Toolbar badge and Domain Rating

The VitalSentinel icon in the browser toolbar shows information about the current tab without opening the popup:

• The badge on the icon shows the Domain Rating (DR) of the site. Domain Rating by Ahrefs.
• The color of the badge can show the Core Web Vitals rating of the page load.
• The icon is grey while JavaScript is blocked for the site.

Before you startCopy Anchor Link

• To see the Domain Rating, the switches Domain Rating lookup and Show Domain Rating on the badge must both be on. See Settings.
• Offline mode hides the Domain Rating.

Domain RatingCopy Anchor Link

Domain Rating is the only Ahrefs data that the extension shows. The extension does not connect to Ahrefs. It sends the domain to VitalSentinel, and VitalSentinel gets the Domain Rating from Ahrefs.

The extension sends the registrable domain only, never the full address. For example, for blog.example.co.uk it sends example.co.uk. It keeps each Domain Rating in the browser for 7 days. So it looks up a domain about once a week. If a lookup fails, the extension tries again after one hour.

The extension does not look up a Domain Rating for:

• Tabs in incognito windows.
• Private network names, for example names that end in .lan, .corp, .internal or .home.arpa.
• IP addresses and localhost.

If there is no Domain Rating for the site, the badge shows no number.

TooltipCopy Anchor Link

Move the pointer over the icon to see the tooltip. It shows:

• "VitalSentinel" and the host of the page.
• The Domain Rating, for example "DR 45 – Domain Rating by Ahrefs", if the extension has one.
• "JavaScript allowed" or "JavaScript blocked".

Badge colorCopy Anchor Link

By default, the badge is purple. If you turn on the badge color in Settings, the badge shows the Core Web Vitals rating of the current page load:

The extension measures these values on your device. To color the badge, it sends nothing. To turn on the badge color, see Settings. For the limits, see Performance.

Grey iconCopy Anchor Link

While JavaScript is blocked for the site, the icon is grey. See JavaScript switcher.

Turn off the Domain RatingCopy Anchor Link

1. Open Settings.
2. In the Data sources and privacy section, turn off Domain Rating lookup.

The extension then sends no domain to VitalSentinel. It also deletes all the cached Domain Ratings.

The extension uses the Domain Rating only for the badge. If you turn off Show Domain Rating on the badge in the Toolbar icon section, the extension also stops the lookups and deletes the cached Domain Ratings.

RelatedCopy Anchor Link

• Settings - the switches for the badge and the lookup
• Privacy and permissions - what the Domain Rating lookup sends
• Performance - the Core Web Vitals of the page load