Moz authority. Should this be taken as just a guideline.

[isaac663]

Hi Guys.

We have an opportunity to get a back link from a charity site...the site of "Friends of Richmond park'.

I've just checked it out in open site explorer and Moz grades it's domain authority as 25/100.  However, looking in more detail the site has gained quite a few high authority links, both in terms of DA and PA.   Many of these links are reciprocal i.e) Friends of Richmond park have links to sites which also link back to them.

So i'm wondering... should the 25/100 DA be taken as a basic guideline?  Or is this quite a sophisticated measure that has taken into consideration the reciprocal links and 'downgraded' them as Google might?

Isaac.

[EGOL]

I think that too much thought is often put into these situations.  If the charity is a good one with an agreeable mission and money is available then support them.   Head-to-toe SEO evaluation and pedigree sniffing transforms a donation into a conditional decision and a that makes the link purely manipulative. If these types of analyses move upstream then charities will start doing tricks to manipulate DA so that they are more attractive to donors who are trying to game Google.

Looking for the win-win situation..... we can be 100% confident that Google is not probing the DA of websites and using that information to calibrate the power of outlinks on charity sites.  So, the course of action that is best for all is to donate the money and spend the research and decision-making time preparing to write a new article for your website.  That gives you two good deeds.

[isaac663]

Hi there thank you for your answer, very much appreciated.  This is great food for thought about establishing links going forward and creating some content off the back of it.  We're going ahead and offering a discount on their purchase from us for a 'News piece' on their website.

However, I should have asked 2 different questions though, as this didn't really answer my question about OSE.  I'm curious about how sophisticated the tool is.  Does it take into consideration reciprocal links for example?

Many thanks.

Isaac.

[EGOL]

**this didn't really answer my question about OSE.  I'm curious about how sophisticated the tool is.  Does it take into consideration reciprocal links for example?  **

A lot of people worship the numbers out of OSE.  I do not.

I don't use them for any decisions, although if I hear that a site is 25, I think that it is probably a lightweight.

I beleve that almost everyone who uses it sees  lightweights ranking above heavyweights on a regular basis.  In fact, one of the most common posts in Q&A is something like this.. ... "Wah! my site has a DA of 32 and a spammer with a DA of 26 is beating it.  I am getting screwed by Google."  These posters have high levels of consternation and distress.

So, it is a service that a lot of people are using to "bet their fortunes" but it is not accurate at what people perceive as its primary job at worst, or is widely missunderstood at best.

That's my honest opinion.

[isaac663]

Thank you that's really useful insight.

Cheers.

Isaac.