Drop in Site Links

[wearehappymedia]

Hi all,

I've noticed recently a dramatic drop in the number of external links showing in moz across all campaigns (including tracked competitors) Is this to do with the new indexing?

Thanks

[_Heiko_]

Yes, that the new index: https://moz.com/blog/mozscape-index-2015

The index is smaller, therefore in most cases you will have less links as well.

Moreover it seems that on average DA/PA significantly dropped with the update.

[JordanRailsback]

Yep, that change in links would be related to the new index update, as Heiko said.

As a note, this index is roughly the same size as its most recent predecessor, but we've done some serious re-focusing, in terms of the emphasis that we're placing on different sites. So, I would expect a bit of momentary turbulence in link counts, as we're now prioritizing sites/links differently.

With respect to metric drops, I would recommend looking at things like DA/PA trends in the reference frame of other similar sites, rather than treating it like an absolute value.

[2MSens]

Can we be sure those DA / PA will not drop rise in such a way with the coming updates?

I use your grades to grade hundreds of sites in the same area, I'll be able to see trends. But then we got to explain to clients why their own grade dropped

[JordanRailsback]

I'd expect it to be more consistent moving forward, but it will likely never be void of fluctuations. That's just part of the nature of the metric.

For an in-depth look at DA, I'd recommend checking out this post: https://moz.com/community/q/what-s-the-story-on-mozscape-updates