The New and Improved Domain Authority Is Here!

[CbdVapeGenius]

Hey guys, I have a question about the new domain authority. One of the challenges for us has been a competitor buying bad spamy backlinks to negatively effect us. With your discover tool we are able to find and submit to google disavow. However the domain authority in moz doesn’t know not to count those links and actually increase our current domain authority higher. With this update sounds like you might start considering spam score within domain authority. Will you guys have your own disavow option? or how else can we still get accurate data?

[mentalitch]

I have the same question - one of my sites has a 15% spam score on MOZ but the bad links don't show up in the google search console.

[NJHweb]

Sounds like they are expecting a drop in DA numbers and are trying hard to proactively get out in front of it.

[BrianChilds]

Great question and thank you for the comment.

The new model will use spam score to inform link value. This is one of the material changes we expect users may notice when the update is released. Because of the prevalence of spammy link building practices, we view this as a significant improvement for evaluating domains against one another.

Updates to the spam score and monitoring of spammy links are ongoing and accounted for in the management of the link index.

[BrianChilds]

Thanks for the comment and great opportunity to clarify.

The proactive communication about changes to the DA algorithm is because we know that unexpected fluctuations in any core metric used in reporting can make for uncomfortable conversations with both internal and external stakeholders.

Fluctuations in DA are not necessarily going to happen to all domains in the index. However, should they occur, we want practitioners to be ready to respond.

Scores might go up, scores might go down. I look at it like when I used to work in a deli and had to reconcile the cash register at the end of the day. Being off by a dollar in either direction was equally bad. It meant I didn't count the money right. Accuracy was the goal.

The same holds for DA. This update improves the correlation of DA with ranks. Correlation might mean up. It might mean down. The important thing is, just like cashing out my register, is being able to explain the difference.

Hope that helps.

[Christy-Correll]

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[Christy-Correll]

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[Christy-Correll]

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[CbdVapeGenius]

so will you have a way for us to submit domains we don't want to count in your DA & spam score evaluation?

[TimHolmes]

I am certainly interested to see how the new DA correlates with rankings and competitors. exciting time

[WebMarkets]

I am so unbelievably excited about this new DA algorithm! DA is used constantly in our never ending SEO practice. Would be appreciated if it updated on a consistent, anticipated basis, rather than every so often.

[BlueprintMarketing]

I’m happy that you’re keeping up with Google  it’s really important that you try & stay close as you can with Googles changs  your accuracy that has become an industry standard I applaud “Moz Rank“  staying the industry standard.

[ulhosting]

this sounds to me like many sites are going to lose their current DA classification within the results, as you clearly say, there may be variations

[callmepinky]

Hi, I have a website and it's domain authority is 25 now. But now DA is not improving, I'm building high DA links such as 35 and above DA sites. Are there any helpful tips?

[TaylorRHawkins]

Thanks for the update!

[WebMarkets]

March 5th cant come soon enough!

[BrianChilds]

Hey Everyone!

The new Domain Authority is now LIVE!

Please share your experiences with us on twitter @moz or #DA

If you have any issues, you can always reach out to the awesome folks on the Moz Help Team at: help@moz.com

[rjonesx. 0]

Moz's Spam Score is actually unrelated to links. It is wholly calculated based on on-site factors.

[rjonesx. 0]

Unfortunately, we will not be including any kind of disavow. First, to be clear, spam score is not based on links but based on on-site factors. The way spam score influences your DA is getting links from lots of bad spam score sites, not your own spam score.

That being said, we can't offer a disavow because we can't confirm that Google has the same disavow. Otherwise, it would make it very easy for individuals to manipulate their Domain Authority.

However, as for negative SEO, our model DOES NOT use penalization. It learns what patterns of links correlate with rankings, nothing more, nothing less. Thus, negative SEO will only impact your DA insofar as it impacts your rankings.

[rjonesx. 0]

This is definitely something we are considering, although we also want to be able to make updates in response to Google updates.

There are, of course, multiple meanings of updates...

1. Updates based on new link data (this happens every other day)
2. Updates based on retraining the model with the same variables (TBD)
3. Updates based on adding new variables (TBD)
4. Updates based on the model itself (TBD)

We are working on determining what cadence would be appropriate for each.