Yahoo Site Explorer died. Does DA and PA Seomoz parameters have all it takes to replace YSE?
-
We're trying to simplify our link analysis job when acquiring a new external link. We're wondering to know if Domain Authority Seomoz parameter is all what we need to take a decision.
Does DA Seomoz parameter takes into consideration 'domain age', 'alexa ranking', 'dmoz links', indexed pages on google', and 'inbound links vs outbound links'?
-
A few thoughts regarding your guidelines:
It can take 60 days for the PA of a new page to be updated in OSE. If the page you are attempting to acquire a link from is new I would not be concerned about the page's PA at all.
The Domain Age is not a factor I would consider at all when acquiring a link.
Toolbar PR is only updated every 3-4 months so you wont know the true PA of a page, especially if it is a new page.
I would recommend the following primary considerations when acquiring links: site DA, popularity of the page which offers the link (if it is a new page, what is the expected PA/PR of the page in 90 days), relevance of site and page and the location of the link (in content, footer, etc).
-
Hi! I've read Matt's blog post Introducing SEOmoz's Updated Page Authority and Domain Authority and now we better understand how PA and DA works. You guys do a really good job!
We check the metrics of hundreds of pages and domains when acquiring new links and that's why is very important for us to make this fast.
Now that Y!SE died and we better understand how PA and DA works we conclude that we'll be checking the following factors before acquiring new links:
- PA: should be 25+
- DA: should be 25+
- IP: links should not be from the same C class.
- Domain Age: at least 1 year old
- Indexed Pages: at least more than 30.
- IP Neighborhood: domain should not have more than 2 spammy sites on its neighborhood.
- Context and Relevance: according to target keyword.
- PR: page rank should be 1+.
- Google Cache: no more than 2 weeks latency.
We thinks that the metrics above are all what we need BUT honestly still too much to check. Seems that nobody has the magic wand!
Are we missing something? Checking more than should I check?
-
Just figured I'd toss in my $0.02.
As others have noted, Y!SE offered no metrics as to the importance/influence of a site or page in its index, so there's really nothing to compare it with. Google offers PageRank, which Linkscape also has (mozRank). But PA and DA are designed to be predictive algorithms with tons of inputs that try to best reflect how Google.com (US) values links and link metrics.
Matt Peters, our data scientist, has a blog post going up in the next few days with details about how we do this and what PA/DA are from a technical standpoint, but you can basically think of them as the best correlated query/content-agnostic metrics for Google rankings (at least, we've never measured something that could better predict rank position).
-
Will be really useful for the SEO community to see a detail of what specific metrics DA takes into consideration.
The link I shared above shows all the details.
Maybe the DA parameter became the new standard
Many SEOs have used DA as a standard for some time. When there was a problem with the Linkscape crawler a lot of SEOs were quite vocally upset as they even shared DA with clients in reporting, and this reporting was impacted by the issues experienced at the time.
Do you think there's place to improve it? We want only 1parameter for everything.
DA is the most solid form of an all-encompassing parameter. It is far from perfect, and will not be even close in 2012 and likely much longer. There are numerous major considerations which need to be considered such as: impact of social sharing, penalties, link valuation by location (footer vs in content), relevance and more.
The bottom line is Google's algorithm is hidden and likely will always be kept private. It also includes hundreds of factors. It's a struggle in futility and the impossible to mimic Google's ranking. With that said, DA is a solid attempt at a critical metric which is part of that process.
-
Thanks Ryan for your input!
Cyprus, as you said, you can't add into the DA parameter the Link Relevance and Context, but what about other metrics? Do you think there's place to improve it? We want only 1parameter for everything.
Will be really useful for the SEO community to see a detail of what specific metrics DA takes into consideration. Maybe the DA parameter became the new standard
-
I really like Ryan's answer, and I'm going to endorse it.
If you are only looking for ONE metric to judge links, then DA or PA wouldn't be a bad choice. Certainly better than the old PageRank. But I wouldn't advise using just one metric.
DA takes all of SEOmoz link metrics into consideration, including MozTrust and MozRank. Of all the metrics out there, it is best indicator of a given domain's (or page's) ability to rank for a particular phrase. We know of no other publicly available measurement that does as good of job.
That said, it shouldn't be the only thing you should look at when evaluating link prospect. Relevance, Context, number of links on the page, position and other considerations should all be brought into play.
