Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
DA not increased as backlinks generated...
-
Hi,
I would like to discuss my issue as my site's some backlinks are generated but DA is still there. Can anyone make me understand the reason? -
Hi Jeroen,
PageRank still exists, it's just not public. DA/PA etc are 3rd party metrics which are designed to replicate PageRank for the benefit of marketers who want a rough idea of how strong a given page or domain is.
I agree about the importance of relevant links and good content though and I wrote about this extensively in this chapter of The Link Building Book if you'd like to read more.
Cheers.
Paddy
-
Hi Sean,
I'm afraid that isn't correct. There are many, many sources out there confirming that PageRank scores are no longer publicly available. Google Chrome, other browsers and 3rd party tools all pulled the data from the same source. I'm not sure where that tool pulls numbers from.
Here are some sources to confirm this:
1) https://searchengineland.com/google-has-confirmed-they-are-removing-toolbar-pagerank-244230 - confirms that this is tools, not just browsers where PageRank will no longer be available.
2) https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-pagerank/ - mentions commentary from Gary Illyes that PageRank still exists but not outside of Google.
3) http://www.thesempost.com/google-removing-pagerank-from-toolbar/
4) https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-pagerank/159112/
5) https://searchengineland.com/rip-google-pagerank-retrospective-244286
Cheers.
Paddy
-
You can check PageRank of a domain here: https://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
The only thing discontinued about PageRank is the Chrome feature, which is completely separate.
-
The new pagerank these days is DA/PA/UR etc etc. But really i get much better results from links that are relevant and have excellent content in relation of just a number with the opposite. It sells great on spreadsheet obviously but it dont really mean anything. General domain age + content + technical everything well done is usually the key to it.
-
Hi Sean,
Just a note on your PageRank comment - the public version of PageRank, often referred to as Toolbar PageRank and used by tools such as the one you've referenced, stopped being updated by Google a few years ago. This was confirmed in 2016 and you can read about that here.
PageRank is still very much a thing that Google uses, but we no longer have a way to know what the PageRank score for a given URL is.
Cheers.
Paddy
-
It's actually explained in the https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain-authority article. The more (follow) links to your website the higher your DA will grow.
-
I recommend you go to Google Search Console > Links > Top Linking Sites > More to see if Google has indexed the domains from where these links are placed. If they are not, it's going to be hard for Moz to detect them and they won't help you with SEO until they do show up there.
I also recommend that you only target websites for links with a PageRank of 4/10 or higher. You can check their rank here: https://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
-
Thank you Paddy for the reply. This explains why DA increase takes time on sites that already have high DA. For quite some time, I was also thinking why the DA for my bodybuilding site is not increasing. But this explains everything.
-
Hi there,
There are a few reasons why your Domain Authority may still be the same, despite more backlinks being built to your website:
- Moz may not have discovered all of the new backlinks to your website yet, so they may not have been factored into the DA score
- If they have discovered them, then there is a chance that some backlinks may not improve your DA score quickly and it may take more links in order for your DA to go up. This is particularly true the higher your DA is because the algorithm that DA uses is logarithmic which means that the higher you go, the harder it becomes to increase it
- The DA of other websites may have changed and could be skewing the DA of the websites that are now linking to you
You can read a bit more information and watch the videos here for more information on DA

I'd also just mention that you should remember that whilst DA/PA are designed to give some direction on how well you can rank in Google, they are not connected to the Google algorithm, so definitely keep an eye on DA, but don't forget about other metrics too.
I hope that helps!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How To Increase Blog DA to 50+
Hey, I am wondering to know the key metrics which MOZ considers before giving a blog of DA 50+. I have tried to search but couldn't find the best answers so was wondering how it's achieved. For example a site named "SportsALA" have a DA of 20 but i see they have links from many sites. I have checked other sites as well for example and they have less RDs but still had higher DA. Can anyone help me to explain Moz DA 2.0 factors a bit more. Thanks
Link Building | | Hamzayounas11 -
DA vs PA when building links
When building links to your site from other sites, what is more important or what weights more heavily? Say a site has a DA of 20 and PA of 34 for that page I want a link from. Say another site has the revese, a DA of 34 and a PA of 20. All things being equal, which site's link to me would be better? The one with a higher DA or the one with a higher PA for the on the specific page I would get a link?
