Moz Domain Authority 2.0 Update on 5 Mar 2019

[sunnydeval]

After Domain Authority update on 5 Mar 2019. My website's DA down from 43 to 20. From Last 2 year, DA was good. But after this update, suddenly dropped.

What are the reason? How to increase it?

Share your reviews

@ webmasterworld @Moz #moz #DA_Down

[Robert Charlton]

[My] DA was good. But after this update, suddenly dropped.

The old DA (Domain Authority) score was a flawed metric, one that ultimately even Moz admitted was an undependable predictor of how well a site might rank in Google.

The DA score was generated by a unique-to-MOZ internal algorithm that was easily spammed. The factors considered in its model were based on outmoded SEO techniques. The DA score of a site was a measure its degree of optimization to fit those factors... not a measure of the site's quality or relevance.

The release of the updated Domain Authority was announced for March 5 about a month ago. Back in February, Roger Montti (aka martinbuster on WmW) published a thoughtful article in Search Engine Journal about what he thought the effects of the announced changes would be....

Moz Domain Authority Update Will Devalue Link Sellers
Roger Montti - Feb 5, 2019
[searchenginejournal.com...]

Moz announced a significant update to their Domain Authority metric that will improve its ability to catch link sellers and other spammers. Domain Authority (DA) has long been used to calculate prices for links. This change may disrupt the traffic in paid links but it may improve its usefulness for SEOs who have longed for a more accurate measure of quality.

The updated DA is also expected to devalue private blog networks. MOZ expects to make DA a much more useful indicator, one that tracks more closely with Google. The fact that your DA scores went down suggests that you probably have troubles in Google, and if you sell links, you may have a harder time doing so.

How to increase it?

There are a lot of articles out there about how to improve your DA, but they're now outmoded and should be avoided like the plague. And improving your DA score is the wrong goal. Shift to building good sites that do well in Google. If MOZ got it right, that's what it's going to take to boost your DA, and that's what our forum is, or should be, about.

I'd say "stop taking shortcuts". Concentrate not just on getting all of your words spelled right, but instead on writing extraordinary, useful articles. Build high quality sites with good UX. Consider conversion optimization as well as ranking optimization.

[martinibuster]

Moz DA has modernized and is now using neural network technology to produce rankings with less bias against small niches and sites. The new method also incorporates their spam score which should positively enhance the accuracy of the link graph analysis Moz is doing.

Russ Jones tweeted: [twitter.com]

The Spam Score of your own site does not impact your DA. Rather, the Spam Scores of the sites that link to you impact your DA. You want a natural distribution of links, most coming from low spam sites, fewest from high.

This update addresses what I believe was a flaw in the previous version in that it used to use metrics of sites that ranked well, inadvertently creating a metric based on sites that use SEO tactics to rank rather than a metric of quality.

That flaw in the original design may have reflected Moz's former obsession with deconstructing Google's SERPs based on correlation data. And we all know how useless correlation data is, right?

So, leaving that kind of analysis behind is a good step forward for Moz DA.

Good luck!
;)

Roger Montti

[Robert Charlton]

martinibuster wrote...

This update addresses what I believe was a flaw in the previous version in that it used to use metrics of sites that ranked well, inadvertently creating a metric based on sites that use SEO tactics to rank rather than a metric of quality.

That flaw in the original design may have reflected Moz's former obsession with deconstructing Google's SERPs based on correlation data. And we all know how useless correlation data is, right?

martinibuster, thanks for your additionally nuanced elaboration, beautifully worded. It sums up the situation of many SEOs so well that I'm quoting it for emphasis... and hoping that many members here will read it and think about the point you're making.

MOZ has also, I think, learned the dangers of calibrating a tool with a seed set that is out of sync with Google (which is true of any third party ranking and optimization tools). IMO, tools are perhaps less important than good writing and useful content.

It's worth taking a look at the Russ Jones's announcement from a year ago that this would be coming, and that MOZ "intend(s) to make Domain Authority much more responsive to Google's changes".

A New Domain Authority Is Coming Soon: What’s Changing, When, & Why
Feb 5th, 2019 - by: Russ Jones
[moz.com...]

[AlecR]

How many of you were affected? How do you think you can get your lost authority back?

[phranque]

welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com], AlecR!

how were you affected by the update?
what would you do with the restored authority?

[JS_Harris]

You guys are sadistic(j/k). With all of the effort required to top rank a page, which mainly involves time and energy to create the best pages possible, I don't know how you find time to worry about the arbitrary ratings of a 3rd party site. I mean, I appreciate those ratings, they can tell me if I have a site-problem or need to work a little on something, but I don't have the resources to specifically try to alter those ratings, or even watch them too closely.

If your serp rankings and traffic are good but the DA falls in half I wouldn't worry about it too much. If it matters I just checked and my domain DA went up 3 pts this week. My images are all served with noindex and Moz has their .jpg urls as the most important on my site.

[martinibuster]

I don't know how you find time to worry about the arbitrary ratings of a 3rd party site.

I believe that some people who worry about their own DA score do so because it impacts the price they can sell for a link. It should have zero impact on how much a publisher charges for advertising as traffic metrics are more important.

The DA score has zero impact on rankings so it doesn't matter for ranking purposes.

"If your serp rankings and traffic are good but the DA falls in half I wouldn't worry about it too much."

I agree and from what I've read, I believe that the people at Moz agree with that.

[martinibuster]

Your DA and traffic are unrelated so shouldn't really be in the same sentence.

The methodology and the technology for calculating DA has changed to a great degree. So some variance should be expected.

[laura torgerson]

I have a question to you, How you believe that you can receive your lost power straight back?

[martinibuster]

It's not power. It's just a metric created by a third party unrelated to Google.

[browndog]

I've never worried about MOZ, does it impact on rankings? I've never factored MOZ into anything. Should I? I lost respect when I signed up for a trial and was hassled by somebody there to subscribe, even after I said I couldn't afford it.

[browndog]

Sorry, my mistake, confused MOZ with SEM rush. Coulnd't edit.

[sunnydeval]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Now i am much more clear about it.