UPDATE: Rolling back an adjustment which had adverse effects on DA and PA scores.
-
UPDATE:
Yesterday's (June 4, 2018) adjustment to our DA/PA metrics turned out to have some unanticipated adverse effects. We're rolling back the adjustment, so by midday tomorrow you should see your scores return to what they were earlier this week. We're also implementing some new procedural checks on our end to help make sure it doesn't happen again. We sincerely apologize for any stress or burden this may have caused.
We also want to emphasize that DA and PA are relative metrics. The scores will fluctuate slightly with the index, and for that reason, should be used to compare your site with others. We realize this isn't always easy to explain to clients and stakeholders, so we're working on ways to help you all report these metrics in ways that minimize the potential for confusion.
******
We are continuing to improve our Domain Authority and Page Authority algorithms and strengthen our link index.
As of today, June 14, 2018, You may notice a slight variation in current and historic DA/PA scores in Link Explorer and tools that incorporate our new link data such as Campaigns, Keyword Explorer, and MozBar. This is due to a planned adjustment on our end that could be more noticeable than our standard updates. We made this adjustment in order to account for the rapid growth of our link index over the past 6 months and and stabilize distribution of scores over time.
For customers who have been tracking DA scores over time, you may want to make note of this adjustment date in your reporting.
Rest assured that our DA and PA scores are still far more stable and accurate than they were previously in Open Site Explorer. Our index is now 20 times larger (and growing) and updating daily rather than monthly, therefore standard fluctuations in the index are far less noticeable in your score than before.
DA and PA will still always fluctuate slightly and naturally with the index. As the landscape of the internet changes, so should our index to reflect those changes. Whenever we make an update on our end that could be noticeable on your end, we will let you know.
Also, please remember that DA and PA scores should always be understood as relative to other sites’ scores in the index, and reported to clients in relation to their competition and not as a standalone metric of individual performance.
If you have more questions about DA or the difference between the new score in Link Explorer vs. the old score in OSE, please read this FAQ page, or post a question below and I or a Mozzer will reach out.
Thank you!
Ian
-
Thanks for the update Ian!
Also read something in Twitter from Rand about this issue.
Its great to hear that Moz keeps track on the bugs and when they screw up, embrace the problem, do the best to solve it, even rolling back.
Keep up like this!Best wishes.
GR -
Got it, thanks so much Ian!
-
Hey John,
Some issues arose around Spam networks and Tumblr sites skewing the distribution. Over the last 12 months, these two types of sites outperformed (i.e., gained links and linking plds faster) most 'real' sites. This caused sites outside of these to appear to be trending down in DA, relative to the performance of those other networks. This makes sense, because this is precisely what spam networks are designed to do so, and tumblr.com is currently treated as a TLD, so it's easy for tumblr blogs to gain large numbers of linking PLDs (because they're free to create and link heavily to one another).
We do need to get this normalization work added to the index, but we need to do so in a way that does not allow these types of networks to have too much sway in the distribution. We will ensure that the communication of that change is clear and easy to communicate to other stakeholders for users.
-
Hi ian, for those of us interested can you share the issues that are causing this update to be rolled back? Also, I like many saw the update and have to explain things to clients and bosses, so it would Ben rest to get a post on the main blog about what’s changing and why things are fluctuating more than usual.
-
Hi Dawn,
I want to bring your attention to an update I just added to this post. It seems there were some unexpected issues with the index update we released yesterday and scores should not have been affected as dramatically as they were. You were right to question and I am very sorry for the shock.
-
If you could send your site to [email protected], I would be happy to take a look and talk to my team about BOTW.
-
Across the board there was been a shift in DA as we index more of the web. We are finding more links to all sites, but the relative number we find to those mid range DA sites is fewer than what we are finding to sites like BBC and NYTimes.
This normalizing of DA scores ensures that scores don't continue to climb just because our index size increases. Rather DA should climb when we find more new links to a specific site over others.
We are also very close on our Links via Redirect work, so some of these sites will see a nice bump in link counts once we are able to pass that equity from the redirects they have.
-
Thanks
Understood that relative DA might be more meaningful, but there seems to be something funny going on across the range of websites I track.
My website has a https://www.skillsplatform.org/ had a DA of 40 which appears to have been adjusted down to 31 and now recently 28. This comes despite the number of LRDs increasing over the same period.
All the organisations I track by comparison have dropped as have the DA for my parent company and the competitors in that space. These are all top draw highly respectable websites.
