Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
What does "Number of Linking Root Domains" in Open Site Explorer actually mean?
-
I've read through the forum, but I'm confused as to what "Number of Linking Root Domains" means in the Linking Domains report. For example, if the root domain is Moz.com and the number is 135,000 does that mean there are 135,000 links from Moz pointing back to my site or does it mean there are 135,000 sites linking back to Moz?
Any help is appreciated. Thank you!
-
Thanks Gaston, this makes so much sense! Appreciate your added insight!
-
YES! I totally get it now. Thank you so much Tawny!!
-
That sounds correct to me - if the number of Linking Root Domains associated with SearchEngineLand is 135,000, that's links pointing to SearchEngineLand's domain, not Moz's domain.
-
Hello there!
Just to help Tawny clarify this.In those reports, " Root Domain" means just the domain. In the case of Moz, it is moz.com. This also means that they are taking into account the whole site.
So, for example, consider that you have 3 pages:On one hand, if every page has one separate link pointing, fron different sites. Let's say: example-1.com, my-blog.org and site-overseas.com
In the report, when checking for site.com, you'll fine 3 root domain links.
On the other hand, if every page ( just to keep it generalistic, but it could be applied for just onepage) gets a link from the same root domain, but from diffetent pages (let's say: site-A.net/page1, site-A.net/keyword-two and site-A/whatever) in the repport you'll see just **ONE **root domain link.Can you see the difference?
Hope I've helped.
GR. -
Thanks Tawny. So just to make sure I absolutely understand, here's another example:
If the root domain I entered in Open Site Explorer is www.moz.com and one of the root domains that appears in the resulting Linking Domains report is SearchEngineLand and the number of Linking Root Domains associated with SearchEngineLand is 135,000, that means SearchEngineLand has 135,000 sites linking back to it -- not Moz right?
-
Hey there! Tawny from Moz's Help Team here!
The number of Linking Root Domains you see is links from other sites pointing back to your root domain (or the root domain you entered in the search bar in Open Site Explorer). So, in your example, that would be 135,000 sites linking back to moz.com somewhere on the site.
I hope that helps! If you have any more questions, feel free to drop us a line at help@moz.com and we'll answer them for ya!
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
-
Unsolved Why am I not seeing search.yahoo.com in my site's backlink profile?
When looking at the backlinks for a client's competitor I found that they had a backlink on search.yahoo.com/reviews and our domain (harmonyhit.com) did not. I was using the Link Explorer tool. However, when I go to yahoo Search I see that the website of harmonyhit.com is indexed in Yahoo search and has links to the site. Also, it's sitemap has been recently crawled in Bing webmaster tools which Yahoo uses. Why does our client have the backlink accounted for and we do not?
Link Explorer | | DigitalThirdCoast0 -
I couldn't check Page authority or Domain Authority for any page, what can be reason?
I am trying to check DA and PA for page but not able to do this. Tried it before two days and it was working fine, problem occurring today. I want help regarding this issue, is anyone other facing this problem. Kindly help me out (provide some other way to check DA/PA).
Link Explorer | | JessicaThompson1 -
If I migrate to a new domain, does my Domain Authority score get migrated also?
For business reasons, I migrated my domain with a DA score of 85 to a new domain. After some time, the DA score on the new domain is only 45. My migration plan and redirects went smooth and all redirected with best practices in mind. I am still ranking well for almost all of the keywords where I've 301 redirected old URL to new. Any feedback welcome!
Link Explorer | | KenSchaefer1 -
How to download full list of internal links properly with OSE?
Hi Moz Community, I am having issues getting a full list of my internal links when I go to the Open Site Explorer. When I export the internal links into excel, I am getting half of my URLs and 80% of what I am getting is absolutely crazy URLs that are super super old. Plus, these old URLs are not even showing in my campaign crawls. So the crawls themselves are different. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, since I am trying to get a full picture on the internal link structure of my site. Thanks!
Link Explorer | | RyanRhodesGW0 -
Moz Pro: Linking RDs to Page much lower than Google Search Console
I'm trying to use the Analyze Keyword tool in Moz Pro, and in the SERP Analysis table, my page has a PA of one, and zero root domains linking to it. If I look at the page in Google Search console, it says I have 229 root domains linking to the page from well known domains like github.com, meetup.com, stackoverflow.com, etc. This particular keyword has been tracked in Moz for the last 6 months, but I just noticed that it was extremely low. I am relatively new to Moz, so forgive me if I sound confused, but can someone explain to me how the numbers can be so low?
Link Explorer | | jakebellacera0 -
How does spammy linked site have zero spam score?
I came across a law firm site with hundreds of horrible spam links to it. Of the 3330 links, all but 231 links have anchor text that has to do with "jordan 11s for sale". I'm trying to see how useful the moz spam score is, but clearly it's not reliable if this site has a score of zero. Many of the obviously spammy sites linking to it also have low to zero spam scores, although there are plenty in the 5-10 range. (see attached image). I also noticed that many sites were legit sites, but if you look at the source code, there's tons of hidden spam links in the code (e.g., www.chickasawgardens.net) Why would this site have a zero spam score? If you're curious, put it into open site explorer and have a look. It's a law firm based in Pennsylvania, most anchor text has to do with jordan sneakers and most links are foreign: penn-criminallawyers.com Is the spam score too lenient? Is the moz tool unable to find spam links coming from legitimate sites with hidden spam links? DrokMbP
Link Explorer | | usDragons0 -
Open site explorer is giving me strange redirect message.
Hi all, I tried to find answer in help section. Few people have asked this before but in none of the answers it tells how they fix it. Sorry I will need to ask here again. In Open Site Explorer i get this message. You entered the URL https://a-fotografy.co.uk/ which redirects to http://www.a-fotografy.co.uk/. Because it's likely to have more accurate metrics, we're showing data for the redirected URL instead. Click here to analyze https://a-fotografy.co.uk/ instead? My current site is https://a-fotografy.co.uk/ not sure why it is redirecting to my old domain. Weird. My web developer couldn't explain this issue. Saying that I also go my first analytics report and in priority issues I have http://a-fotografy.co.uk 302 redirect and not sure where it is redirecting to. If someone could shed some light of how to figure out how to find exactly what is redirecting to what and where is the problem. Thank you guys, Regards, Armands
Link Explorer | | A_Fotografy0 -
Why doesn't my site show up in Moz Site Explorer
I started this website about 2 months ago, www.guyetteroofing.com. I know it still needs a lot of work, but I can't find any information on it on the site explorer tool.
Link Explorer | | billyguyette1