GWMT / Search Analytics VS OpenSiteExplorer
-
Just had the experience of using OSE data to show what we call "linkrot" to a client -- only to find that GWMT / Search Analytics shows no such thing.
Fortunately the client is an old friend and no face was lost, but it was dicey there for a bit as I have come to rely on and reference OSE again and again and again,
OSE showed Domain Authority dropping by about 1/3 in the last 12 months, presumably due to old links getting broken, linking sites changing their architecture etc.
And of course, ranking is tanking, as you would expect.
But Google shows many more (and much more spammy looking!) backlinks.
Has anyone had any experience benchmarking the 2 data sets of backlinks against each other? Dr Pete?
Does one update more frequently than another?Do you trust one more than another?? If so, why??
Thanks!
-
I know it's not always the answer people want to here, but Matt's right - this is basically where we're at. OSE tends to focus on higher-authority links and quality over quantity. Unfortunately, while this works well for tracking the strengths in your link profile, it doesn't always do as well at tracking the weaknesses. We're very much interested in expanding the quantity as well, but it's a balancing act and, in the interest of full transparency, there are many engineering challenges.
People have compared our index to Majestic and Ahrefs on the blogosphere. Since I can't claim to be unbiased, I'd welcome you to read those posts and make your own judgments. In fairness to Majestic and Ahrefs, all three of us are somewhat transparent about sources and at least our general methodologies. Unfortunately, Google is not very transparent about how they sample links or choose which data to show. So, direct comparison with any of the major SEO tools to Google Search Console proves to be a lot trickier. We're also not clear on Google's update cycle for that data.
-
I agree with Eric. No one source is going to give you a full picture of your link profile. Generally, OSE is best for measuring the overall strength of a full link profile, as many low-authority sites aren't indexed.
Also, keep in mind that there are a _lot _ of reasons that DA can go down, many of which have nothing at all to do with your specific link profile. That's why we recommend using it to benchmark against competitors rather than as an absolute score. Rand goes into more detail about that here:
DA/PA Fluctuations: How to Interpret, Apply, & Understand These ML-Based Scores
-
Whenever you deal with links, even though I really like OSE, typically we have to compile all of the link data from multiple sources. We typically use OSE, Majestic, ahrefs, Google Search Console, as well as others and compile all of the links into one spreadsheet and then look at them there. Different sites have different crawlers and no one source is the most accurate.
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
-
MoZ vs SEMRush - Keyword Difficulty and Keyword With Low Competition.
Hi, My question is very focussed regarding these 2 tools. Is it correct to understand that MoZ tells keyword difficulty and not which keyword is easy to compete. And SEMRush tells which keyword is easy to compete but does not tell which keywords are difficult to compete? I mean one (Moz) misses the one part and the other (SEMRush) misses the other part. Hope some will enlighten me to the point. Best
Moz Pro | | Sequelmed0 -
How do I work out which term is more commonly searched, workforce productivity vs workforce efficiency
Trying to discover which one people are more likely to plug into a search engine.
Moz Pro | | MobileDay0 -
Bing Search volume 0 is this good or bad?
So this might be a stupid question, but that whole no such thing as a stupid questions applies here. I am trying to narrow down keywords for title tags and on page optimization. I am focusing on my local, instate SEO only. So no nationwide searches, just local. When I add in my state, so Colorado then keyword It shows 0 matches. When I add Keyword then Colorado a few matches But there is a difficulty rating of 30% or so. Would this mean that it would be good to go after this? or bad because no one searches for my term? Then when I add my keyword, and no state, 6000 matches. But would this mean everyone and there brother is going after it? So unless you are a big brand, stay away? Thank you for your help. I am just trying to make sure I am using it right. Chris
Moz Pro | | asbchris0 -
Aren't domain.com/page and domain.com/page/ the same thing?
Hi All, A recent Moz scan has turned up quite a few duplicate content notifications, all of which have the same issue. For instance: domain.com/page and domain.com/page/ are listed as duplicates, but I was under the impression that these pages would, in fact, be the same page. Is this even something to bother fixing or a fluke scan? If I should fix it does anyone know of an .htaccess modification that might be used? Thanks!
Moz Pro | | G2W0 -
Can't disconnect or change Google Analytics profile
I would like to change the Google Analytics profiles for my SEOmoz campaigns. But every time I try to disconnect or change profile, the request timeout. What to do?
Moz Pro | | Bownty0 -
In OpenSiteExplorer, why is HTTPS not an option?
Our website (https://www.guardly.com) is using secure HTTPS protocols. For whatever reason, in the "Top Pages" section, OpenSiteExplorer only has pages that were online years ago and hasn't updated its index to retrieve index and show links for HTTPS pages. It's pretty frustrating as we are trying to optimize our website and it's really hard to get feedback/data from the service for new pages on our website. Any comments/thoughts would be really helpful.
Moz Pro | | jsookman1 -
Inbound Link Discrepancy: Campaign vs Open Site Explorer
Hello, I am getting starkly different inbound link amounts from Open Site Explorer and my Campaigns tab. Domain 1
Moz Pro | | truckguy77
Campaigns: Total links = 10,895,942 Open Site Explorer - Links = 224,000 Domain 2
Campaigns: Total links = 25,670,287
Open Site Explorer - Links = 157,000 Why would these be so different? For reference, the "Historical Domain Analysis" shows these sites getting exponentially more links starting in February. This is of concern to me. I didn't do anything different in February to get so many more links (especially not in the millions). If anything, I am hoping the "Campaigns" section is simply wrong about this.0 -
How to rank each page correctly in the search engines
Hello everyone, I am new to SEOmoz and SEO in general. I am trying to wrap my head around everything and one of the issues I am having trouble grasping is how each individual page on our website plays into ranking for certain keywords. I will explain in more detail below: 1.) We are not a blog, we have a pretty static website. 2.) We can add as many pages to our website as needed (for SEO purposes) 3.) Our site is fairly small, about 25 pages on the website. Now with that information above, here are our main questions & concerns: 1.) What is the best way to rank in the search engines for 50 of our best converting keywords with only 25 pages on our website? 2.) We have 2-3 competitors that rank in positions 1-3 for about 30 of our keywords we are trying to rank for. But no matter what you type in, for example, "cars" "buy cars" "buy a car online" "truck prices" etc, the results that the search engines display our their homepages. Not the other pages on their websites that actually rank for each one of those individual keywords. Is this normal? That is something that we would like for our rankings to do if we have any control over it. 3.) Should each page try to rank for a unique individual keyword? For example, when using the SEOmoz On-page Optimization tool, should I try ranking 2 pages for "buy cars online" or just 1 page? Say my homepage has an "A" grade for the keyword, "buy cars online" but so does my second page on my website. Are these pages essentially competing with each other? Or will the search engines pick their favorite page and display the one they like the best? Any help is greatly appreciated and I look forward to getting this cleared up. Thanks
Moz Pro | | threebiz0