The Origination of Idea
Every SEO professional who has ever worked on different website projects for clients is surely aware of the domain authority.
The credit for the inception of domain authority metric goes to Moz.
In fact, today it has become one of the industry standards for SEO professionals across the globe to comprehend the overall domain authority score.
You will be able to understand the contribution of domain authority metric in the success of SEO by going through the following statistic:
Domain authority of a website contributes to 20% of its SEO success.
This means that if you have a good domain authority website, it would become easier for you to get the first page rankings for the keywords in comparison to websites with less domain authority.
With time, domain authority scores have become an inevitable part of the SEO campaign.
source: theclickhub.com
The problem is, there are lots of websites that are trading links with each other which makes the entire process of domain authority quite inept.
In order to keep the domain authority metric relevant and to make it more effective, Moz introduced a brand new domain authority – DA 2.0 on March 5th, 2019.
It is the latest avatar available on the website which helps in evaluating different factors that are critical in making your website rank better in SERPs of reputed search engines like Google.
The great thing about the updated domain authority metric by Moz is that it follows all the algorithm updates made by Google which makes it more effective and highly reliable.
In this following sections of the write-up, we have provided various details pertaining to this recent update by Moz and how it has affected the majority domain authority score since its launch.
We promise after reading this piece of information you will be able to get a fresh perspective of the recent domain authority metric change made by Moz. It will ultimately help you to take advantage of the latest development for the overall betterment of your domain authority score.
But, before we look in depth at how, when, and why this change was made by Moz it is important to concentrate on the reasons that make domain authority highly relevant for your online website.
The Importance of Domain Authority for your Website
The domain authority score of your website enables you to markup its strength in comparison to your competitors. This ultimately ensures in driving useful insights which are critical in making data-driven decisions on the basis of link building opportunities, keywords, and other strategies that need to be prioritized.
There are lots of different people like SEO professionals and marketers who rely on domain authority to adjudge the health of their website. With so much of information at stake, it is obvious for anybody to feel uneasy at the announcement of the change in the domain authority metric by Moz.
Many of the SEO professionals and marketers are taken aback by these recent changes.
If you are one of those who is really scared of the recent changes in the domain authority metric by Moz, you have opted for the right piece of content.
We will dispel all your myths pertaining to these changes on Moz and will make your thought process positive by the end of this write-up.
So, without much ado, let’s get started.
What was the Need to Introduce a Brand New Domain Authority Metric – DA 2.0 by Moz?
It is a sad fact but there are lots of businesses that are trading links with each other.
In fact, this also includes spammers who have tried to manipulate this metric since long.
To combat this situation, Moz decided to introduce a brand new domain authority metric – DA 2.0 which ultimately results in disrupting the traffic of businesses practicing getting paid links.
The good news is that it will act as a boon for those businesses that have used the right SEO techniques and maintained precise measures of quality.
The very first objective of the new domain authority metric – DA 2.0 is to devalue links from websites that sell links.
It has been observed that people are easily able to sell 30 to 40 domain authority links at $ 50 each.
These websites get domain authority links from spammed domains.
This recent update is a slap on the faces of those people who try to cheat their ways to enhance the domain authority score of their website.
The other quandary is pertaining to the Private Blog Networks (PBNs). These PBNs consists of both pros and cons when it comes to domain authority score. Now, if a webmaster creates a PBN that blocks out Moz’s crawler, there is a probability of a decrease in the domain authority score. In such a situation if the company tries to sell link from their PBN, it can result in loss.
Whereas, if they enable Moz to crawl the PBN, it will allow them to control the backlinks up to an extent. The point is, PBNs will always remain elusive which makes a very good point of devaluing them than ever before.
The old DA metric did not give prominence to those websites that were highly qualitative but did not try to rank. It provided low DA score even though the quality of the websites was pretty high. This made these qualitative websites to miss out on getting their message across to their target audience.
This concern is resolved by the new Moz update. It aids in comprehending those websites which do not rank for any keywords at all. Due to this, it is possible for Moz to understand the quality of a website.
Now, that you have understood the need to introduce a brand new domain authority metric – 2.0 by Moz, in the next section we will divert our attention to a very important question: Is it possible for the new Moz DA metric to rank links more efficiently?
Will The New Domain Authority Metric on Moz be Helpful in Ranking Links More Efficiently?
The new domain authority metric on Moz – DA 2.0 shifts the attention on small websites that do not rank well on reputed search engines like Google. The amazing part is that Moz has shifted to neural networks for this particular update to calculate links.
