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Hi Carrie,

You can use tools such as Moz's Link Explorer to vet the quality of these links. I would also make sure they're topically relevant to your client's site. If so, you're probably okay.

Best,

Paul

Thanks Meghan, I appreciate the feedback and I understand the need to adjust, but using domain authority as a reliable KPI is becoming increasingly difficult, particularly when the historic data between the 2 models contradict one another. These are changes we have to report out on to clients, can we expect additional roll-outs in the near future?

Thanks as always!

Moz Team,

We are again seeing shifts on how we report on Domain Authority. When Moz moved from OSE to LE, domain authority scores changed (which is fine because our direct competitors in LE also saw similar changes). The problem is it looks like domain authority trends have re-calibrated to show a long term decline instead of a long term increase, which changes the narrative entirely. Please see IMGUR link. Is this a temporary issue, or has Moz again changed the scale in which DA is measured? Is anyone else seeing disparities in their data?

Thanks All!

NfnM4dk.jpg

Hi All,

We are working with an international brand that owns several domains across the EU and in North America. Our team is in the process of setting up international targeting using sitemaps to indicate alternate language pages. This is being done to prevent North American pages from being served in the UK, Spain pages from being served in Portugal, or any other combination of possibilities...

Currently we are mapping duplicate or “equivalent” pages and defining them as rel="alternate" on their respective sitemaps. The problem is, it’s not always explicitly clear what Google considers “equivalent.”

1. In this instance, URL structures vary by domain,
2. in most cases the content is similar (but unique),
3. the landing page templates vary is design and functionality,
4. and lastly, services often contain nuances that make them slightly different from one another (Professional Liability Insurance vs Professional Indemnity Insurance).

All things considered, these pages are offering the same service, but are vastly different (see above).

Q: Is it appropriate to use these attributes to serve the correct language / regional URL to searchers?

Q: Is there a rule of thumb on what should be considered an "equivalent" page?

Thanks All,

Paul

Moz Team,

We are again seeing shifts on how we report on Domain Authority. When Moz moved from OSE to LE, domain authority scores changed (which is fine because our direct competitors in LE also saw similar changes). The problem is it looks like domain authority trends have re-calibrated to show a long term decline instead of a long term increase, which changes the narrative entirely. Please see IMGUR link. Is this a temporary issue, or has Moz again changed the scale in which DA is measured? Is anyone else seeing disparities in their data?

Thanks All!

NfnM4dk.jpg

Hi All,

We are working with an international brand that owns several domains across the EU and in North America. Our team is in the process of setting up international targeting using sitemaps to indicate alternate language pages. This is being done to prevent North American pages from being served in the UK, Spain pages from being served in Portugal, or any other combination of possibilities...

Currently we are mapping duplicate or “equivalent” pages and defining them as rel="alternate" on their respective sitemaps. The problem is, it’s not always explicitly clear what Google considers “equivalent.”

1. In this instance, URL structures vary by domain,
2. in most cases the content is similar (but unique),
3. the landing page templates vary is design and functionality,
4. and lastly, services often contain nuances that make them slightly different from one another (Professional Liability Insurance vs Professional Indemnity Insurance).

All things considered, these pages are offering the same service, but are vastly different (see above).

Q: Is it appropriate to use these attributes to serve the correct language / regional URL to searchers?

Q: Is there a rule of thumb on what should be considered an "equivalent" page?

Thanks All,

Paul

Thanks Meghan, I appreciate the feedback and I understand the need to adjust, but using domain authority as a reliable KPI is becoming increasingly difficult, particularly when the historic data between the 2 models contradict one another. These are changes we have to report out on to clients, can we expect additional roll-outs in the near future?

Thanks as always!