Best of luck in your link building!
-
Everything you wanted to know about Domain Authority can be found here: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/domain-authority
A few other notes:
Alexa Ranking is not a relevant metric for most aspects of SEO. Overall the ranking has been shown to be highly inaccurate for most sites and it is very easy to manipulate. I like to look at Alexa ranking to gain a rough initial idea of a site's popularity, and that's it.
Domain age isn't a relevant metric for most aspects of SEO either. There are brand new domains with high PR and 10 yr old domains with low PR. Any correlation between a site's age and it's PR seems to be simply from the idea that older sites have had more time to earn links.
Open Site Explorer does capture a site's links whether they are from dmoz or any other site. OSE also can differentiate between internal and external links.
I can see the value in adding "indexed pages on Google" to OSE. That request will quickly expand to indexed pages of the various Google sites for each country, and then to Bing as well.
I am all for adding additional metrics to support SEO. I only ask the metrics be relevant information which can be used to understand or improve SEO performance.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What are main factors to increase DA?
Hi, I'm running a blog and working continuously on it and creating both DoFollow and NoFollow links but DA of website best heated vest isn't increasing even I"m creating guest posts and other links. Can you please guide me what are the factors to increase DA so I can work on my website and increase my site's DA as well? Thank you!
Moz Pro | | loukris2350 -
Compare sites?
I'm frustrated, so want to ask a stupid question....My site.. www.seadwellers.com outranks my biggest competitor in most Moz catagories... www.rainbowreef.us ...EXCEPT Facebook likes...(he has a ton) **And yet, rainbowreef.us outranks me in most keywords on
Moz Pro | | sdwellers
Google?! I know it's not simple...but Can anyone take a quick peek and give me any insight as to why??? ** Example "Dive Key Largo" keyword...he is #1 and I am #5...typical in the most important keywords!0 -
Open Site Explorer
Hi - open site explorer always showed backlinks to my site's blog for Wordpress, a couple of edu sites and others that ranked somewhat high. These are no longer being shown. However, they do show up on some other backlink check tools. Does anyone know why and if this should be a concern? Thanks. Don www.uniquegiftsanddecor.com
Moz Pro | | uniquegifts-2778790 -
How reliable is SEOMOZ data?
I have been using the Mozbar data to locate Auth websites, basically the higher the DA/PA the better it is. If I then check the site out and they have good load times, lots of social sharing etc this makes it extra special and now a good site to try and get a link on. I found 3 blogs to guest post on which all have DA/PA 80+ some of the blogs have a PR7. Now this is great but what scares me is have I just wasted 3 guest posts because the data is incorrect. These blogs are run by 1 person and the kind of work involved to achieve those stats would be very heavy. Maybe this blogger has just hit the nail on the head with SEO and link building. Input anyone?
Moz Pro | | activitysuper0 -
Anchor Text Report in Open Site Explorer
When downloading an anchor text report in OSE, there are very often a bunch or anchor texts at the end of the report that have 0 next to them (i.e. anchor texts that come from 0 domains and from 0 links - if you want a URL to run as an example try www.bbc.co.uk/sport/ and paginate your way to page 7) Surely it is not possible for an anchor text to be found on zero domains/links - so how should these zeros be interpreted? There are numerous different anchor texts showing these zero's. Thanks in advance for any responses.
Moz Pro | | searchysearchy0 -
Getting your site totally indexed by SEOMOZ
Hi guys! Ijust started using SEOMOZ software and wondered how it could be that my site has over 10.000 pages but in the Pro Dashboard it only indexed about 1500 of them. I've been waiting a few weeks now but the number has been stable ever since. Is there a way to get the whole site indexed by SEOMoz software? Thanks for your answers!
Moz Pro | | ssiebn70 -
[No Data] Open Site Explorer Top Pages WordPress fix?
Some of my Open Site Explorer Top Pages http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/drho.ro/a!toppages have [No Data]. How do I fix this? I use WordPress and these are .pdf files I uploaded to my server and 301 redirects I created using the Pretty Link Pro plugin
Moz Pro | | drhoro0 -
Is there such thing as a site free from errors?
Or is this a given? I am new to SEO and SEOmoz. One of my campaigns is completley free of errors...the others are a work in progress. Now I realize that SEO is never done, but can a site actually be free of errors? If so... I just gave myself a pat on the back.
Moz Pro | | AtoZion0