Unsolved Huge Increase In Internal Links + Domain Authority Tanked

[g3mmab]

Hey, I am very concerned about the link metrics I am seeing, really hoping someone can help.

In October last year there were a total of 34.7K 'total links' attributed to my E-commerce website . This compared to 41.2k and 213k links attributed to my two main competitors.

In November, my website had a forced update due to incompatibility issues my shopping cart version was having with the server on which it is hosted. (I was told by my web developers / hosting company that their server was upgraded.) This update created many problems such as checkout issues, page layout issues, sitemaps not automatically regenerating and the big one - it reverted back to http instead of https.

Along with my developers, I spent 2 weeks fixing all of the issues until everything worked correctly and https was reinstated. After initial warnings from Moz, I have not received any critical crawler issues or warnings, big ranking drops etc since November. I was satisfied that all was ok.

However, in November my 'total links' jumped to 81.5k and have since continued to balloon. December - 309.1k, January -335k, February - 665k, March - 716k, April - 719k, May - 742k, June - 751k. In the same period (November - June), my external links went from 5.3k - 8.7k. So it appears the huge increase in links are internal. In my latest report it states that 'internal follow links' are up by 8k and 'internal no follow links' are up by 1k. This is insane.

I cannot understand why I have so many internal links and why they keep increasing. I maintain the website with updates, blog articles etc but no more than I have in the past several years.

Worryingly, once this increase in links started being reported, my Domain Authority has also tanked. In October my DA was 37 (higher than my competitors) and has since dropped as low as 19. It has gone up to 21 this month (still significantly lower than my competitors).

I have spent hours researching why this huge increase in internal links could be happening but have got nowhere. If anyone could advise what the issue could be and how I can fix it, I would be eternally grateful.

Issues I have discovered along the way that may help with analysis:
My site has many 404s (hundreds) - all relate to urls of old images that have been removed from the website.

The 'Top Hits' on my website are from blogs (some spammy) to these deleted image urls that return a 404.

I don't use any plugins.

I do get 'duplicate content' notices as my blog posts archive themselves and generate new urls - as an example - 'blog post name' archived December 2023.

It may be the case that the old http urls have been redirected to https but I have no warnings for 'redirect issues' in Moz.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks in advance for any help.

[APKMyBoy]

I'm also facing a similar issue on my website: https://www.officialvidmate.com/. I am generating new external link for my site. Those links are indexed in my GSC but my website MOZ DA is not showing exactly means DA is not increasing like links indexing in GSC increasing but DA stucks.

[asefiasefi1360]

It is really informative and helpful.
website link text

[asefiasefi1360]

@Ammy_george said in Huge Increase In Internal Links + Domain Authority Tanked:

It is really informative and helpful.

[Ammy_george]

@cynthia-marshal It is really informative and helpful.

[cynthia-marshal]

To address the spike in internal links and declining Domain Authority, implement the following concise steps:

• list item Audit Internal Links: Use tools like Screaming Frog to review and manage excess internal links.

• list item Ensure HTTPS Redirection: Confirm that all HTTP URLs are permanently redirected to HTTPS to consolidate link equity.

• list itemHandle Duplicate Content: Implement canonical tags for duplicate content, particularly for archived blog posts.

• list itemResolve 404 Errors: Identify and fix or redirect broken links to improve user experience and site health.

• list itemManage Spammy Links: If spammy backlinks are an issue, consider using Google's Disavow tool.

• list itemSimplify Site Structure: Reduce unnecessary internal links by streamlining site navigation and structure.

• list item Monitor Changes: Regularly check your Domain Authority and other SEO metrics to gauge the impact of these changes and adjust strategies accordingly.

By methodically tackling these areas, you should see improvements in your site’s structure such as like Liteblue, user experience, and SEO metrics.

[Jordanstarc]

@g3mmab Sure, here are concise solutions:

Issues and Solutions
Spike in Internal Links:

Cause: Duplicate pages, broken links, or server changes.
Solution: Audit internal links using tools like Screaming Frog. Fix any anomalies.
404 Errors:

Cause: Old image URLs.
Solution: Implement 301 redirects for all 404 errors.
Duplicate Content:

Cause: Blog archives creating new URLs.
Solution: Use canonical tags and update CMS settings to manage archives.
Domain Authority Drop:

Cause: Quality of internal links and external factors.
Solution: Focus on high-quality backlinks and disavow spammy ones.
Immediate Actions
Audit Internal Links: Identify and fix issues.
Redirect 404 Errors: Implement 301 redirects.
Manage Duplicate Content: Use canonical tags and proper archiving.
Regular Monitoring
Monitor Metrics: Keep an eye on link metrics and DA.
Check SEO Health: Regularly check for crawl errors and other issues.
These steps should help stabilize your internal link count and improve your Domain Authority.