- http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/ - Down to 43 from 55 in sept 17
- https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Home.aspx - Down to 47 from 57
- https://hee.nhs.uk/ - Down to 51 from 60
- https://www.nhsemployers.org/ - Down to 49 from 58
It seems strange that all these website have been effectively brought down a category. Is a DA 30 the new 40? Even highly respectable UK charity websites have seen a drop from 70 to 62 such as https://www.autism.org.uk/
Yes it's all relative, but many of us had KPIs around domain authority and often DA is used as a sign of website strength when pitching for advertising. Further guidance on reasoning behind this would be appreciated. It seems there's been a drop in website DAs across the board apart from mega sites such as BBC.
-
Much obliged for the update! I was checking on a backlink profile just yesterday and had seen the domain authority increase to 21 and then when I checked back again today, it was down to 20 again. I'm curious on one thing. Moz Local submits to BOTW, but why do we not see the BOTW link in the backlink profile from Link Explorer? I'm guessing that BOTW should be one of the sites indexed as well correct?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Unsolved spam score too high and not updating
hello, everybody, my site 961 has a high spam score and it's not updating even though after disavowing links
Link Explorer | | s3leb0 -
How to increase the DA of a site?
I have done work on my site for 6 months, and still, I cannot find any progress because the DA in the MOZ is not increasing, and of course, I'm not getting rankings. What should I do now? I have been producing unique and new content too. Check my Site: http://www.apksoldier.com/avg-cleaner-pro-apk/
Link Explorer | | ndjkiu770 -
Tremendous increase in spam score
What's happening to moz, my spam score is just fluctuating from 1% to 66% now to 67% and back to 66% can't you guys help me reduce my spam score back, why giving me this new stress
Link Explorer | | Dahboss0 -
How Does Moz Spam Score Increase and Decrease?
Hello Moz Community, I'm facing spam score issue on my site General Queen according to MOZ my website spam score is 30% but anybody can explain how can i decrease it? Firstly I disavowed all low-quality and high spam score links (6 months ago) but my spam score was not decreased after that I created some high-quality and 0 spam score backlinks but still, my spam score is same 😞 According to Moz link explorer, my domain backlinks spam score ratio was below; Stats of 14 July 2019 .. Screen shot is attached 1-30% .. 45.3%
Link Explorer | | BloggerSEObd
31-60% .. 32.1%
61-100% .. 22.6% Stats of 13 June 2020 .. Screen shot is attached 1-30% .. 65.1%
31-60% .. 30.7%
61-100% .. 4.2% You can see a huge difference in the backlinks spam score in it. But why my spam score is still 30%? Looking forward to your reply. Thanks & Regards, abu1NiB XGLkr5z1 -
How long does it take to turn around a 10/17 SPAM score domain?
Hi - Looking at acquiring a domain name that has a great product fit. The problem is it is currently getting a 10/17 Open Site Explorer SPAM score. The existing site for the domain is running Google sponsored link ads and is full of internal pages that link off to these ads. That explains the existing SPAM score. If I acquire the domain I'll throw out the Google ad pages and build instead a site with real valuable content that behaves like a normal site and look at building backlinks etc. My question is, following this approach, how long is it likely to take Google to not see the domain as some Spam factory so it starts getting well positioned SERPs?
Link Explorer | | Gavin.Atkinson0 -
Not seeing index update for one individual campaign
Hi, I'd been looking forward to seeing the latest index update for a Moz campaign set up in September, but it doesn't seem to be coming through. I'm still seeing that the next update is due on 14th Dec.. All of my other campaigns were updated on time, so I was wondering if it's normal to see different behaviour for relatively new sites/campaigns, or if it suggests that there's a problem somewhere (other than my impatience)? Many thanks,
Link Explorer | | Tinhat0 -
Why is the company reference of "designed by" with a link back my web development site not being indexed as a link?
Using the Mozbar I am analyzing my links and my competitors links. I am noticing other web developer sites are getting credit/index links from all their client's websites with the "designed by...." link in the footer. However, for me I only see one "inbound link" in the link analysis report. Sometimes I notice a company getting several inbound links on one site they built. I have built many other sites and have my company link below on all the footers. Why are the other sites not showing up as "inbound links" on the link analysis report? Thanks for your help! Nikki
Link Explorer | | NikkiPatt0 -
Just Discovered links - How long before they are counted toward the PA scores
I have a new website I put up in the last 90 days. I have been watching the DA, PA and Keyword rankings. Once I set up the campaign I got a report back a week later and some data showing some keyword rankings and some DA & PA scores and links showing from 2 domains. Since this time OSE has Just Discovered 16 more backlinking domains - however the DA and PA scores have not changed ? How long after the new Just Discovered backlinks before they affect the scores I am seeing for my DA & PA ? Thank you in advance for any insight on this matter, Happy Holidays - Joe
Link Explorer | | jlane90