Authority from Linking Root Domains: youtube.com / wikipedia.org / adobe.com

[catherineh]

Hi there,

Presently doing competitor analysis and note two competitors who have a way higher 'moz domain authority' than my client. Using moz tools I notice their top 5 linking root domains all have a score of 100. Refer to screen shot.

Of note, both list youtube.com and _wikipedia.org. _

Similarly, my client's domain is ALSO linked from their user profile on youtube.com. They also have a published wiki page with their URL linked. BUT, youtube.com or wikipedia.org are not listed in their "top 5 linking root domains". Their highest scoring linking root domain is prweb.com - with a score of 97.

If my client has links on these top domains why would they not be listed in my client's top five domains list like they are listed in their competitors top five? Researching for reasons I came across this old post (2009) here - http://moz.com/blog/followed-links-from-four-unexpected-sources - and wonder if the competitor's links are 'followed' links - even though all resources suggest wiki and youtube are definitely 'no follow' links?

Other interesting "Top 5" domains that are listed for my competitors as top "linking root domains" are microsoft.com, adobe.com and europa.eu - again, refer to screenshot.

Questions are IF these top linking root domains are in fact 'followed' links/valuable links and help with domain authority scores calculated by the moz tool then 1) HOW do I get these links to show/provide the same value? AND 2) How are my competitors, who are simply travel products, getting links from top domains like adobe.com?

I do hope all the above makes sense and that I'm using/interpreting the moz comparative tool correctly!

Cheers

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[IOSC]

Before addressing the broader questions here -- drill down to the actual pages, and not just the domains, that are linking to your site and your competitors to see if there are any glaring differences there.   i.e. homepage link vs. profile link etc.

How does your competitor get a link from adobe.com?  Looking at the adobe page linking to their site is the first step and then go from there.

[catherineh]

Hi there IOSC,

Thanks so much for responding,

Yes - prior to posting I did drill down to see exactly where the links were coming from. They are exactly the same as my clients - i.e in their youtube user profile and their wiki company page. But my client's linking root domain report does not show youtube.com or wiki.com as linking root domains.

So still just curious to know why competitors show a link from youtube (which is only on their user profile URL) and wiki, yet my client, who has the same type of links (from what I can gather) on these domains, does not.

[IOSC]

The only other thing that I could think of would be if the links for your client's site are newer and have not been detected yet -- otherwise if they are essentially identical links, I am not sure as to why they would not be listed -- that might be a question for the moz people.

Going back to your original question -- you can filter for nofollow links on OSE -- go to the Inbound Links tab and then filter for show only rel="nofollow" and that will show all the nofollow links going to a particular URL.

[catherineh]

Cheers IOSC - Yep - it's a weird one because the client's youtube link has been there for years. Just can't work out why it's not considered a linking root domain yet it is (with a score of 100) with their competitors. Might ask MOZ team.

Thanks so much for your help here - didn't see the filter - newbie here - great tip!

[IOSC]

Glad to try and help best of luck