MozBar Overview

MozBar is a free browser extension that makes it easy to get link metrics and do all your SEO on the go. MozBar shows link metrics for pages and domains as you search, displaying the Domain Authority®, Page Authority, Brand Authority^TM, and number of backlinks for sites as you search. You can also dig into page elements, view search results from a different locale, highlight the types of links on a page (followed and nofollowed, internal and external,) view meta tags, and more. 

Sign up for a Moz Pro free trial to access advanced MozBar features and track your progress over time. These premium features include:

• Brand Authority — A Moz metric that measures a domain’s total brand strength as a 1 to 100 score. 
• Domain Overview — Quickly discover key SEO metrics so you can better assess a site's online authority, performance, and health.
• Ranking Keywords — See what keywords a site is already ranking for to identify top-ranking keywords and gain competitive insights.
• Page Optimization — Get a handle on optimizing your page with our On-Page Grader tool, also available in Moz Pro. Enter a keyword to see your page score. We will show you how to optimize the page and prioritize issues.

Looking for more information about MozBar feature access? See our guide.

This guide explains how to download and set up MozBar, customize MozBar, create search profiles, highlight links on a page, and use all other MozBar features.

Quick Links

• Getting started with MozBar (Video Available)
• Download and sign in to MozBar
• Overview of MozBar features
• Using the MozBar metrics bar
• Using the MozBar SERP Overlay
• Create Search Profiles
• Page Analysis
• Domain Overview
• Ranking Keywords
• Highlight Links
• Page Optimization
• Settings: customize MozBar
• Understanding MozBar Terminology

To get started with MozBar:

1. Download MozBar and install it in your Chrome browser (Firefox coming soon!)
2. Locate and click the MozBar M icon from the toolbar at the top right-hand side of your browser
3. From the login screen within the MozBar window, enter the email and password for your Moz account
4. Click Log in

Don’t have a Moz Account? No worries! You can still access limited functionality without a moz.com login. However, we recommend signing up for a Moz Community account or Moz Pro free trial to access all MozBar has to offer.

Learn more about MozBar access levels

MozBar is your ultimate SEO research assistant, offering link data, ranking keywords information, and overviews of on-page factors. In addition to all it offers within the popout window, this handy tool has two additional features that can be toggled on and off via the Settings menu.

• MozBar — Toggle MozBar on to enable the metrics bar at the top of your browser. Here you can see link metrics and authority metrics as you browse.
• SERP Overlay and Search Features — Toggle SERP Overlay on to see link and authority metrics right in the SERP as you search in Google

We’ll cover each of these features in-depth below.

When MozBar is toggled on in the settings menu, the MozBar docked metrics bar will be activated. You can use this to see key authority metrics and link metrics for sites and pages as you browse the web.

Within the metrics bar, there are three primary groups of metrics: domain-level metrics, page-level metrics, and Brand Authority.

Domain-level metrics

The domain-level metrics available in the MozBar metrics bar include:

• Domain Authority (DA) — A Moz proprietary metric from 1 to 100 that predicts how well a domain will rank in Google based on a machine learning algorithm of link metrics.
• Domains (i.e. linking domains) — The number of unique root domains linking to this page’s root domain. Two links from the same website will only be counted as one linking root domain. 
• Links (i.e. inbound links) — An incoming link from a page on another website back to this domain.
• Keywords (i.e. ranking keywords) — The number of keywords this domain is currently ranking for based on Keyword Explorer’s Explore By Site feature.
• Spam Score — Represents the percentage of sites with similar features we've found to be penalized or banned by Google. This does not mean that the site is spammy. It’s best to use this as a guide to potentially spammy sites for further investigation.

Page-level metrics

The page-level metrics available in the MozBar metrics bar include:

• Page Authority (PA) — A Moz proprietary metric from 1 to 100 that predicts how well a page will rank in Google based on a machine learning algorithm of link metrics.
• Domains (i.e. linking domains) — The number of unique root domains linking to this page. Two links from the same website will only be counted as one linking root domain.
• Links (i.e. inbound links) — An incoming link from a page on another website back to this page.
• Keywords (i.e. ranking keywords) — The number of keywords this page is currently ranking for based on Keyword Explorer’s Explore By Site feature.

Brand Authority

• Brand Authority (BA) -  A score developed by Moz that measures a domain’s total brand strength as a 1-100 score.

Click on any of the metrics in the MozBar metrics bar to be taken to Moz Pro where you can dive deeper and further analyze the data.

When SERP Overlay and Search Features is toggled on in the settings menu, SERP overlay will be activated when you search in Google. This feature will show you key metrics for all the organic results in the SERP, as you scroll and browse.

Within the MozBar Serp Overlay you will see the following data:

• Domain Authority (DA) — A Moz proprietary metric from 1 to 100 that predicts how well a domain will rank in Google based on a machine learning algorithm of link metrics.

