Why Submit a New Website? Discovery, Backlinks, and DR
Understand what launch platforms can bring to a new website, how backlinks relate to Domain Rating, and what MkLaunch tracks.
Your website may be ready for users before users know it exists. A relevant launch platform gives people another way to find your product, learn what it does, and visit your site. To judge whether a launch is worthwhile, start with whether it reaches people who might actually use the product.
Give your launch a place to be discovered
A product listing puts your introduction, website link, and discussion in one place. You can share it, and visitors can ask questions before trying the product. On MkLaunch, people can find it through weekly batches, categories, tags, and the archive.
Questions and feedback can help you improve your landing page and onboarding. Where possible, track visits, meaningful signups, and actual use as well as impressions. A listing gives people a chance to find you, but it cannot guarantee how much traffic or how many conversions you will get.
What Domain Rating tells you
Domain Rating, or DR, is Ahrefs' relative measure of a domain's backlink profile on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100. It is a domain-level metric, rather than a rating of one page. It is not a Google score, and a higher DR does not by itself prove that a product is useful or that a page will rank. See Ahrefs' explanation of DR.
New domains may have little backlink data. The score can also change as Ahrefs finds links and updates its database, so follow the trend instead of judging the website from one reading.
How backlinks can contribute
Links from other websites can help people discover your product. For DR, Ahrefs considers linking domains and the strength of their backlink profiles; adding many links from the same site is not equivalent to earning links from several independent domains. Followed links are relevant to its calculation, while nofollow links are excluded. Ahrefs describes these factors here.
Look for sites whose audience fits your product, whose content is useful, and where your product belongs. A high DR alone does not tell you whether a placement will bring interested visitors. Nor can a submission guarantee a score increase: when links are found and crawled, along with changes across the wider link graph, affects the result.
Paid visibility also needs to be distinguished from earned endorsement. Google recommends qualifying advertising and paid placement links with rel="sponsored". Do not assume that buying a placement guarantees search ranking credit.
What MkLaunch supports today
MkLaunch queries Ahrefs for your website's DR during submission. Free submission currently requires a verified DR of at least 10; if the lookup is unavailable, the form cannot establish free eligibility. Paid submission options are available for sites below that threshold, with current terms on the pricing page.
The product dashboard shows the available DR value and a chart of recorded checks. MkLaunch supports scheduled refreshes and email notifications when a previously recorded value changes, provided the lookup service, scheduled jobs, and email delivery are working. History starts with the checks the platform records; it does not reconstruct the domain's entire past.
How MkLaunch handles your website link depends on whether your product has a dofollow entitlement. Free products can earn it by finishing within the configured top positions when the weekly results are finalized. Boost and Highlight have separate paid entitlements. Later votes can change the live leaderboard, but the weekly result stays fixed. These entitlements do not guarantee a higher DR or better search rankings.
Start with a useful product profile
Use the submission checklist to review your landing page, copy, and images, then submit your product. After launch, answer questions and watch whether visitors start using it. Consider DR alongside audience fit, feedback, and actual product use.