Crypto marketing agencies see declining traffic despite rising Domain Rating

Research conducted by ICODA indicates that Domain Rating (DR) is no longer a reliable predictor of organic search traffic for crypto marketing agencies. Data analyzed from Ahrefs across 45 agency domains and 41 crypto sites between August 2025 and August 2026 shows a negative correlation between DR and year-over-year traffic changes.

Specifically, domains with a DR of 60 or higher lost search traffic 67% of the time, while domains under DR 60 lost traffic 52% of the time. The study highlights that while DR has been a common Key Performance Indicator (KPI) due to its ease of inflation, it is not a Google ranking factor. For example, NinjaPromo saw its DR increase from 44 to 72 over three years, yet its US organic search traffic decreased by 96% during that same period.