UPDATE: Rolling back an adjustment which had adverse effects on DA and PA scores.
-
UPDATE:
Yesterday's (June 4, 2018) adjustment to our DA/PA metrics turned out to have some unanticipated adverse effects. We're rolling back the adjustment, so by midday tomorrow you should see your scores return to what they were earlier this week. We're also implementing some new procedural checks on our end to help make sure it doesn't happen again. We sincerely apologize for any stress or burden this may have caused.
We also want to emphasize that DA and PA are relative metrics. The scores will fluctuate slightly with the index, and for that reason, should be used to compare your site with others. We realize this isn't always easy to explain to clients and stakeholders, so we're working on ways to help you all report these metrics in ways that minimize the potential for confusion.
******
We are continuing to improve our Domain Authority and Page Authority algorithms and strengthen our link index.
As of today, June 14, 2018, You may notice a slight variation in current and historic DA/PA scores in Link Explorer and tools that incorporate our new link data such as Campaigns, Keyword Explorer, and MozBar. This is due to a planned adjustment on our end that could be more noticeable than our standard updates. We made this adjustment in order to account for the rapid growth of our link index over the past 6 months and and stabilize distribution of scores over time.
For customers who have been tracking DA scores over time, you may want to make note of this adjustment date in your reporting.
Rest assured that our DA and PA scores are still far more stable and accurate than they were previously in Open Site Explorer. Our index is now 20 times larger (and growing) and updating daily rather than monthly, therefore standard fluctuations in the index are far less noticeable in your score than before.
DA and PA will still always fluctuate slightly and naturally with the index. As the landscape of the internet changes, so should our index to reflect those changes. Whenever we make an update on our end that could be noticeable on your end, we will let you know.
Also, please remember that DA and PA scores should always be understood as relative to other sites’ scores in the index, and reported to clients in relation to their competition and not as a standalone metric of individual performance.
If you have more questions about DA or the difference between the new score in Link Explorer vs. the old score in OSE, please read this FAQ page, or post a question below and I or a Mozzer will reach out.
Thank you!
Ian
-
Thanks for the update Ian!
Also read something in Twitter from Rand about this issue.
Its great to hear that Moz keeps track on the bugs and when they screw up, embrace the problem, do the best to solve it, even rolling back.
Keep up like this!Best wishes.
GR -
Got it, thanks so much Ian!
-
Hey John,
Some issues arose around Spam networks and Tumblr sites skewing the distribution. Over the last 12 months, these two types of sites outperformed (i.e., gained links and linking plds faster) most 'real' sites. This caused sites outside of these to appear to be trending down in DA, relative to the performance of those other networks. This makes sense, because this is precisely what spam networks are designed to do so, and tumblr.com is currently treated as a TLD, so it's easy for tumblr blogs to gain large numbers of linking PLDs (because they're free to create and link heavily to one another).
We do need to get this normalization work added to the index, but we need to do so in a way that does not allow these types of networks to have too much sway in the distribution. We will ensure that the communication of that change is clear and easy to communicate to other stakeholders for users.
-
Hi ian, for those of us interested can you share the issues that are causing this update to be rolled back? Also, I like many saw the update and have to explain things to clients and bosses, so it would Ben rest to get a post on the main blog about what’s changing and why things are fluctuating more than usual.
-
Hi Dawn,
I want to bring your attention to an update I just added to this post. It seems there were some unexpected issues with the index update we released yesterday and scores should not have been affected as dramatically as they were. You were right to question and I am very sorry for the shock.
-
If you could send your site to ianw@moz.com, I would be happy to take a look and talk to my team about BOTW.
-
Across the board there was been a shift in DA as we index more of the web. We are finding more links to all sites, but the relative number we find to those mid range DA sites is fewer than what we are finding to sites like BBC and NYTimes.
This normalizing of DA scores ensures that scores don't continue to climb just because our index size increases. Rather DA should climb when we find more new links to a specific site over others.
We are also very close on our Links via Redirect work, so some of these sites will see a nice bump in link counts once we are able to pass that equity from the redirects they have.
-
Thanks
Understood that relative DA might be more meaningful, but there seems to be something funny going on across the range of websites I track.
My website has a https://www.skillsplatform.org/ had a DA of 40 which appears to have been adjusted down to 31 and now recently 28. This comes despite the number of LRDs increasing over the same period.
All the organisations I track by comparison have dropped as have the DA for my parent company and the competitors in that space. These are all top draw highly respectable websites.
