As the owner of a business in the new technological era, your online presence is absolutely imperative to your success. Your visibility online can make or break your company at the end of the day, which is why keeping tabs on your website traffic and the value of your site is absolutely imperative. Moz Domain Authority (DA) helps you keep track of your natural traffic in an easier, more straightforward way by ranking your website on a 100-point scale. This scale measures how likely your site is to appear on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) according to its overall value, and as a result, how many people are likely to encounter your webpage through relevant searches.
The DA system provides users with a relative score that’s meant for comparative use, not for a standalone evaluation. The site evaluates over 5 trillion pages and sorts them accordingly. The best way to use your ranking is by comparing it to the scores of competitors and others who work in your field in order to better your own site and therefore enhance your domain’s overall worth.
This tool has served business owners looking to enhance their online interactions well over the years, but as of March 5, 2019, Moz is introducing a number of changes into the Domain Authority system. The new system will introduce a number of new factors and adjust how domain authority is calculated in order to give sites more accurate rankings. Familiarizing yourself with these changes can help you make the most of your online presence.
Changes to Anticipate
The changes made to the DA system are designed to work more effectively alongside SEO content to more accurately rank pages and give owners a better understanding of the traffic coming to their page, as well as why they are or are not drawing in the specified numbers. According to a staff member at Moz, the main changes users of the DA tool can expect to see include:
- Change to a neural network rather than a complex linear mode, which gives DA the ability to detect link manipulation and other nuances that could effect ranks
- An added index of 35 trillion links
- Added attention to a Spam Score
- Focus on quality and traffic rather than just link counts
- Better detection of links that don’t rank for keywords
Why These Changes are Happening
Simply put, Moz is making these changes to Domain Authority to keep things accurate and up to speed. SERPs have been changing as technology allows them to more accurately provide users with the results they want to see and have adopted new algorithms over time. Thus, Moz needs to occasionally update its own algorithms in order to pay closer attention to these new details and provide more accurate and reliable scores in the long run. These changes will allow Domain Authority to take a closer look at more nuanced details of your website to ensure the ranking you’re receiving is a true reflection of how valuable your site is.
What This Change Means for You
First and foremost, it’s wise to anticipate a change in your score according to the new algorithm. Therefore, if you notice an undesirable change in your ranking, don’t panic. It’s just the DA 2.0 system making its adjustments.
Keep in mind that this change will, in fact, change historical data as well. Because the data in the “Metrics Over Time” chart is designed to track a rank over time, it makes more sense to have every point of reference come from the same set of data. Users with a Moz Pro account will have the option to view old DA information for a limited time, but this, too, will eventually be unavailable. Therefore, exporting or saving snapshots is advisable if you desire continued access to this original information.
The new update locates more nuanced information on your website in order to rank it. Therefore, having a score that dips allows you to more accurately identify problems that are making your site less valuable. Working with SEO domain authority professionals and tracking your data can help you improve your website in different ways to bring it to its full potential and make it as attractive and visible to clients and customers as possible.
Preparing for the Domain Authority Update
Your score may not change much with the new update, but there’s a chance that it could change drastically. Therefore, taking a few steps to prepare for the potential changes couldn’t hurt. In order to make the transition to Moz Domain Authority 2.0 as smooth as possible for everyone involved, communication and data-gathering are key.
- Take a snapshot of your current ranking by accessing your Moz Pro account and exporting your historical data
- Gain a thorough understanding of the changes and how these changes have impacted your scores specifically
- Talk to your clients and stakeholders about the changes to ensure everyone’s on the same page.
Talking to clients and stakeholders isn’t always easy, but Moz has taken this into consideration as well. The company has provided business owners who may be affected by a changing score with tools that help make the discussion easier so users can move forward into the new system without a huge hassle.
How the Update Will Function
The way DA operates on a user interface level is not changing. It will still allow you to assess potential domain purchases with ease and find keyword opportunities you may not have considered before, but now with more efficiency. The updates are solely algorithm-related, and aside from fluctuating scores and a change in historical data charts, users likely won’t see much evidence of the change up front.
Properly Interpreting & Using Your New Score
There are many things you can do with a score, like using it as a comparative metric and taking a look at competitors’ and peers’ ranks. But in order to make the most of the new update (and DA as a whole), there are a few things to avoid as well.
- Don’t judge your site based on your score alone
- Don’t forget that DA is not PageRank, and that Google is not involved in DA scores whatsoever
- Don’t compare the scoring scale to other scoring methods (e.g., a 90+ score is not an “A”, and a lower score is not an “F”)
Your score is calculated as a means to help you compare your online presence to those of your competitors. Don’t let your score discourage you, but rather use it as a grounds to improve. Your goal should be to improve your rank over those of others in your field to make yourself the most visible. That doesn’t always mean having a 90+ score, but simply having a better ranking than others.
The March 2019 changes will make this entire process more effective and efficient without sacrificing usability. This should allow the DA evaluation system to work more effectively to identify SEO content, and therefore more accurately rank your site based on value and its likelihood to attract customers.
Improve Your Website’s Authority With Help From V Digital Services
As you’ve learned in this post, there are so many different factors that contribute to determining a website’s Domain Authority. At V Digital Services, we can take the weight off your shoulders by handling all of the on- and off-page optimizations for you. Tackling everything from schema markup to page content and authoritative backlinks, our SEO services will improve your website’s authority and get you ranking higher. Get in touch today.