Back to glossary

URL Rating (UR)

URL Rating (UR) is a metric developed by Ahrefs, an SEO tool, to measure the strength and authority of a specific web page’s backlink profile. The rating is calculated on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating a stronger backlink profile.

A high UR typically means the page has many high-quality and authoritative backlinks, while a low UR suggests a weaker backlink profile.

Examples of high URL Rating:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web – The Wikipedia page for the World Wide Web has a high UR because it has numerous high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites, reflecting its importance and relevance as a topic.
  2. https://www.nytimes.com/ – The New York Times homepage has a high UR due to its strong reputation, high traffic, and the numerous quality backlinks it has acquired over the years.

Examples of low URL Rating:

  1. A newly created personal blog with limited content and few, if any, backlinks from other websites will typically have a low URL Rating.
  2. A website with spammy or low-quality content that has not attracted any high-quality backlinks or has been penalized by search engines will also have a low URL Rating.

It’s important to note that UR is just one aspect of a website’s SEO health, and improving your site’s UR involves creating high-quality content and earning backlinks from reputable websites.

External resources:

  1. Ahrefs – The official website of Ahrefs, the SEO tool that created the URL Rating metric.
  2. Ahrefs’ Guide to URL Rating – A comprehensive guide by Ahrefs that explains URL Rating and how to improve it.