SEO Tools
Moz to Update Domain Authority: New Features may cause Fluctuations in DA
Dileep Thekkethil
December 10, 2021
Ever since Google announced that PageRank Score and PageRank toolbar would not be updated, SEO agencies across the globe were on a lookout for an alternative to the popular tool.
Mozbar, which uses Moz’s internal metrics to rate websites based on Domain Authority scores ranging from 0-100, became a quick winner in the space vacated by the PageRank Toolbar.
Even though the Moz Bar and its Domain Authority metrics have become popular, they are not immune to criticisms. Moz has been facing several questions about how websites manipulate backlinks to get the undue spike in their DA.
The company has finally decided to answer all the criticisms against its famous site metrics in the form of an improved and implemented a Domain Authority Update– the DA 2.0. The update came in the form of a free tool called “Domain Analysis” that displays top SEO metrics like DA, ranking keywords, spam score, and top pages, to name a few.
The Domain Analysis tool will be handy for digital marketers to keep a tab on the SEO metrics of their website as well as their competitors. It will help them to look for potential SEO opportunities to rank better on search engines and drive quality traffic.
A user with access to the free tool currently can generate three reports per day. Paid users can log in to create as many reports as they want in a day without limitations.
List of SEO Metrics Available in Moz’s Free Domain Analysis Tool
Although the free Domain Analysis tool doesn’t give very in-depth data like the paid Moz tools, nevertheless, it comes handy to observe data combined in one place. With the newly launched tool, marketers can get a preview of various SEO metrics like:
- Domain Authority
- Linking Root Domains
- # of Ranking Keywords
- Spam Score
- Top Pages
- Linking Root Domains
- Top Linking Domains
- Discovered and Lost Links
- Top Ranking Keywords
- Keywords by Estimated Clicks (new)
- Top Featured Snippets (new)
- Top Branded Keywords (new)
- Keyword Ranking Distribution
- Top Search Competitors (new)
- Top Search Questions (new)
With the introduction of the Domain Analysis Tool, webmasters can now use another free service from Moz other than its popular Moz Toolbar.
New Experimental Metrics Made Available
The new Moz tool, Domain Analysis, has several experimental metrics that aren’t available anywhere else. The search scientist, Dr. Pete Meyers, develops these metrics at Moz, and these are expected to be very helpful for SEO. Some of these newly added metrics are:
Keywords by Estimated Clicks
When you see a competitor ranking No.1 for a given keyword, do you know how many clicks does that generates for them? The keyword by Estimated Clicks tells you exactly that by analyzing the ranking position, CTR, and search volume.
Top Featured Snippets
Top Featured Snippets helps you to identify the keywords that trigger a site to rank for the featured snippet and also whether the site owns the snippet for those keywords.
Branded Keywords
Branded keywords are the navigational queries by users on a given site. These can be some of the most relevant keywords for that particular website. Usually, it is tough to estimate the branded keywords by anyone other than the search engine giant itself. However, the free Domain Analysis tool can help you find the highest-volume keywords for a site’s brand.
Top Search Competitors
Top Search Competitors filter thousands of websites to show you the competitors that compete for the top-ranking keywords in your domain. The results that you see are filtered by visibility.
Top Questions
Top Questions show questions extracted from “People Also Ask” boxes for relevant keywords to your site. The “People Also As” is a handy feature to help you begin with topic optimization or keyword research.
How to go about in the future?
The latest iteration of the Domain Authority Update is indirectly pointing at the inaccuracies in the existing version of Domain Authority, which is used by many SEOs as the primary search metric.
Moz themselves have confirmed that the Domain Authority scores are relative rather than absolute.
“First, make sure that you use Domain Authority as a relative metric. Domain Authority is meaningless when it isn’t compared to other sites. What matters isn’t whether your site drops or increases — it’s whether it drops or increases relative to your competitors,” says Russ Jones, Principal Search Scientist at Moz.
Domain Authority to Follow Google’s Suite
The announcement of the new version of Domain Authority is also an indication that Moz will try to replicate Google’s practice by updating the DA algorithm regularly.
The reason for the ranking fluctuations in the DA is due to the failure of Moz to update its Domain Authority Algorithm regularly. The new version of Domain Authority Update is slated to be foolproof against major Google algorithm updates like Penguin and Panda.
Hi Dileep,
Your post is showing that it is index on 3rd Mar-19 and your post date show 7th Mar-19, How you you will justify it.
Decreasing My website DA , So please give a idea and improve my DA urgently..
Thanks for this concise explanation. I have read and heard many discussing the impact the Moz algorithm update has had on their DA, but not the reasons driving the changes, so this was very helpful to me. My DA and PA were both unchanged – I’m going to take that as good news!
Joan Senio
Thanks for this useful content. It’s always a pleasure to read your great posts filled with tips really!
Really a great source of information about Domain Authority related information. My website DA and traffic drastically reduced after google algorithm update…