Puzzled. High domain authority, but low page authority?
-
I have a question regarding how a page's authority can be low but the domain authority be high. I'm using the SERP report in moz to compare competing pages.
-
The page I'm working on is an ecommerce category page. Moz says it has very low page authority, has been indexed for a little over a year, it's domain authority is a moderate 50, and has no root domains linking to it. It is more relevant than the other pages (has more products for sale that fit the keyword searched for), has a decent amount of copy on the page, but ranks around #10 in the search results.
-
The competing pages are also ecommerce category pages. The 9 ranking higher have domain authority varying from 30-75, and 1 or 2 root domain links to them. Their number of products that match the keyword searched are all over the board, some have many matches, some have only 6 or 8 results. Some have a moderate amount of text on the page, some have very little text on the page. Yet they have page authority in the 30s-40s.
-
What goes into page authority that I'm missing which would make these other pages have so much more authority when they are just slightly better in the other metrics listed above? What am I missing here?
-
-
Aha, that confirms my earlier thoughts about moz not updating since it moved. Thanks for clarifying!
-
Hey Keith, just wanted to drop in and let you know we do not automatically re-crawl all links in our index as every index release starts from scratch, so we would need to "re-discover" any links to update. It took us 6 months for all of our metrics from SEomoz.org to move to Moz.com when we made the name switch 2 years ago. Fresh links to the same pages will help re-queue them once you see the link in Just Discovered.
Hope this helps
-
Ok I think I got this. Haha. Domain Authority and Page Authority Metrics. You're looking for video part 2.
-
Thanks I already read that. Doesn't explain what goes into it. Just gives a broad definition of what it is and how to find what your PA is.
-
Also you could try to Fetch As Google. That may speed up the process.
-
-
Thanks for that link Mike. Interesting to read your posted link, saying only 85% of link juice transfers. I checked the old url only had 1 link and it was fairly weak so I'm not worried about that one link moving over.
I think it's more likely moz hasn't updated in our situation since moz essentially has the url at zero and the url moved had a 31 page authority. Maybe it will update the next time moz reindexes the sites pages.
To continue the original discussion, I'd still be interested in what goes into page authority? I cannot find a detailed explanation on moz.com. What would make these other pages have so much more authority when they are just slightly better in the other metrics listed above?
-
Yes, we've been there many times. As I was wondering in my recent Q&A Loss of PA & Links - 301
A good way to view your link loss is to use open site explorer on the page that's 301 redirected, and then again on the page its redirected to.
Even though you have a 301 and most of the "juice" is passed, not quite all of it. It seems to me not very much at all actually. You need to try and do a re-link building campaign to get people to change the url to your new pages. - A daunting task if I may add.
-
I don't want to dismiss the question, as I'd like to gather more feedback from others.
However your reply Mike did get me thinking. The other categories at that level all have page authority in the 30s. We did move that page about 4 months ago on our site. We did 301s and google followed the move successfully. However, I'm wondering if that's a limitation of the Moz page rank algorithm, the moz database is smaller so it has more trouble following 301s. Maybe it thinks the page is only 4 months old or Moz just recently discovered it causing the Moz Page Rank algorithm to fail in these types page moved of scenarios?
-
It could be that your product page is after multiple categories. Each category page your products go through makes it harder to accumulate a high PA. Click into each category leading up to your product and watch the PA lower and lower. DA is always the same.
As you mentioned, it would be nice if you could get some links directly to that page. Try to get a short video / pdf on that product page. This could help as well.
Could we get the url to your product page for further evaluation?
Thanks!
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
-
Comparing Competitor On-Page Grades?
When I run an advanced SERP report or even the basic keyword difficultly report it gives me competitor On-page grades. I can look directly at their code, but I'm wondering if there is a way to easily see and export a .csv or excel file of the on-page ranking factors for the top 1-10 results comparing them to a page on my site? Seems like that would be really helpful and much quicker than looking at source code to understand what on-page factors are contributing to their success. Is there any way to do this in Moz or a free tool elsewhere you would suggest?
Moz Bar | | K-WINTER0 -
Suggestion: Moz Domain Authority should take disavow into account
Since Moz is trying to predict how Google ranks your site, and Google claims to take the disavow file into account, I'd like to suggest that Moz allow webmasters to upload their disavow file. I imagine this data would be useful to Moz in determining Domain Authority (they may even think of other ways to use it and might even help come to a conclusion on the great debate) and it gives a chance for sites to improve their Moz DA when they are bombarded by spammy links. I'd love to hear the community's thoughts on this idea, as well as the what Wizards of Moz have to say.
Moz Bar | | YairSpolter1 -
How do you block keywords in On-Page Grader for certain URLs?
For the on-page grader, I rank A's for 9 keywords. I struggle with F's I have because it is searching keywords on pages that are not supposed to be searched. For example, I have a "bracelets" page, so I didn't optimize it for "rings", so I got an F. However, it graded me an A for the bracelets keyword, which is great. To be sure I am correct, each page should have it's own keyword, such as bracelet. So why is the grader checking my "Bracelets" page for "Rings"? Maybe there is something I am missing. Just trying to see why this happening.
Moz Bar | | tiffany11030 -
On-Page Grader not working?
I've been using the On-Page Grader tool for a while now, and have always had great success using it to better optimize my pages. But just recently I've noticed that it's not detecting any changes I make to any of my pages.
Moz Bar | | CMinc
For example: One of my pages was coming up with Exact Keyword is Used in Page Title. So I changed it and uploaded it to the site and then clicked the re-grade page button. The only problem is that it's not seeing any of the changes that I made.1 -
On Page Grader - We have keyword in Meta Description But does not show up
The on-page grader is not counting/picking up the keyword in the meta description. We have double checked the meta description and re-uploaded the page, and checked the source code on-line. The keyword is there in meta description, but not showing up in on-page-grader. https://www.trustdeedrealestateinvesting.com/trimarkfunding/buy-first-trust-deeds.html keyword buy first trust deeds
Moz Bar | | Manifestation0 -
Error for a page that doesn't exist.
Hi, I'm just trailing this service, and I have a couple of questions that I hope someone can help with. 1. I am getting a high priority error regarding a page not being able to be crawled - a 4XX error. Problem is, there is no such page in existence. The URL is my site/comments/feed It's driving me crazy. 2. I'm also getting errors based on missing meta tags in blog posts. I am adding tags at the time of posting, so I am unsure why these errors are showing up. Actually, I didn't add tags to all posts - but there are errors on ALL posts, even those I added tags to. Any help would be wonderful. Thanks!!! Hugh
Moz Bar | | hughanderson0 -
Moz Report: Number of Domains linking to Domain
In the Moz report, what does the "number of domains linking to domain" indicate? I'm analyzing our competitors link profile and noticed some numbers as high as 2369232? Is there a form that explains the reports a little more in detail? Thanks,
Moz Bar | | WebRiverGroup0 -
Tracking a domain with multiple locations
Esteemed Marketers of the Moz community, We'd like to track a domain that has a separate web presence for specific locations. In other words, the business has multiple locations in NJ and one in NYC. Any tips and tricks to track how we're doing in the rankings for both NJ and NY? Thanks Much, Paul
Moz Bar | | brainrainmedia1