Google Ranking Factor: Backlinks.

What makes Google’s search engine so useful is that they let users determine which websites have value.  They do this by looking at which sites have created links to other websites.  The website providing the backlink has value through other sites linking to them.  In turn, they can give some of that value to another website through a link.  This idea of value created a numerical score.  When teaching this concept to other marketers, I often use the school prom analogy.  Each person at the dance is a website.  Everyone then gets to vote on the prom king and queen.  Of course, the winners receive the most votes or backlinks.

Moz Domain Authority(DA) score

In 2004, Moz became the first company to attempt to translate Google's hidden value into a numerical value by analyzing backlinks  They would be the only non-Google source for almost a decade.  The last update announced by Moz was in 2019 when they said they would use machine learning to predict the value of the website.

Limitations of Moz DA score

While DA has been valuable, it has certain limitations:

Overreliance on Backlinks: While backlinks are crucial, they're not the sole determinant of a website's quality. Content quality, user experience, and technical SEO factors also play significant roles.

Vulnerability to Manipulation: Because they do not look at the value of the link, such as contextual, anchor text, and Private Blog networks can artificially inflate a website's DA, misleading SEO website owners.

After looking at tens of thousands of websites, we can tell that Moz does not account for the extra checks Google uses to combat spam and link manipulation. Therefore, if Moz is not using the same or similar metrics, it can easily be manipulated with low-quality backlinks.

Why would marketers want to manipulate the DA score?

Because the DA score has been the dominant metric for almost twenty years, it is often used to justify low-quality work from SEO companies. Publishers can create thousands of low-quality sites and add low-quality backlinks to raise the DA score and give the appearance of value. They can then charge website owners premiums and make more money for less cost out of pocket.

SEMrush Authority Score(AS): The second metric

SEMrush introduced its AS in 2018. The idea was that it could crawl and index more websites and provide a better score than Moz. In addition to indexing websites, it would also crawl Google searches and index the results. It also claims to use unnatural backlinking checks similar to what Google may be using.

We have found the AS to be a more accurate representation of a website's quality, but it is still not perfect.

Real Traffic Metrics: The third metric

In addition to using Moz’s DA and SEMRush AS, we have found that traffic metrics adds that third quality check needed.  Real Traffic validates that Google finds enough value in the website to have the site rank in their search results.

Red Canyon Media’s Solution

Part of our White Label SEO solution is that we have created a database of thousands of publishing websites. Through our software, we pull all three metrics automatically from Moz and SEMRush. We also add our own internal quality score to each website and continually update our database to ensure we have the most current data available.

Publishers love us and work with us because we provide quality content.  Our software will check all content for AI markers.  Each piece of content is vetted through our editorial team.  We give each article written a quality score and feedback to continually improve our writers. 

Each step of the process is driven through our technology so that we know at all times and can report to our partners and clients at which stage their order is in.  Our reporting is online and available 24/7.  Because we use technology our prices are lower than our competition.  Contact us for our rate sheet and demo.