- http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/ - Down to 43 from 55 in sept 17
- https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Home.aspx - Down to 47 from 57
- https://hee.nhs.uk/ - Down to 51 from 60
- https://www.nhsemployers.org/ - Down to 49 from 58
It seems strange that all these website have been effectively brought down a category. Is a DA 30 the new 40? Even highly respectable UK charity websites have seen a drop from 70 to 62 such as https://www.autism.org.uk/
Yes it's all relative, but many of us had KPIs around domain authority and often DA is used as a sign of website strength when pitching for advertising. Further guidance on reasoning behind this would be appreciated. It seems there's been a drop in website DAs across the board apart from mega sites such as BBC.
-
Much obliged for the update! I was checking on a backlink profile just yesterday and had seen the domain authority increase to 21 and then when I checked back again today, it was down to 20 again. I'm curious on one thing. Moz Local submits to BOTW, but why do we not see the BOTW link in the backlink profile from Link Explorer? I'm guessing that BOTW should be one of the sites indexed as well correct?
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
-
Different DA Conflict
I was searching for a keyword in google and I had moz extension installed. The keyword I searched was "lesco bill online" and after searching MOZ extension shows DA and PA for each result in SERP. now I cheeked a site lescobill.net In SERP it was show its DA as 7 but when I open it up and look in explorer it showed DA as 4. Now is the because few backlinks removed from site and MOZ extension haven't picked them up yet ? what could be the reason behind this ? Just wanted to clear my doubt
Link Explorer | | AliCrunchi0 -
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%.
Link Explorer | | jessicapremier0 -
Domain Authority (DA) in Moz Pro changed only within the last 1-2 months?
Has anyone noticed that the Domain Authority (DA) as reported in Moz Pro has changed only within the last 1-2 months? We have screen shots showing plots of DA vs competitors w/ line graph 2 months ago starting in NOV 2017 which today starting JAN 2018 and comparing shows DA up to 50% different!
Link Explorer | | Amplitude_Digital
The change is seen both in the Links Overview and under the Spam Score sections still marked "NEW". Can Moz confirm that it's only recently within the last 2 months that in Moz Pro the NEW DA numbers have retroactively been updated even though the new Link Explorer has been publicly out since APR 30 from https://moz.com/community/q/moz-s-new-link-explorer-including-our-revamped-index-and-da-pa-scores-is-now-open-to-everyone? Look at the top green line starting ~12 months ago on both graphs, w/ old below 40 and new above 50. We've seen even greater differences for other tracked domains. Thanks! view0 -
How is DA and PA calculated?
I'm interested to know how DA and PA is calculated. Is it calculated exponentially? i.e. increases out of proportion compare to the power and quantity. So assuming all things are equal... One link of DA40 would be much more powerful than two DA20's?
Link Explorer | | seoman100 -
Moz Spam Score 9/17 when there are no links
Hi I was just looking at a competitors new site in OSE and it had a DA and PA of 1 which I would expect and also no links, which again I would expect, basically the guy used to design stuff for me and thinks he can do a better job so he is giving it ago. But he has a spam score of 9/17 but no links - how is this even possible. Thanks Andy
Link Explorer | | Andy-Halliday0 -
Spam score in bulk
Hi, Is there a way to check and export spam score of multiple sites at one go, like uploading links through an xl sheet and getting the spam scores checked for all the links at one shot? Thanks Amitabh
Link Explorer | | Ads4growth5 -
Spam score question on shortened URLs
Hello, Our agency owns a URL, thejoint.co, specifically for url shortening. There is no content on this url. When we post client's content to social media channels, we use the shortener which 301s to the normal URL. Now, when I use Moz Open Site Explorer to view a client's webpage (http://chiropractorphoenix-thejoint.com/scottsdale/shea/ or chiropractorglendaleca-thejoint.com), I see thejoint.co with a spam score of 9. I'm looking for clarification if this is a real problem in regards to my clients website health? If so, is there any way to keep the shortner without the negative effects? Thank you, P.S. Does this mean Moz's Spam tool also recognizes Bit.ly and other similar services as spam?
Link Explorer | | Overthet0p0 -
How quickly does Domain Authority and Page Authority update
Hi, I think I read somewhere that domain authority and page authority are updated twice a month - is this true? The reason I ask is because I had a very successful content piece released last month (around 20th May) that received some great links (mainly to a landing page, but also many links to my home page) from highly respected sources such as Time.com, Spin.com, RollingStone.com, DailyMail.co.uk... However, my domain authority hasn't changed at all, and the page authority for the page is only 47, which I was hoping would be higher for a page that received millions of visitors, 100k+ Facebook likes, and a wealth of sites linking in. Also, in OpenSiteExplorer, when checking against my home page, it says there are no Just-Discovered links for the last 60 days - again, I'm puzzled, as my home page has been referenced by many leading news sites. Many thanks
Link Explorer | | mjk260