• Page Authority (PA) — A Moz proprietary metric from 1 to 100 that predicts how well a page will rank in Google based on a machine learning algorithm of link metrics.

• Domains (i.e. linking domains) — The number of unique root domains linking to a target. Two links from the same website will only be counted as one linking root domain. In SERP Overlay, you will see a count for both page and domain-level linking domains.

• Links (i.e. inbound links) — An incoming link from a page on another website back to this page or site. In SERP Overlay, you will see a count for both page and domain-level linking domains.

Clicking any of these metrics will take you to Link Explorer, where you can explore this data further. And you can export your search results using the Export SERP button on the top left.

With MozBar active on a search engine, you can create profiles to make custom searches by country or region. Setting up a new search profile in MozBar is as easy as 1-2-3.

1. Head to the MozBar browser extension pop-out window.

2. Click Settings.

3. Click Add profile under Search Profiles.

From the Search Profile creation window, you can select the following information to customize your search:

• Search engine
• Country
• Region
• Search profile name

Once you have made your selections, click Save profile, and you can start using your new search setting right away. 

To activate your newly created Search profile in the search results, make sure you have MozBar activated from your settings menu and then select the Search profile from the available drop-down. Pro tip: Not seeing your newly created profile? Try refreshing the page!

Once you select your Search profile, your search engine's results page (SERP) should reload to reflect that newly selected option. 

You can also export your search results using the Export SERP button on the top left.

Dig into the attributes and on-page elements of any page with the Page Analysis feature of MozBar. Pop open the MozBar window to see all sorts of useful information as you browse the web.

Link Metrics

The Link Metrics view allows you to see metrics for any page on a page-level and domain-level, side-by-side.

Within Link Metrics you can see the following information:

A. Page Metrics

• Page Authority (PA) — A Moz proprietary metric from 1 to 100 that predicts how well a page will rank in Google based on a machine learning algorithm of link metrics.

• Linking Domains — The number of unique root domains linking to this page. Two links from the same website will only be counted as one linking root domain.

• Inbound Links — An incoming link from a page on another website back to this page.

B. Domain Metrics

• Domain Authority (DA) — A Moz proprietary metric from 1 to 100 that predicts how well a domain will rank in Google based on a machine learning algorithm of link metrics.

• Linking Domains — The number of unique root domains linking to this domain. Two links from the same website will only be counted as one linking root domain.

• Inbound Links — An incoming link from a page on another website back to this domain.

Click Copy to copy any of the available data in this view.

General Attributes

The General Attributes view allows you to see information about a page’s canonical tag, load time, and more. 

Within General Attributes, you can see the following information:

• Canonical URL — The URL this page has designated as the canonical. This tells the search engine which version of this page should appear in search results.

• Page Load Time — How long it took for the page to load.

• Google Cache URL— A link to the cached version of this page. This is the most recent version of this page that Google has cached in their index.

• Hreflangs — This tag tells the search engine which language is being used on a specific page (and which ones are available) so search engines can serve the correct result to users based on language and location.

• Sitemap — The URL for this site’s sitemap.

• Robots.txt — The URL for this site’s robots.txt file.

Click Copy to copy any of the available data in this view.

On-Page Elements

The On-Page Elements view shows you key information about the page’s metadata and formatting.

Within On-Page Elements, you can see the following information:

• URL — The URL for the page you’re viewing.

• Page Title — The title of the page you’re viewing that’s designated by the title tag in the HTML source code.

• Meta Description — The meta description for this page that is designated by the meta tag HTML element in the source code. This acts as a brief description of the page and may be used by search engines in search results. 

• Meta Keywords — The list of keywords noted in the meta keywords tag of the source code for this page. These may indicate the topic or content of the page.

• H1 — The primary heading of this page. Typically, a page should only have one H1 tag.

• H2 — The secondary heading(s) of this page. H2s are often viewed as the outline or subheadings of a page’s content and are used to divide the content into digestible and accessible sections.

• Images Alt Text — If there are images on the page with alt text, this will be noted here. Alt text describes the appearance or function of an image on the page.

Click Copy where available to copy this data.

Markup

The Markup view shows you any structured data that is found on the page you’re viewing. Each type of schema markup found will be listed and expandable. Click on the headings to expand or collapse them. Or click Expand All to expand all the information at once. You can also click Copy to copy this data. 

The information shown in this view will vary based on the specific schema markup found on the page you’re viewing. 

HTTP Status

The HTTP Status view shows the status code received by MozBar from the page you’re viewing, along with the URL of the page.

Domain Overview is only available to users with MozBar Premium. You must have a Moz Pro free trial or paid subscription to gain access to MozBar Premium. Learn more about MozBar access.

The Domain Overview feature of MozBar allows you to access features of our Domain Overview tool from right within the extension. To get started:

1. Head to the MozBar browser extension pop-out window.

2. Click Domain Overview from the left-hand navigation.

3. Select whether you’d like to explore by Root Domain or Subdomain.

4. Click Analyze.

After clicking Analyze, you’ll see the following information:

1. Domain Authority (DA) — A Moz proprietary metric from 1 to 100 that predicts how well a domain will rank in Google based on a machine learning algorithm of link metrics.