Link Building | | studio35design0 -
Backlinks through dofollow commenting
I'm interested in building backlinks to my photography business site by leaving good, engaging comments on other photographers' DoFollow blogs. Is this a good idea? Is it worth the effort? Through a little research, I've managed to locate more than 40 dofollow photographer blogs that have a domain authority of 35+. The idea is to take an hour or so a week to leave 10-20 comments on their blog posts. Would you consider this a good strategy? I rank on the first and second page of most of my keywords that I'm working on, but I want to rank 1st or 2nd on them. I used the keyword finder tool on google adwords to find the keywords that are the most searched for in my area. Surprisingly the competition is not large, so I'm fairly comfident I can get there. I've already optimized my site substantially and I'm looking into link building. Thoughts?
Link Building | | studio35design0 -
Ways to remove spammy backlinks
Hello everyone, I got hit with an algorithm penalty and need to start removing old backlinks ASAP. Does anyone have any good resources on how best to ask webmasters for removal? Are there any other ways to remove bad back links besides the disavow tool? (An SEO consultant I talked to said that they had a proprietary software that can remove them - is that possible?) Thanks all,
Link Building | | CleanEdisonInc1 -
PR1 and PR2 backlinks
We're doing some content marketing. I've heard that it is a good idea to target even PR1 and PR2 sites (small DA sites). I'm concerned about these sites disappearing after a few months, as we've found that losing a backlink can sting a bit and be worse than never having it. Though this isn't as big a deal any more. Anyways, can somebody say when a PR1/PR2 backlink would be appropriate to go after? Some of them would be easy and if it's appropriate I'd like to include them. So far they would only pass our standards if they are Above PR0 Look like a white hat, quality site from the outside Have a clean backlink profile Look like they're going to stick around Successful Social Media Accounts a plus What are you guys' criteria for including these sites? Do you gain value from them?
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
Adding backlinks in old articles?
I am trying to get a few more links to get a few of my pages to rank and I am thinking about adding some more backlinks on my own site on some of the old blog articles as well as some of my other related blogs. My question is - is it still beneficial to link from these articles that are say 1 year old or more, or would it be far more valuable to write new articles on the blog containing those same links?
Link Building | | bloggingyourpassion0 -
Top 20 sites for backlinking
My security jobs website was doing very well in Search engines until the penguin got hold of me. I don't profess to be at pro at SEO however seem to have a knack of getting sites to rank well. I think I made some basic mistakes with the original security jobs website, to many links to soon, so I have started again and will build up slowly the backlinks quality rather than quantity this time. My questions is what are the top 20 or so sites that are good to backlink from?
Link Building | | SecJobs0 -
Press Release Sites for Backlinks
OK, I read a previous thread about whether people found press release sites useful (specifically I am considering a reputable pay for release service). I understand the knock on press releases in this digital age (namely that no one reads them and arguably never did . . . ), but I was interested in moving the discussion in a different direction . . . Do press releases services really help a sites performance based on increased backlinking? Is there a SEO benefit to PR services? My company is a local print company. I've done quite a bit of research on my local competitors, and specifically for a couple products we would like to dominate. The good news is that it looks like the hurdle would not be terribly high to really take over the web presence with a well planned and executed website/SEO campaign. My inclination is that for a relatively small company like mine (dealing with relatively small competitors) it WOULD benefit me to pay for the sheer number of backlinks a PR program would generate. The monthly cost is frankly about the same as the cost of this site, which OF COURSE I get value from (hey moderator, how about a couple extra MOZ points for that one!) Specifically, I am looking at this for myself, but feel free to expand the question to the broader topic.
Link Building | | damon12121