How is Moz DA affected by spam links? Disavow file?

[jessicapremier]

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%.

[samantha.chapman]

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!

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

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.

[CopBlaster.com]

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.