2. Brand Authority (BA) -  A score developed by Moz that measures a domain’s total brand strength as a 1-100 score. 

3. Page Authority (PA) — A Moz proprietary metric from 1 to 100 that predicts how well a page will rank in Google based on a machine learning algorithm of link metrics.

4. Linking Domains — The number of unique root domains linking to this page’s root domain. Two links from the same website will only be counted as one linking root domain. 

5. Ranking Keywords — The number of keywords this domain is currently ranking for.

Click on the metrics to go to Domain Overview in Moz Pro and view additional information about this page and site.

Ranking Keywords is only available to users with MozBar Premium. You must have a Moz Pro free trial or paid subscription to gain access to MozBar Premium. Learn more about MozBar access.

Use the Ranking Keywords feature of MozBar to see where a site is already ranking and identify top-ranking keywords to gain competitive insights. To get started:

1. Head to the MozBar browser extension pop-out window.

2. Click Ranking Keywords from the left-hand navigation.

3. Select whether you’d like to explore by Root Domain or Subdomain.

4. Click Analyze.

After clicking Analyze, you’ll up to 25 of the top ranking keywords for this site along with the following information:

1. Keyword — The keyword this site is ranking for.

2. Ranking — The site’s rank for this keyword.

3. Difficulty — This metric shows how difficult it would be to rank in the top 10 results for this keyword.

4. Monthly Volume — The number of searches for this keyword for any given month — this is an indication of demand for this keyword. 

If you’d like to see the specific page URL that is ranking highest for each of these keywords, you can Export to CSV using the link on the top right. 

With the Highlight Links feature in MozBar, you can find and highlight keywords on a page, and differentiate links by type: Follow, Nofollow, External, or Internal. Use the toggles in the Highlight Links view to start highlighting links directly on the pages you visit.

When the Highlight Links option is toggled on for different link types, those links will be highlighted with the designated color in your browser. 

In the example below, the followed and external link highlight options are toggled on. Any links highlighted in green are follow links. Any highlighted in blue are external links. If a link has 2 colors like the “Help” link on this page, that means the link meets 2 link highlight criteria. In this case, it is both a followed link and an external link.

This section of the tool also offers the option to highlight keywords on the page. Enter a keyword and check the box marked Highlight keyword search results to see this keyword highlighted on the page.

With the Page Optimization feature, you can get details of how well-optimized a page is for any keyword. Just enter a keyword you would like to optimize a page for, hit enter, and all of your Page Optimization factors and actionable suggestions will be surfaced in one view. 

To learn more about how to use Page Optimization with MozBar, please see our comprehensive guide.

MozBar offers customizable features such as dark mode, dock location, and a block list. If you ever want to update how your MozBar interacts with sites or how it feels, you can do so from the MozBar itself or from the Settings menu within the extension window.

Dark mode

MozBar offers the option of Dark mode and Light mode. To change the selected mode, you can either use the toggle option when the MozBar is activated or head to Settings > Mode.

Dock to bottom/top

If you find that the MozBar is blocking the top of the site you’re visiting, you can choose to move it to the bottom of the page or vice versa.

To change the docking location of MozBar, click Dock to bottom. 

If you ever need to change the location again, simply click the same button to move the MozBar.

Block list

The Block list feature in MozBar allows you to choose where MozBar shows up and where you use your queries. You can add domains, pages, or subfolder paths to disable MozBar on frequently visited websites for which you don’t want to see MozBar data. Use an asterisk/wild card (*) at the end of a URL path to block all pages in that subfolder (e.g. https://moz.com/help/*).

More definitions are available on our Glossary.

Domain Authority (DA) - Domain Authority is a Moz proprietary metric from 1-100 which predicts how well a domain will rank in Google based on a machine learning algorithm of link metrics.

Page Authority (PA) - Page Authority is a Moz proprietary metric from 1-100 which predicts how well a page will rank in Google based on a machine learning algorithm of link metrics.

Inbound Links (backlinks) - An incoming link from a page on another website back to your own site.

Spam Score - Represents the percentage of sites with similar features we've found to be penalized or banned by Google. This does not mean that the site is spammy. It’s best to use this is a guide to potentially spammy sites for further investigation.

Linking Domains (Total Linking Root Domains) - Number of unique root domains linking to a target. Two links from the same website will only be counted as one linking root domain.

Followed Links - Links that do not have a nofollow tag, these are crawled and indexed by the search engines.

Nofollow Links - Links that instruct crawlers not to follow links on a particular page or specific links. A nofollow directive can be added to a page or link on a page.

External Link - Links to the site you're researching from other sites

Total Links - In MozBar, the Total Links count is total external followed links plus total external nofollowed links. It is the total number of external (inbound) links this site or page has.