It refrains from employing a complex linear model which results in lots of benefits like availing a state-of-the-art model that can aid in detecting link manipulation.
Another feature that has been added in this Moz update is the fact that there is an integration of the spam score to the DA analysis process. This can have a positive impact on the overall quality of the domain authority metric. As a result, now the DA score, thanks to the new update can more precisely depict the actual quality of the website. Instead of simply providing link count type metrics.
In addition to focusing at the link counts, Moz also integrates the spam score and intricate allocation of links based on traffic and quality on top of other factors.
This makes the recent update a major improvement in terms of Moz domain authority metric.
What Makes DA 2.0 Different from the Earlier DA Metric on Moz?
There are altogether new features in Moz’s DA 2.0 which help in providing a new way of calculating domain authority. Let us look at some of the amazing features of DA 2.0.
– Provides Valuable Insights Pertaining to Data That Throws Light on Things That Help and Do Not Help in Ranking a Website
This is a major change in the latest DA metric of Moz. It takes into consideration all the insights pertaining to data that not only help in ranking a website but also those that do not. This is a huge thing. Reason? You now have an opportunity to learn what is not helping your website to get ranked on Google on top of those factors that are helping your website to get ranked. What more do you want?
– Aids in Freely Detecting Link Manipulation in a Comprehensive Manner, Thanks to Employment of a Neural Network Model
Due to the recent update on Moz, it is now possible to find out link manipulation practices like buying or procuring low-quality backlinks to get higher search engine rankings. This can be done on a comprehensive scale in a nuanced manner.
– Integration of Moz Spam Score in the DA Calculation Algorithm which was Missing in the Earlier Metric
This new update has brought about a much needed change to the DA calculation algorithm which is the integration of Moz spam score. What this means is that now Moz will not only take into consideration the number of backlinks pointing to your website, but it will also consider the quality of the backlink and the potential traffic while calculating the Spam Score.
Where does the New Domain Authority Metric Moz Update Leave You?
If you are one of the webmasters, luckily chances of getting scratched are very less. But, there are chances of your domain authority to get dropped a little bit. In fact, lots of websites are currently facing this problem at Moz after March 5th, 2019. But, this will also happen with your competitors.
If you are a SEO agency or working as a SEO consultant, the update will show its effect. This is especially true in case of inventories of known link sellers who will diminish quite quickly in a quick span of time. It will become extremely difficult for websites to get high DA score now. It will happen but very rarely. The same thing goes with those who are trying to build Private Blog Networks (PBNs).
But, remember domain authority as it is does not have any direct impact on the rankings on reputed search engine so it will have no impact on your current ranking.
All in all, this recent Moz update will provide a much smarter metric to consultants and agencies to determine the quality of the website.
What is the Best Course of Future Action to Minimize any Permanent Damage on Domain Authority Score?
Let us look at some best cases for getting your domain authority to get a higher score after the latest Moz update.
- Always Calculate Domain Authority as a Relative Measure and Not Absolute One
Domain authority metric becomes useless if you do not compare it with other websites. Never think in isolation when it comes to DA score. It does not matter whether your website’s DA score increases or drops – what matters is whether it increases or drops in comparison to your competitor’s score. If the scores are fluctuating in the same direction chances are you are doing fine!
- Scrutinize the Changes in your DA Score over a Span of Time
Moz’s DA 2.0 updates historically which makes it easier for you track the changes in the DA overtime. This is especially useful when your DA score drops relatively in comparison to your competitors. It reflects that you need to start performing outreach activities.
- Aids you in Evaluating Link Quality Especially While Acquiring Dropped or Auction Domains
If you are a webmaster who is looking to acquire dropped or auction domains this recent Moz update will act as a Mackenna’s gold which can help you check the quality of the website. Although, there are other metrics available to adjudge the quality of a domain or link, as a webmaster an improvised domain authority metric will just do the trick!
The road less traveled
A very significant change has happened on March 5th, 2019 in regards to domain authority metric. In the past, it was believed that domain authority is quite static which rarely gets updated. This made the relevance of domain authority less important. But overtime this perception has changed. Today, with the pace at which Google’s algorithms are changing and updating, this new domain authority metric will act in a more agile manner. It will refrain from committing the same mistakes made earlier. On top of that, it will follow a famous quote “Change is the only constant” and keep on updating by responding positively to changes in the Google’s algorithms.
Keep reading our blogs to gain such useful insights pertaining to current SEO trends and topics!
