Domain Rating Recovery Strategy — Exterior Renovations

Overview

During an account review in November 2025, ^[1] was identified as having a critically low Domain Rating (DR) of 2 — well below the 25+ scores held by local competitors. This article documents the technical SEO recovery plan initiated to address that gap, centered on a paid backlink service and Ahrefs competitor monitoring setup.

This account is being treated as a ^[2], with Ben San Fratello leading execution and Mark Hope providing oversight.

The Problem

DR of 2 against competitors scoring 25+ (e.g., Infinity Roofing at 25, Exteriors Company at 4)
No competitors configured in Ahrefs for ongoing monitoring
Visitor tracking not enabled in Ahrefs
Organic traffic declining since July, with no content targeting core keywords like "exterior siding" or "siding contractors Madison"
Not appearing in the Google Maps local pack for "siding contractors Madison"

"How come I've been paying you for three years and my domain rating is two?" — Mark Hope, illustrating the client's likely perspective

The low DR is a compounding problem: without backlink authority, even well-optimized pages struggle to rank, and the site's existing content was already failing to target relevant keywords.

The Fix: $200 Backlink Service

Mark initiated a $200 backlink service (resold at $250 to the client) with the goal of raising the DR from 2 to 30 within 30 days.

Key Details

Parameter	Value
Service cost	$200
Client price	$250
Target DR	30
Timeline	~30 days
Tracking tool	Ahrefs (updates DR metric monthly)

Important caveat: Ahrefs only updates the Domain Rating metric once per month, so improvement will not be visible in real time. Monitor on the monthly Ahrefs refresh cycle.

Why This Matters

A DR of 30 won't make the site dominant, but it closes the gap with the weakest local competitors and gives on-page SEO and content efforts a foundation to build on. The same service was already initiated for ^[3], where DR was at 28 heading toward 50.

Ahrefs Setup: Competitors & Visitor Tracking

Two Ahrefs configurations were completed during the review session to establish baseline monitoring:

Competitor Tracking

The following local competitors were added to Ahrefs for ongoing monitoring:

Infinity Roofing (multi-location; has a Madison office) — DR ~25
The Exteriors Company — DR ~4
Madtown Siding — low DR but ranking above Exterior Renovations

Note: Infinity Roofing is a larger regional company, not a pure local competitor. Use SpyFu alongside Ahrefs to isolate Madison-specific keyword data.

Recommended next step: Run a Madison-localized competitor search using a VPN (set browser location to Madison, WI) and cross-reference results in both Ahrefs and SpyFu to identify keyword gaps.

Visitor Tracking Tag

A new Ahrefs tracking tag was added to the Exterior Renovations website. It will take a few days to begin populating visitor data in the dashboard.

Monitoring Plan

Metric	Tool	Cadence
Domain Rating	Ahrefs	Monthly (Ahrefs update cycle)
Organic traffic trend	Ahrefs / Google Search Console	Weekly
Competitor DR & referring domains	Ahrefs	Monthly
Visitor data	Ahrefs (new tag)	Weekly once populated

[ ] Verify the correct domain URL was submitted with the backlink service order (@Ben San Fratello)
[ ] Monitor DR in Ahrefs over the next 30 days (@Mark Hope / @Ben San Fratello)
[ ] Run Madison-localized competitor analysis via VPN; update Ahrefs competitor list (@Ben San Fratello)

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