How Does Moz Assign Domain Authority?
-
When I use Site Explorer to test the following URL, http://jennathuening.results.net/site/index.php, it renders a domain authority of 47. (Clients site on real estate host)
- There are no page social metrics:
no Facebook share
no Facebook likes
no Twitter tweets
no Google+ plus 1's
no "just discovered" in 60 days
no one has made a post in 3 weeks
much or most of the content is duplicate content across all affiliate sites
inbound links - only one link - a 301 redirect http://jennathuening.results.net/
Images - 18 (Alt tags missing: 18)
Created - 1998-10-15
Registered Org - REMAX RESULTS is associated with ~416 other domains
Whois SEO Score 68%
AND YET IT HAS A ROOT DOMAIN OF "47" and page authority of 33
More confusing, its page authority of 33 is at that top on blue background and then page 30 just listed below.
When I use Site Explorer to test the following URL, http://www.homedestination.com, it renders a domain authority of 26. (Site personally owned and continually update with highly optimized fresh, relevant, quality content with grade "A" moz ranked pages and blog posts)
92 Facebook share
68 Facebook likes
13 Twitter tweets
420 Google+ plus 1's
2 "just discovered" in 60 days
Images 25 (Alt tags missing: 0)
inbound links - on 48 Root Domains
Created - 2002-08-15
9 new indexed blog post so far in August / 19 new indexed blog post in July
Whois SEO Score 100%
AND YET IT HAS A ROOT DOMAIN OF "26" and page authority of 36
While I am sure there are many other factors as well; it still is hard to see where a "smaller guy" could ever be given an even opportunity to play in the same SEO arena. Could you help me understand better? I like to build a stronger marketing and optimization strategy as we are just beginning AdWord campaigns.
| SEO Score | 100% |
-
I am ramping up the Local Search, using Moz's paid Local Search and will see what happens. Thank you both for your responses.
-
DA and PA are numbers that help you see how you're doing relative to competitors, and they can change with each update, depending on our index. They are something interesting to look at and can give you a rough idea of how you're doing, but they are numbers that Moz developed, based on our crawls. The search engines don't use our metrics, as they have a much bigger dataset, more statisticians than we have employees, and many more factors they take into account. EGOL does have a good approach here.
-
Again, thanks for the insightful comment, EGOL.
Can anyone from MOZ help me better understand my question and the example provided?
Thanks advance if you can take the time and offer help.
-
For real estate you must get really good at Local SEO. And when you do local SEO then, in my opinion, DA and PA have even less importance.
If I was going into local SEO, I would hire a local SEO consultant to get me started in the right direction. Local real estate rankings can be highly competitive in large cities and in smaller communities where major players or really smart people have a presence.
Knowing how to win is the first step.
-
EGOL,
You highlight a chief concern of mine: this real estate client is dynamite. Yet, did I "pick the right niche" in trying to help her? Here her unattended, disregarded for typical SEO features, etc, site on the super star parent company is given more credence, that tremendous effort on her personal web site has.
What organic SEO practices can ever nudge Google's ranking needle when in the same niche as brand giants that spend mega amounts on paid search?
-
Here is all I can say.
I run small publishing and niche ecommerce biz with three full time people (counting me); help from a couple smart consultants for technical work and SEO; two people working very part time on admin stuff; and occasional help from freelancers for artwork or programming.
The small guy can survive if he has expertise in a business niche, can present ideas well on the web and has the ability to get all of the technical details right or hire someone to get them done right. But you gotta work hard, pick the right niche, and have a nose for what people want, need or don't realize what they want or need. All of those stars must come together to make the constellation.
-
In my opinion, DA and PA, because they correlate with the observed ranking ability of a page or a domain, can be used as a general measure of a site's ability to rank.
You can use that to monitor the progress of your site over time or to compare your site with other sites in a very general way.
I don't use them.
If I want to know how I stack up with another domain I check Google's rankings. And, if I want to compete for a keyword or a set of keywords that cover a product or an industry, I just jump in. I am not going to allow a third party metric to encourage me or scare me off.
Being honest, I am confused about why moz publishes these numbers and provides very little guidance on how they can be used for practical purposes. DA and PA are in my opinion, the most frequent topic of angst in Q&A.
People spend so much time trying to understand why they have a higher DA then the guy who ranks above them when the answer is... DA and PA have nothing to do with your google rankings... get to work improving your website... that will impact your "rankings and bankings".
