Moz's new Link Explorer displaying the DA marginally less than Site Explorer

[dhananjay.kumar1]

Moz's new Link Explorer displaying the DA marginally less than Site Explorer. Old one is showing it 46 while new link explorer is showing the DA as 40.

[eli.myers]

Hey!

Thanks for reaching out to us!

The way we index the web for Link Explorer and the Links section of your Moz Pro Campaign is a bit different than the way we index for Open Site Explorer. With OSE, the index updates only about once a month whereas new data is added to Link Explorer every day. The index for Link Explorer is a different index than the Mozscape index used for OSE and includes a lot more data- we’re seeing more of the web with the new index which is helping to provide more accurate data on which to base these metrics.

In addition, the algorithm we use to calculate DA has been updated with this new index to better correlate with Google’s actual ranking standards so we can provide a more accurate representation of a site’s potential ability to rank.We definitely recommend using the new Link Explorer tool as we do consider it to be much more accurate.

One of our engineers wrote an excellent post here in our Q&A Forum which also outlines some of these changes!  You can find the post here. You can also read more on our Help Hub 

I hope this helps to answer your questions and please feel free to send any others our way!

Eli

[Vijay-Gaur]

Hi There,

In addition to Eli's reply, I have copied the relevant content from the post and pasting it here for your reference:

Which DA is the real DA?

The new DA is based on a much larger index that has many improvements, several of which are designed to make the index more like Google’s than ever before. You should consider moving towards the new DA (and the old DA won’t be updated after April 26th 2018, so the sooner the better). While there will be fluctuations as we improve the model and add features to the index, we expect it to remain largely stable and to be a far more accurate picture of a site’s authority according to how it’s seen by Google.

Why is Link Explorer’s DA/PA considered better than OSE’s, and which should I trust?

The larger link index with improved crawl selection allows us to produce a stronger model that includes a much larger proportion of the web. That being said, DA and PA should always be considered in the context of your competitors. A drop in PA or DA relative to the old OSE is of little concern if your competitors saw similar movement.

Is Domain Authority/Page Authority an absolute score or a relative one?

Both DA and PA are relative to the Internet as a whole. If Facebook acquired a billion new links, everyone’s PA and DA would drop relative to Facebook. Because of this, it’s always best to look at PA and DA in comparison to your competitors.

What does a drop/raise in DA mean in Link Explorer vs OSE? How can I explain this to my clients when I’m reporting it?

DA and PA should always be considered in the context of your competitors. A drop or raise in PA or DA relative to the old OSE is of little concern if your competitors saw similar movement. Reporting that your site has moved from a DA of 45 to a DA of 42 doesn’t tell the whole story, but reporting that your site has a DA of 42 while your main competitor moved from a 43 to a 37 shows that, relative to the sites you’re competing against in the SERPs, your site has significantly more authority and ranking power.