Link Building
URL Rating
URL Rating is Ahrefs' proprietary page-level 0–100 logarithmic metric for the strength of a page's internal and external link profile in Ahrefs' data.
What it means
Ahrefs states that UR uses basic PageRank principles, accounts for followed relationships, applies a damping factor and handles some loops or artificial inflation. It is page-level, unlike Ahrefs Domain Rating. The provider also maintains legacy and newer UR variants, so product context and capture date matter.
Why it matters
Provider, URL scope, metric variant and observation date prevent a relative model output from being reported as Google's PageRank, a percentage or a stable property of the page.
Example
A report records UR 42 for one exact Canonical URL in Ahrefs on 28 July 2026 and compares it with relevant pages captured in the same product context; it does not interpret 42 as a 42% ranking chance.
Common mistakes
Do not omit Ahrefs, assign homepage UR to an entire domain, compare it numerically with Moz Page authority, treat 60 as twice 30, mix legacy and current reports, call it Google PageRank or promise ranking impact.
How AYSA handles this
Signals reviewed
exact URL, provider, UR value, report or API version, metric variant, capture date, comparison set, underlying links
Problem AYSA can identify
AYSA can identify missing Ahrefs attribution, page-versus-domain scope errors, mixed metric variants and UR presented as Google data.
Recommendation prepared
The record preserves the exact URL, provider context, date and comparison set alongside underlying link evidence.
Approval preview
The user sees raw value, provider, scope, capture metadata, comparison set, limitations and the wording proposed for a report.
Execution
AYSA can store approved Ahrefs observations and monitor changes when a connector is available; it cannot calculate Ahrefs' proprietary production metric.
Verification
Later captures remain separate dated observations so model or index changes are not silently rewritten as site changes.
Limits
Ahrefs controls the crawl data and calculation, the scale is relative and no UR value guarantees Google rankings or traffic.
Sources and further reading
- Ahrefs — What is URL Rating (UR)? — First-party vendor methodology
- Google Search Central — Guidance on third-party SEO tools and advice — Official search documentation
Written by Marius Dosinescu. Reviewed by AYSA SEO Editorial Team · 2026-07-28 00:00:00.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions
Is URL Rating a Google metric?
No. UR is calculated by Ahrefs from its own data and methodology.
Is URL Rating the same as Domain Rating?
No. Ahrefs defines UR at page level and DR at domain level.
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