-
Why do you thing MOZ puts an emphasis on it if DA & PA have no merit or influence?
-
Hi Egol,
Yes, I have heard this comment often too. The point being, how can a "smaller guy" could ever be given an even opportunity to play in the same SEO arena?
-
lol "ranking or banking"... nice.
-
I agree. Just like page rank, the DA & PA don't have any influence on ranking or banking
-
AND YET IT HAS A ROOT DOMAIN OF "26" and page authority of 36
Why are you so worried about domain authority and page authority?
They don't influence the ranking of your site in google or produce income.
What, beyond these numbers are you trying to achieve?
-
Thanks for the response SilverDoor. I agree - those are three go-to-places to try learn more. I have combed them for some time, and yet, honestly, I am hoping to gain a more insights.
Especially as to establishing Domain Authority and Page Authority. What weight is given in my example above (to the simple fact that the site that has so much less going for it) to the simple aspect of being related to a nationally recognized brand.
This is fascinating: "Page Authority is a machine learning model inside our Mozscape index that predicts ranking ability from links and, at 0.39, it is the highest correlated factor in our study."
But how is Page Authority really measured? Again, if the example above were to be interpreted literally, then certainly fresh content, original content, and social metrics can't have much value. We put a tremendous amount of time into creating new blog posts, new optimized web content, pushing our content out, media news, social engagement, etc. and wonder what credence is really given it. We are picked up by Google News, Yahoo News, and various news aggregators weekly, our number of indexed pages in Google continues upward, and yet our Moz trust score is going down.
Baffled.
-
Hi,
Unfortunately, nobody will be able to tell you exactly how Moz calculate their PA and DA. These are algorithmic and intentionally kept secret.
However, there are several sources on their site that can at least provide some insight into the things they may be using
- What is Domain Authority?
- What is Page Authority?
- Search Engine Ranking Factors (This will probably give you the most insight into elements they take into consideration within their algorithm.
Sorry there's not a more specific answer to your question.
Hope you find this useful.
SilverDoor
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 Domain Authority Change frequency
Hello Team, I just want to know - is there any MOZ DA algorithm update frequency because we have not seen any movement in DA on website from last few months. Also, is there any matrices which affecting DA that might we are missing. Thanks in Advance.
Link Explorer | | adlift0 -
Moz's new Link Explorer, including our revamped index and DA/PA scores is now open to everyone!
Hey Moz Community, Link Explorer is now open to the public! Everyone can access it via a subscription or a free Moz ‘Community’ account. As you may know by now, the brand-new Link Explorer tool is primed to replace Open Site Explorer as Moz’s link building and analysis tool. The Link Explorer project is the result of an incredible amount of perseverance and hard work by the team, and we’re proud to be able to finally share it with you — we know it’s going to revolutionize how you approach link building and make your job easier. You can read more about the tool here in Sarah Bird’s announcement post. Because Link Explorer improves on almost every aspect of Open Site Explorer, the metrics have improved, too. That means you’re likely going to see some Domain Authority and Page Authority discrepancies between OSE’s index and Link Explorer’s index. We definitely suggest you use the new DA/PA from Link Explorer, as they’re more accurate and refresh daily rather than monthly, as was the case with OSE’s index. However, we also realize that many of you use these metrics to report to your clients and colleagues, and a sudden change or fluctuation could potentially make your job harder. Which DA is the real DA? The new DA is based on a much larger index that has many improvements, several of which are designed to make the index more like Google’s than ever before. You should consider moving towards the new DA (and the old DA won’t be updated after April 26th 2018, so the sooner the better). While there will be fluctuations as we improve the model and add features to the index, we expect it to remain largely stable and to be a far more accurate picture of a site’s authority according to how it’s seen by Google. Why is Link Explorer’s DA/PA considered better than OSE’s, and which should I trust? The larger link index with improved crawl selection allows us to produce a stronger model that includes a much larger proportion of the web. That being said, DA and PA should always be considered in the context of your competitors. A drop in PA or DA relative to the old OSE is of little concern if your competitors saw similar movement. Is Domain Authority/Page Authority an absolute score or a relative one? Both DA and PA are relative to the Internet as a whole. If Facebook acquired a billion new links, everyone’s PA and DA would drop relative to Facebook. Because of