[Pioneerarch]

It sounds like you've experienced a significant change in your website's performance. Internal links can be a powerful tool for SEO, but too many changes at once, including a massive increase in internal links, can sometimes lead to fluctuations in rankings and domain authority. Here are a few steps you can take to address the issue:

Audit Your Internal Links: Review the internal links you've added and ensure they are relevant and natural. Remove any excessive or irrelevant links.

Check for Broken Links: Make sure all your internal links are working correctly. Broken links can harm user experience and SEO.

Review Anchor Text: Ensure that the anchor text used for internal links is diverse and natural. Avoid keyword stuffing.

Monitor Changes: Keep an eye on your website's performance over the next few weeks. Sometimes, rankings and domain authority can recover over time as search engines reevaluate your site.

Focus on Quality Content: Continue to publish high-quality, relevant content that naturally attracts internal links and boosts user engagement.

Consider Professional SEO Help: If you're unsure about your SEO strategy or need assistance with recovering your domain authority, consider consulting with an SEO expert.

By taking these steps, you can help stabilize your website's performance and improve its SEO over time.

[g3mmab]

@Tom-Capper thanks again for this info, it much appreciated. The most recent crawl I was referring to - I pulled from my Google Search Console Crawler stats.

I had a look at 'all crawled pages' and it states that the last crawl covered 491 pages. 78% = 2xx and 21% = 3xx. I can see when looking through the pages, around 70 of them are separate urls for archived blog posts - archived by date on a different url from their original / main one. I have to say, since attaching this blog to my website a few years ago (via a cart add-on), this has always been the case, so nothing new. Is that what you mean by 'crawl trap'? I can also see separate urls for products with a currency indicator on them - for example - yoursite.com/product/?currency=GBP. I offer 3 currencies on the site, so potentially all pages are produced 3 times with different currency indicators..? This still doesn't account for 750k links.

I think you are correct in that there has been a botched migration and I will have to get on to my web developers. I was suspicious that this was the case but wanted to be able to pinpoint exactly what is happening so as they can fix it more quickly. I would also be very interested to know if they were / are aware of this either when the migration was implemented or since. It's extremely frustrating as I have no access to the backend of the site so am unable to look at 'no-follow' tags etc - everything has to go through the developer I used.

Lastly, is there anything else I can look at that would help to explain the DA drop?

Many thanks again for your time.

[Tom.Capper]

@g3mmab

Thanks for the context.

I think the drop in DA and the increase in internal links are both things you should be paying attention to, for different reasons - they're almost certainly unrelated.

When you say "the most recent crawl by a Googlebot" - are you talking about server log data here? Or Moz sitecrawl? I should stress Moz is not Googlebot and could never emulate Googlebot behaviour - we are crawling URLs discovered by linking on your site, so naturally won't uncover a botched migration after the fact.

As for the incrase in internal links, I notice they're also marked as nofollow in many cases. Have a look at the "all crawled pages" list, and see if you can find anything that looks like a crawl trap. It looks very likely to me that your site is generating a large quantity of garbage URLs - perhaps through pagination, facets, or something like that. Looking in your own source code for "nofollow" might help you to narrow this down, as we can see over 120k of these internal links are nofollow.

[g3mmab]

@Tom-Capper thanks so much for responding. I am seeing the links data in "Links Overview' in my Pro campaign.

According to the data supplied by the last crawl by a Googlebot, the breakdown of links and their responses are 79% = 200, 16% = 301, 3% = 404 and 2% = 304.

I just can't see anything else that has changed during this period that would explain how / why the DA has dropped so significantly. I am trying to decide how worried I should be and what action I should take next in regards this continual increase in internal links...?

[Tom.Capper]

@g3mmab Can you clarify where you are seeing "external links" and "total links"?

In any case, DA is not affected by internal linking. If your DA goes down by a large amount, that usually means you have lost some notable external links, or triggered some spam factors.

As you say, some loss of old URLs on your site may well be the cause of this. The redirect warnings in Moz are designed to alert you but not to be an all-encompassing solution. You need to make sure every URL that historically had external or internal links is still redirecting properly (or better yet returning a 200 response).

[gooday2day]

It sounds like you have a few interconnected issues impacting your site. The increase in internal links might be due to recent updates or changes in how your site generates links. Perhaps it would help to check for new scripts or modules that might be creating excessive internal links. Addressing the 404 errors related to old image URLs by restoring the missing images or setting up proper redirects could also help. Spammy blog hits can be managed by blocking spammy referrer traffic through updates to your .htaccess file or a security plugin. To handle duplicate content, adjust your CMS settings and use canonical tags to indicate preferred URLs. Ensuring all HTTP URLs are properly redirected to HTTPS is crucial to avoid link dilution. Perhaps using tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to crawl your site could identify any unusual link structures or issues. Regular monitoring and maintenance could help stabilize your link metrics and potentially recover your Domain Authority.

