How is Moz DA affected by spam links? Disavow file?
-
So it does not appear that moz let's you upload your disavow file. So when moz calculates your DA how do spammy links factor in? After digging through our GA it appears our site was hit with the 2016 penguin update and never recovered. Our weekly visitors were 2k, then dropped to 500 and have stayed close to that level for a while.
We've used the disavow tool, without success over the past 3 years. During that time we have done link out reach and built around 10 legit good quality DA links since. But we have not recovered. At this point i'm thinking I should just remove the disavow file.
Moz says our spam score for our domain is 5%.
-
Hey there,
Sam from Moz's Help Team here!
So, a couple of things - all links do factor into your DA profile. When you disavow a link through Google, it doesn't actually remove the link, Google just stops putting SEO weight into it. So our crawler will still find the link. Unfortunately there isn't a way in Link Explorer to "disavow" a link yet so we will still show it.
Disavowing a link doesn't take it away from our tools, so they will still appear as backlinks to your site. The fact that Google disregards them in relation to your site does not take them off the sites they are on, so best practice is to approach the webmaster first and request the link be removed. If you get no response then disavow with Google:).
I also want to note here that your Spam Score in Moz Pro is actually the percentage of sites with similar features we've found to be penalized or banned by Google (it's not based on the spam score of the sites linking to you). To improve this score I would recommend reading our guide which explains the 27 factors used to make up this score. You can then look at your site and investigate areas you would like to improve on your site:
https://moz.com/help/link-explorer/link-building/spam-score
Best of luck, and let me know if I can help with anything else!
-
Moz has its own ways of determining if a link/site might be potential spam. As they don't know the disavow data of websites that is something that is not taken into account when calculating Domain Authority. I do believe they take their own measures and calculate that against the Domain Authority/Page Authority metrics.
Also, at some point you need a higher quantity of links, building 10 links over a period of months usually isn't a great signal to search engines that your site needs a boost. If it's just for a specific page, then ignore my comment on it. But usually, I notice that sites need more attention than just building links.
-
This is not an answer, but a question. If Google already knows to discount spam links then why should webmasters have to waste their time tracking down spam links and disavowing them?
I for one will not let anyone waste my time by creating spammy links to any website I own. I never realized how many spam links I have until I signed up for a Moz Pro trial. It seems like most of the spam found by Moz did not show up in the links part of my Google Console, so I really don't feel like disavowing links that I never made. For instance I noticed a number of links to my police misconduct website from spammy looking URLs with pornographic anchor text. And some of it looks like kiddie porn keywords. I am afraid to even look at any of those linking pages. I did not make them. They were probably made by some dirty cop that gets off on that kind of stuff.
So I am wording why this man should have to waste his time disavowing links that Google would not value anyway. Is it not enough for Google to give him no credit?
Again, what do I know. I only worked in SEO before going to prison and getting banned from computers about 7 years ago for a drunken email threat.
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
-
Is the keyword CTR provided in Moz dashboard average?
Hi, I'm a bit confused with Keyword CTR provided in Moz Dashboard. Is its an average of search positions or top 3 positions of SERPs?
Link Explorer | | NishilP1 -
Inbound links for https://www.example.com versus just example.com
Hi all, Wondering the difference between the Inbound Links stats for https://www.example.com versus only using example.com. When I type in the https:// version, I see 3 Spam Flags - for the example.com version, there are none. There are also spammy links pointing to the https version as opposed to the non-https version when I use this tool: https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/ Anyone know the difference and which should be regarded when fixing spam issues?
Link Explorer | | netamorphosis0 -
Spam Flags: Follow vs. No follow
In OSE, I have two spam flags, Ratio of Followed to Nofollowed Domains and Ratio of Followed to Nofollowed Subdomains. I currently have a ratio of about 3:2 followed to nofollowed. Is this spammy? Also, what is the difference between subdomains and domains in this regard?
Link Explorer | | AHC_SEO0 -
Moz cannot crawl domain. Also OSE does not work properly on this specific domain?
Hi all, Moz cannot crawl the domein http://www.hoesjescases.nl.
Link Explorer | | Guapa_zwolle
When I open the crawl report I only see one line: <colgroup><col width="229"><col width="287"><col width="420"><col width="370"><col width="141"></colgroup>
| URL | Time Crawled | Title Tag | Meta Description | HTTP Status Code |
| http://www.hoesjescases.nl | 2015-10-05T12:20:48Z | 404 : Received 404 (Not Found) error response for page. | Error attempting to request page; see title for details. | 404 | Also when running OSE on this domain, Moz only can find 4 root domains while Majestic can find 91 domains. Google seems not to have any problems. What can be the problem for MOZ? Greetings!0 -
Learn how to use Moz's Link Intersect tool to build your link profile. Get your Daily SEO Fix!
The quantity and (more importantly) quality of backlinks to your website make up your link profile; one of the most important elements in SEO and an incredibly important factor in search engine rankings. In today's Daily SEO Fix, How to Use Link Intersect to Build Your Link Profile, Tori shows you how to use Moz's Link Intersect tool to analyze the competitions' backlinks plus, find opportunities to build links and strengthen your own link profile. This video is one of our last videos in The Moz Daily SEO Fix tutorial series--Moz tool tips and tricks in under 2 minutes. To watch all of our videos so far, make sure to visit the Daily SEO Fix channel on YouTube. And, if you have suggestions for future tutorials, please let us know via the comments below. Thanks!
Link Explorer | | kellyjcoop2 -
Why are no-follow links in my blog comments across the web showing up as "equity-passing"?
When I make comments on blog posts (and there's a link in my comment or my name is the link to my site), the links are always no-follow (as they should be). But, when I check Open Site Explorer, the new links show up as equity-passing. Are they actually passing equity or is this a mistake?
Link Explorer | | infotrust20 -
Sites internal links are not showing as inbound links
My sites internal links are not showing as inbound links while my competitor site’s internal links are showing as their inbound links (In OSE). Is my site’s inter-linking weak? Or there could be other reasons.
Link Explorer | | vivekrathore0 -
External Followed Links report
I would like to know, how do I get a report with the TOTAL amount of my external followed links.When I look on "Link Metric" it shows me: External Followed Links 2,951 But when I looked on Inbound links (only follow / only external), it shows me only 645. Why is that and how do I get the total from 2.951? Thanks
Link Explorer | | AutoEurope0