this, it’s always best to look at PA and DA in comparison to your competitors. What does a drop/raise in DA mean in Link Explorer vs OSE? How can I explain this to my clients when I’m reporting it? DA and PA should always be considered in the context of your competitors. A drop or raise in PA or DA relative to the old OSE is of little concern if your competitors saw similar movement. Reporting that your site has moved from a DA of 45 to a DA of 42 doesn’t tell the whole story, but reporting that your site has a DA of 42 while your main competitor moved from a 43 to a 37 shows that, relative to the sites you’re competing against in the SERPs, your site has significantly more authority and ranking power. What’s happening to MozTrust and MozRank and why, and what should I replace those with? The improvements to our DA/PA and Spam Score metrics now now account for more important nuances in helping you determine one site’s ability to rank higher than another. Because they no longer correlate with Google’s ranking model as well as they used to, MozRank and MozTrust are being deprecated for better metrics. Users should rely on Page Authority, Domain Authority, and Spam Score to determine the importance and quality of pages, domains, and links. I have historical data I use to help my clients benchmark their progress. What do I do now that DA is calculated differently? You should annotate any KPI changes referencing the change in DA and PA. However, most importantly, you should compare those changes to your competitors, as this will best show how strong your site’s authority is relative to the sites you’re competing against in the SERPs. We take updating our metrics very seriously, and our last major update to the model was 7 years ago. Users of Domain Authority and Page Authority can expect us to continue to produce steady, reliable metrics for the long haul, and only make changes to these metrics when we believe the benefits dramatically outweigh the stability of the metric. Do you have any questions about the new metrics? Anticipating a tough time reporting changes to clients or bosses? Metrics, features or functionality missing that you would want to see? Let us know in the thread, and we’ll work to find a good answer for you. Hope you enjoy the new Link Explorer product and the amazing new link index powering it. We are very excited to provide this valuable data to our community and customers.
Link Explorer | | IanWatson9 -
Internal Equity-Passing Links not getting crawled in Moz Open Site Explorer?
Internal Equity-Passing Links not getting crawled in Moz Open Site Explorer. What is the cause of this? We've checked the robots.txt and htaccess file, but so far we can't find anything that would be blocking Moz from crawling the internal links. We manage loads of other clients on this platform and this is the first time we've run into this issue. What else can I check?
Link Explorer | | OozleMedia0 -
MOZ competitor analysis tool
Hi Guys Has anyone also noticed that the MOZ competitor analysis tool does not always pick up on all back-links? If I put two competitors into MOZ and Ahrefs I get so many more back-link info from Ahrefs. Has anyone else experienced the same issue? Thanks Jon
Link Explorer | | NaughtyChilli0 -
When moz will index my page?
HI. I use moz pro for 1.5 month and yet my site is not indexed and i do not see Competitive Link Metrics. Can you please include meko.lv in index?
Link Explorer | | Mekounko0 -
Learn how to use Moz's Spam Score metric to identify high risk links. Get your Daily SEO Fix.
Almost every site has a few bad links pointing to it but risky links can have a negative impact on your search engine rankings. Watch The Moz Daily SEO Fix: How to Use Spam Score to Identify High Risk Links to learn how to spot those spammy links and what to do with them. And, if you have more questions about Spam Score, check out Rand’s blog post: "Spam Score: Moz’s New Metric to Measure Penalization Risk." This video is part of The Moz Daily SEO Fix tutorial series--Moz tool tips and tricks in under 2 minutes. To watch all of our videos so far, and to subscribe to future ones, make sure to visit the Daily SEO Fix channel on YouTube.
Link Explorer | | kellyjcoop3 -
Open Site Explorer not detecting linking domain on my site
So I was using Open Site Explorer to analyze my domain authority and page authority as can be seen here. My site has been covered by some press and in the article it actually links my site. Some of the articles can be seen on, here, here, and here. Any idea why none of these articles are detected as a linking domain to my site? Is there something that I am doing wrong?
Link Explorer | | herlamba1 -
Root Domain and Subdomain Links OpenSite Explorer
I'm using opensite explorer trying to explore who is linking to my clients site. In the main blue area it shows total links as 20, which I understand is to the specific page. In the Root Domain Metrics it shows 4,032 external links. Sub domain Metrics shows 1,973. How do I find out where the links are? I tried creating a advanced link report with the "Links that to" are checked off as "any page on this root domain" and only shows 91 of the links? What am I doing wrong or missing?
Link Explorer | | JoshBowers20120