[shehzad3344]

@g3mmab said in Huge Increase In Internal Links + Domain Authority Tanked:

Hey, I am very concerned about the link metrics I am seeing, really hoping someone can help.
In October last year there were a total of 34.7K 'total links' attributed to my E-commerce website . This compared to 41.2k and 213k links attributed to my two main competitors.
In November, my website had a forced update due to incompatibility issues my shopping cart version was having with the server on which it is hosted. (I was told by my web developers / hosting company that their server was upgraded.) This update created many problems such as checkout issues, page layout issues, sitemaps not automatically regenerating and the big one - it reverted back to http instead of https.
Along with my developers, I spent 2 weeks fixing all of the issues until everything worked correctly and https was reinstated. After initial warnings from Moz, I have not received any critical crawler issues or warnings, big ranking drops etc since November. I was satisfied that all was ok.
However, in November my 'total links' jumped to 81.5k and have since continued to balloon. December - 309.1k, January -335k, February - 665k, March - 716k, April - 719k, May - 742k, June - 751k. In the same period (November - June), my external links went from 5.3k - 8.7k. So it appears the huge increase in links are internal. In my latest report it states that 'internal follow links' are up by 8k and 'internal no follow links' are up by 1k. This is insane.
I cannot understand why I have so many internal links and why they keep increasing. I maintain the website with updates, blog articles etc but no more than I have in the past several years.
Worryingly, once this increase in links started being reported, my Domain Authority has also tanked. In October my DA was 37 (higher than my competitors) and has since dropped as low as 19. It has gone up to 21 this month (still significantly lower than my competitors).
I have spent hours researching why this huge increase in internal links could be happening but have got nowhere. If anyone could advise what the issue could be and how I can fix it, I would be eternally grateful.
Issues I have discovered along the way that may help with analysis:
My site has many 404s (hundreds) - all relate to urls of old images that have been removed from the website.
The 'Top Hits' on my website are from blogs (some spammy) to these deleted image urls that return a 404.
I don't use any plugins.
I do get 'duplicate content' notices as my blog posts archive themselves and generate new urls - as an example - 'blog post name' archived December 2023.
It may be the case that the old http urls have been redirected to https but I have no warnings for 'redirect issues' in Moz.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks in advance for any help.

Hey,

I understand your concern regarding the spike in internal links and the subsequent drop in Domain Authority (DA). It sounds like you’ve been through a lot with the forced update and its aftermath. Here are a few potential reasons for the issues you're facing and some steps you can take to address them:

Potential Causes and Solutions
Update Aftermath and Internal Link Bloating:

Possible Cause: When your site reverted from HTTPS to HTTP and back, it's possible that internal linking structures were altered, resulting in duplicated internal links or multiple versions of the same pages.
Solution: Conduct a thorough site audit using tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to identify and resolve duplicated links and any unnecessary internal links. Ensure all internal links are correctly pointing to the HTTPS versions.
404 Errors and Spammy Blog Hits:

Possible Cause: The 404 errors from old image URLs and hits from spammy blogs might be contributing to the internal link count and negatively impacting your SEO.
Solution: Set up 301 redirects for the removed images to a relevant page or a new image location. Additionally, use robots.txt to disallow crawling of spammy blog URLs or use a tool to identify and block these spam sources.
Duplicate Content and Archive URLs:

Possible Cause: Duplicate content from archived blog posts can confuse search engines and inflate internal link counts.
Solution: Implement canonical tags on your blog posts to indicate the preferred version to search engines. Consider restructuring your blog archive system to prevent automatic URL generation for archived content or use noindex tags for these archive pages.
Site Structure and Internal Linking Strategy:

Possible Cause: An underlying issue with your site’s internal linking strategy may have been exacerbated by the update.
Solution: Review and possibly overhaul your internal linking strategy to ensure it aligns with SEO best practices. Focus on creating a logical, hierarchical structure that benefits both users and search engines.
Domain Authority (DA) Decline:

Possible Cause: The increase in internal links combined with other factors like 404 errors and duplicate content might have impacted your DA.
Solution: Once you address the internal link issue, 404 errors, and duplicate content, monitor your DA. Improving the overall quality of your site and earning high-quality external backlinks can help recover your DA over time.
Steps to Take
Conduct a Full Site Audit:

Use tools like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or Moz to identify and rectify any underlying issues with internal links, duplicate content, and 404 errors.
Fix 404 Errors:

Redirect old image URLs and ensure all internal links point to valid, HTTPS URLs.
Manage Duplicate Content:

Implement canonical tags and restructure your blog archive to prevent duplicate content issues.
Improve Internal Linking:

Simplify and clean up your internal linking structure to ensure it supports your SEO strategy effectively.
Monitor and Adjust:

Keep a close eye on your DA and other SEO metrics. Use Google Search Console and Moz to track progress and make adjustments as necessary.
By addressing these issues methodically, you should be able to resolve the spike in internal links and improve your site’s overall SEO health.

Best of luck, and feel free to reach out if you need further assistance!

Cheers,

shehzad khan
website https://magnussupply.com/