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
-
How do I find http backlinks to my domain?
Hi, We spotted a number of sites linking to us from http sites, not https sites. How can I use backlink tools to find just those from http sites? Right now I'm looking at exporting a spreadsheet with 3.3 million entries and filtering - and there's not one person here who wants to do that! Thanks in advance. Screen Shot 2021-11-03 at 10.49.12.png
Link Explorer | | mark_seomoz10 -
Why moz is not indexing link from 21 march any body knows
I have lot of website few of them are really big sites. i want to know Why moz is not indexing link from 21 march any body knows please let me. is there some kind of maintenance going on
Link Explorer | | Arenapile3210 -
Is the Link Tracking Lists feature broken?
I used to be able to create a list of links via Link Tracking Lists and within 8 days Moz bot would visit and index the links in the Moz database. However, this no longer works. Is it broken? I have used this previously without issues, and tried several times over 20 days, but nothing. Anyone else having issues? Moz support - is this feature broken? If so, when do you envisage having it fixed? Thanks
Link Explorer | | BitsyJones0 -
Apart from spying on competitors back link what else can be done in MOZ?
I've recently started trail version in MOZ and I want to explore every possible way that can help me in building my website better. My website Sanctum Consulting (Visas and Immigration)
Link Explorer | | Manifeat90 -
Open Site Explorer Messge - Mysite.com redirects to www.mysite.com
Hello All, When I plug in my site's URL http://mysite.com ( Not my actual URL of-course) into the OpenSiteExplorer tool I get the following message: "You entered the URL http://Mysite.com which redirects to http://www.Mysite.com/.
Link Explorer | | jjimen03
Because it's likely to have more accurate metrics, we're showing data for the redirected URL instead.
Click here to analyze http://Mysite.com instead?" Not sure why I am getting this message. On my hosting server, I have defined my preferred domain to be the non-www. version. I have also used a Canonical Tag on Mysite.com/index.html file ( ). In addition, on Google Search Console ( Webmaster Tools ) , I have added both the www. and non-www. properties, where on both property settings, I have defined the non-www. version as my preferred one. Also, on my server, I have not implemented any 301 redirects at all. So my questions are: Why am I receiving this message when plugging in my non-www. URL version of my website into OpenSiteExplorer? Is my DA or PA possibly being split up between the two versions as a result? Should I be concerned? How can I fix this? Thanks in advance.0 -
Why does OSE show different link equity for homepage with and without trailing slash?
Hi all, I am working with a developer who believes OSE (Open Site Explorer) is flawed. His reasoning is that OSE shows completely different link equity and domain authority for these two URLs [company name is purposely withheld]: http://www.mydomain.com/us/ and http://www.mydomain.com/us NOTE: http://www.mydomain.com/us has been properly 301-redirecting to http://www.mydomain.com/us/ for years. The developer's argument is that the URL that is being 301-redirected shouldn't have any link equity at all, therefore OSE is flawed. Here is the response I would like to give him. Please feel free to poke holes, provide feedback or flat out correct me if I am wrong: Dear inquisitive developer, Any URL that is being linked to by another site that has link equity will get link equity passed to it. This is true even if the URL is a page that doesn't exist. What it can't do (if it doesn't exist) is then pass that link equity on to another page. Moz's OSE is showing separate link equity for the two versions of this URL because other sites have linked to both versions. The fact that one 301-redirects to the other is good and ensures that link equity from one is passing to the preferred URL. The 301-redirect does not, however, remove link equity from the first URL, but rather passes the existing link equity from one to the other. Consequently, Moz's OSE is not flawed, but rather is displaying the link equity of one URL that is benefiting the other via a 301-redirect. Sincerely, Dana
Link Explorer | | danatanseo3 -
Total links
Hi there, Root domain metrics I do not understand the "Total links" metric. I was checking this domain: domesticviolenceuk.org. The total links value (11k) is huge compared to the sum of external and internal links (429 + 221). Why? Is that because 221 is the number of internal links to the single page and not to the root domain? If so, it would mean this domain has 10k internal links. Thank you. Willy
Link Explorer | | WillyBin0 -
A simple count (with list if possible) of the external and internal links on a website
Dear Moz Community, I am trying to find a way to easily analyse a website (http://uk.chm-cbd.net) to determine the number of internal and external hyperlinks throughout the (roughly) 490 webpages within the site. It would also be extremely helpful to have a list of all the links with their url. Does anyone know of a tool, methodology to do this? If it requires a lot of programming then that does not help me very much as I am not very computer literate!! So a software to download or an online service would be very helpful. Open Site Explorer seems to be limited, such that I would have to do an analysis on each page within the website. BUT, if anyone knows how I can do using OSE, then please tell me. Thanks in advance to anyone who may be able to help Hugh
Link Explorer | | HLConsulting0