reclaiming high-impact connections where feasible.
Implement strategic link rebuilding: Target acquisition of dofollow links from high-DR, topically relevant websites within your industry. Quality trumps quantity in every scenario.
Monitor referring domain health: Regularly assess the DR of sites linking to you. Their declining authority directly impacts the value they provide to your profile.
Maintain consistent efforts: DR operates as a relative metric within a competitive landscape. Standing still while competitors advance link building efforts will inevitably result in score erosion.
In simpler terms, continuous link building has shifted from recommended practice to fundamental requirement for maintaining competitive positioning in search.
The Broader Context
While a sudden DR drop can be concerning, it’s important to recognize that Domain Rating is an Ahrefs proprietary metric, it doesn’t directly influence Google rankings or search visibility. The update ultimately serves the SEO community by making DR a more dependable indicator of genuine authority rather than inflated metrics.
The September 26th update represents a recalibration toward accuracy, so keep building backlinks, and don’t let numbers shake your confidence, focus on quality signals, not short-term metrics.