Domain Authority drop due to Moz update?

[OscarSE]

Hi guys,

I have noticed an unusual Domain Authority (DA) drop in mid November for many different websites here in Sweden. There was a Moz update the 12th of November which I assume has to do with this drop.

I have attached the DA history chart to visualize the drop.

Does someone have any information about:

• Did the drop in DA have to do with the update the 12^th?
• Did the new update have a new type of metric calculation?
• Is anyone else experiencing this drop?

Any extra details would be helpful.

Thanks a lot guys.

YLhKVwF.png

[ATP]

Ultimately people complain about DA because they lack the understanding of what it measures.

DA paints a picture of the hierarchy of the web and your "ranking" within the web. This is how DA was designed. As professionals we have chosen to utilise this ranking but sadly people are using it without first learning fully what it means and as such fall into pitfalls

The scale is designed to represent the whole web. The web is to large to simply divide into smaller sections that allow you to have a scale in which you can climb. If you define a static ceiling or remove the ceiling you either end up with all websites above the ceiling forcing it to be redefined anyway or allow DA to climb so high that it is unobtainable anyway.

DA can tell you everything you need it to, as long as you stop looking at it as a figure only you can influence.

[pfrance]

Good answer. I do think, though, that Moz might have to field less concerned individuals complaining about drops in DA if 100 represented a number of links no website will ever reach.

If the scale has to be normalised every time the index is crawled because the ceiling sites are snowballing links at a rate at which the rest can't keep up, perhaps it's time to look at the scale?

No earthquake can be Richter 10.0, and that's in the design. I understand that DA is also a logarithmic scale but clearly not one robust enough to prevent this constant renormalisation.

[ATP]

Hi Oscar,

I answered a similar question to this a week or 2 ago but cant find it. Ill keep trying but here goes again

Moz Authority shouldn't be compared a month to month basis. It is not a direct reflection of how well or badly your website is doing. What it is, is an indication of how much authority you have COMPARED to other websites.

Lets say facebook is the top website and has 5000 links pointing to it. This means that DA 100 = 5000 links
During the same month your own website has 500 links. And is DA 30.

The following month facebook gains 1000 links. The benchmark for DA 100 now = 6000 links. Your own website gained 10 link but your DA dropped to 25.

Your website hasn't changed and you own backlink profile got stronger. However you lost DA. This is because the "standard" got higher. Likewise if the best website lost 1000 links and you did nothing your DA would climb.

As such you can't compare it month to month, but should compared it verses your competitors. As you saw from your attachment, all the website you are tracking dropped. So in relation to your direct competition you are still fine, there is nothing to worry about.

I would suggest that you consider the time of year. As Christmas approaches the internet goes link crazy as they begin to advertise and all sorts of reviews and recommendation are made. As such expect the best website particularly to gain massive amounts of links, this in turn increases the "standard". The result is, all website that havn't built as many links that month experience a drop in DA.

As long as you havn't experienced massive drops compared to competitors i wouldn't worry.