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%.
-
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!
-
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.
-
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.
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
-
What is difference between Moz data than ahrefs?
hi, On ahrefs it's showing me that my web Fit Food has 1.2k backlinks and 140 referring domain. while on Moz it's totally different stats which making me confuse to understand. So is Domain rating is different than Domain Authority?
Link Explorer | | SophiaRPereira1 -
Error Message on Moz Crawler
Hi all, Just ran into this issue, when analysing this site. Just got this message when using MOZ "Page Optimisation Error". Anyone know why? It seems to be working fine on other SEO analyser tools. Website is: www.sbpcreativemedia.com.au Thanks in advance! luXS8V5
Link Explorer | | Dushala0 -
(301 Redirect) Link Spam Score: 10/17
Hi everyone, I'm looking for a specific answer, so I'll give some specifics to help get some information. https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/links?site=http%3A%2F%2Fgpstrackit.com%2F&filter=&source=external&target=page&group=0&page=1&sort=page_authority&anchor_id=&anchor_type=&anchor_text=&from_site= After looking through Open Site Explorer we've noticed one of the links from login.gpstrackit.net has a 10/17 spam score. https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/spam-analysis/flags?subdomain=login.gpstrackit.net This link is a 301 redirect from a previous login URL, so users can be redirected to our current site and login from there. I don't know how to approach this situation or what the correct fix is. Any advice would be much appreciated!
Link Explorer | | ccox10 -
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 -
Why is the company reference of "designed by" with a link back my web development site not being indexed as a link?
Using the Mozbar I am analyzing my links and my competitors links. I am noticing other web developer sites are getting credit/index links from all their client's websites with the "designed by...." link in the footer. However, for me I only see one "inbound link" in the link analysis report. Sometimes I notice a company getting several inbound links on one site they built. I have built many other sites and have my company link below on all the footers. Why are the other sites not showing up as "inbound links" on the link analysis report? Thanks for your help! Nikki
Link Explorer | | NikkiPatt0 -
What's with Moz continuously pushing back the Index Update date?
Moz seems to keep pushing back the Index update date, it was the 24th until the 24th, then it got changed to the 30th, now it is may 5th.... What is the reason for this?
Link Explorer | | mgladman1 -
Why Moz Back links check tool is very Slow compared with other tools?
I've created a new website 50 days old with a vision of sharing high-quality content. I created some pages which are useful and helpful, what make other people link to my site. Early days, two weeks ago I've started checking my backlinks starting with Ahref and majestic. three days ago I decided to join Moz too and use Moz explorer. But, I discovered that Moz tool is too slow compared with other tools. Why? Starting with Ahref. They discovered more than 100 links and updating their data for my site as a new website every 6 hours as I know. Also majestic for the first time discovered six links then every two days they updating their data. Even Google discovered some of my backlinks. Specially links from high-quality sites such as Wikipedia with high-quality pages. Moz tool discovered zero of my backlinks even after subscribing. I don't think Moz need to discover websites like Wikipedia which already indexed by Moz. So, I wonder Why Moz tools are very very very slow like that? Update: (This is a question, not a discussion. So, please don't edit it) Can any Moz support answer please? Thanks.
Link Explorer | | Eslam-yosef0 -
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