Moz Changed Their Domain Authority Algorithm and Mine Went Down

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Domain authority which can roughly be described (in my mind at least) as the trust and authority your site has compared to other websites is one indicator of your success and progress as you create your business. Domain authority is supposed to indicate how well your domain will rank in searches. Checking your domain authority is a good idea once you get a bit more advanced but there is no point when you are starting out. You will start very, very low and that is unavoidable. I was quite excited when my domain authority got to 15 last year and was hoping it would reach 20 or 25 soon. The authority on domain authority is Moz, a Seattle based company that has a proprietary algorithm for ranking websites. They have become the accepted big fish in that pool. Domain authority ranges from 1 to 100.

Page authority is a similar measure but for your individual pages vs you site as a whole. I was thrilled to see my Moz page authority at 34!!!! Page authority is also measured on a 1 to 100 scale.

Today I happened to check and saw my domain authority was only 10! What happened? I honestly can't remember if I ever go to 20 since I have not checked in a very long time but I know I got to 15. I then saw a notice that Moz is using a new algorithm to measure domain authority as of March 5, 2019. I proceeded to read the post where they talk about how wonderful this new method of measuring domain authority will be. They claim it is more accurate, weeds out spammers etc. It now uses a "neural" network...whatever that is.

The comments show a different side of the story however. Other people are posting of a drop in their domain authority from 30's down to the teens or or other large declines. They are dismayed since they claim they use no black hat techniques, don't have spam on their site (my Moz's own measurements aperently), search for high quality keywords etc.

I am getting some good traffic levels lately to my site and good rankings in Google, Yahoo and Bing so I guess I just won't worry about whatever Moz is doing.

They are going to release a new algorithm for Page Authority as well but have not done so yet. I wonder if my Page Authority of 34 will plummet there too? Maybe not. It will be interesting to see.

Here is the post if anyone is interested: https://moz.com/blog/new-domain-authority

Onward and Upward,

Jessica

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Recent Comments

37

My first thought after reading was that it might effect everyone across the board, so relative. As I was unaware that Moz existed I can only say thank you for making me aware of Moz and what it does. You have given me some valuable information I did not have before. Thank you.

I saw another comment on another post that Moz is outdated now and doesn't mean much. I hope that is true.

Hi Jessica,

That's an interesting subject.

I've never stopped to investigate what Moz is about, which means I've not been diligent regarding domain authority.

I remember way back in 2008 when I paid a company to build a website for my secretarial business, domain authority appeared beneath the meta description of a page/post in Google. Other rankings showed too. Eventually, Google stopped displaying domain authority which was disappointing and I never investigated further.

I thank you for your post and helpful information. I hope the new Algorithms provide quality details.

Valerie

I saw an interesting response to a comment on Lauren's post about the same topic, that Moz is outdated now and doesn't mean much. I hope that is true!

Maybe you don't have to worry about it at all.

That sounds good to me, Jessica.

Hey Jessica,

I am exposed to the concept of domain authority.

However, as a newbie, I never checked it out.

This is one more thing I have to address.

Thank you for the insights.

All the best
Maxine

I would not worry about it anytime too soon Maxine. I didn't check mine until my site was already 2 years old. For the first few years it is hard to get a very high score. I don't recommend worrying too much about it now. Mine is now only 10 due to the changes!

I am just wondering if this will change again and the scores will go back up (like Google algorithms change) or if this is the new normal. I also wonder how much I need to worry about it.

I suggest you don't worry. either Jessica eventhough you are way older than I website wise.

Google is always up to something. It's sort of hard keeping up with them.

Just continue to do great work.

Thank you Maxine. I will.

You're welcome Jessica

Appreciate this information.

Thanks.

Well, I suppose the good news is that since you are not currently selling guest post spots, the drop should not hurt you too much.

There is another WA blogger that talked a couple of days ago about the hit she took on her websites. That could translate into lost revenue. But, then again, if everyone's went down- maybe it will balance out.

Mine went down enough on my food website, that I will wait to try to start charging for guest posting privileges on my site.

Just be happy you have those Amazon sales coming in.

Night.

Interesting Sondra. Was it Lauren or Lynne? I know they both do that.

Yes, it doesn't really affect me too much right now.

I had to check. It was Lauren. Here is the link.

Thanks. I just went and read it. I totally missed that! I wondered how it would affect Lauren. Darn.

Hopefully it will "level" out soon.

Hey Jessica,

This is very helpful information. Thank you.

I don't know much about MOZ and so I definitely learned a lot here. I hadn't thought about checking my domain name... i'll have to go on MOZ and try it out.

Moocho Gracias!!

Have a Blessed week Jessica.

I have this bookmarked too.

Monica

If you go to Moz directly they will make you sign up for a free trial. I search for check domain authority or something like that and go through a third party site to check mine.

Thanks Monica!!

You're welcome and thank you Jessica... I'll do that.

Monica

I think it is applying auto-adjustment and self-learning algorithm, unlike old type of search engine is hard code AI. Their direction should be using algorithm just like robot self-learning and autopilot.

Thank you!

I've been looking at this topic a little bit Jessica and I think it's best to focus on your niche audience and help them above all. If you do that and rank targeted content that's low competition and your ranking well, your scores will improve with time. The only other thing that you can do is try to get back links from sites with higher authority than you, improve your onsite seo (Mainly through internal linking with better, more relevant anchor text to your internal links), and continue building out your site.

So in that respect it just helps you focus more on producing a quality website and not really worrying about it since there's not much else you can do.

I would think building traffic and improving the conversion of your funnels would be the most important thing, That and constantly trying to grow your email list. But I guess it all depends on your online business.

That's my 2 cents on the subject and what I decide to take from it. I always debate about trying to get more back links but then continue focusing on content.

Thanks Todd. I am aware of those factors I just wonder why the big drop for so many sites. I will be really curious how my page authority fares.

I don't have a lot of high power backlinks myself so that is a weak point I guess.

Thanks!

Thanks Jessica. I'm to much a newbie yet.

That's fine. As long as you follow good SEO practices you will be all right!

Thanks for this informative post, Jess. It's over my head at the moment, but will no doubt be helpful later on when I have time to focus on my WA business. Saving it for later, like a dessert I'm too full to eat right now!

Thanks Carol. This was over my head too when I first heard about it.

I can understand. Once I'm in that mode I'll be OK grasping it, though. I'm just overwhelmed with everything that's going on right now. Decisions, decisions! But it's all good!

It is not something you need to worry about at all. You just focus on your immediate decisions!!

You're right. Going to FL to meet him the 3/26. Will know more after that trip.

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