Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. Moz Tools
    3. Moz Pro
    4. Link Explorer
    5. What does "Number of Linking Root Domains" in Open Site Explorer actually mean?

    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.

    What does "Number of Linking Root Domains" in Open Site Explorer actually mean?

    Link Explorer
    3
    7
    2356
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • karrabarron
      karrabarron last edited by

      I've read through the forum, but I'm confused as to what "Number of Linking Root Domains" means in the Linking Domains report. For example, if the root domain is Moz.com and the number is 135,000 does that mean there are 135,000 links from Moz pointing back to my site or does it mean there are 135,000 sites linking back to Moz?

      Any help is appreciated. Thank you!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • karrabarron
        karrabarron @GastonRiera last edited by

        Thanks Gaston, this makes so much sense! Appreciate your added insight!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • karrabarron
          karrabarron @tawnycase last edited by

          YES! I totally get it now. Thank you so much Tawny!!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • tawnycase
            tawnycase @karrabarron last edited by

            That sounds correct to me - if the number of Linking Root Domains associated with SearchEngineLand is 135,000, that's links pointing to SearchEngineLand's domain, not Moz's domain. 🙂

            karrabarron 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • GastonRiera
              Gaston Riera last edited by

              Hello there!
              Just to help Tawny clarify this.

              In those reports, " Root Domain" means just the domain. In the case of Moz, it is moz.com. This also means that they are taking into account the whole site.
              So, for example, consider that you have 3 pages:

              1. site.com
              2. site.com/landing-page-A
              3. site.com/important-keyword

              On one hand, if every page has one separate link pointing, fron different sites. Let's say: example-1.com, my-blog.org and site-overseas.com
              In the report, when checking for site.com, you'll fine 3 root domain links.
              On the other hand, if every page ( just to keep it generalistic, but it could be applied for just onepage) gets a link from the same root domain, but from diffetent pages (let's say: site-A.net/page1, site-A.net/keyword-two and site-A/whatever) in the repport you'll see just **ONE **root domain link.

              Can you see the difference?

              Hope I've helped.
              GR.

              karrabarron 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
              • karrabarron
                karrabarron last edited by

                Thanks Tawny. So just to make sure I absolutely understand, here's another example:

                If the root domain I entered in Open Site Explorer is www.moz.com and one of the root domains that appears in the resulting Linking Domains report is SearchEngineLand and the number of Linking Root Domains associated with SearchEngineLand is 135,000, that means SearchEngineLand has 135,000 sites linking back to it -- not Moz right?

                tawnycase 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • tawnycase
                  tawnycase last edited by

                  Hey there! Tawny from Moz's Help Team here!

                  The number of Linking Root Domains you see is links from other sites pointing back to your root domain (or the root domain you entered in the search bar in Open Site Explorer). So, in your example, that would be 135,000 sites linking back to moz.com somewhere on the site.

                  I hope that helps! If you have any more questions, feel free to drop us a line at help@moz.com and we'll answer them for ya! 🙂

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • 1 / 1
                  • First post
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  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.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • esdda8111

                    My backlinks are not indexing , Added in the link tracking list too

                    I have waited for three days to index my backlinks on moz but still they are not indexed in moz backlink index 😞 How to index backlinks in moz so that I can track all are ok ?

                    Link Explorer | | esdda8111
                    1
                  • KenSchaefer

                    If I migrate to a new domain, does my Domain Authority score get migrated also?

                    For business reasons, I migrated my domain with a DA score of 85 to a new domain.  After some time, the DA score on the new domain is only 45.  My migration plan and redirects went smooth and all redirected with best practices in mind.  I am still ranking well for almost all of the keywords where I've 301 redirected old URL to new. Any feedback welcome!

                    Link Explorer | | KenSchaefer
                    1
                  • IanWatson

                    Moz's new Link Explorer, including our revamped index and DA/PA scores is now open to everyone!

                    Hey Moz Community, Link Explorer is now open to the public! Everyone can access it via a subscription or a free Moz ‘Community’ account. As you may know by now, the brand-new Link Explorer tool is primed to replace Open Site Explorer as Moz’s link building and analysis tool. The Link Explorer project is the result of an incredible amount of perseverance and hard work by the team, and we’re proud to be able to finally share it with you — we know it’s going to revolutionize how you approach link building and make your job easier. You can read more about the tool here in Sarah Bird’s announcement post. Because Link Explorer improves on almost every aspect of Open Site Explorer, the metrics have improved, too. That means you’re likely going to see some Domain Authority and Page Authority discrepancies between OSE’s index and Link Explorer’s index. We definitely suggest you use the new DA/PA from Link Explorer, as they’re more accurate and refresh daily rather than monthly, as was the case with OSE’s index. However, we also realize that many of you use these metrics to report to your clients and colleagues, and a sudden change or fluctuation could potentially make your job harder. Which DA is the real DA? The new DA is based on a much larger index that has many improvements, several of which are designed to make the index more like Google’s than ever before. You should consider moving towards the new DA (and the old DA won’t be updated after April 26th 2018, so the sooner the better). While there will be fluctuations as we improve the model and add features to the index, we expect it to remain largely stable and to be a far more accurate picture of a site’s authority according to how it’s seen by Google. Why is Link Explorer’s DA/PA considered better than OSE’s, and which should I trust? The larger link index with improved crawl selection allows us to produce a stronger model that includes a much larger proportion of the web. That being said, DA and PA should always be considered in the context of your competitors. A drop in PA or DA relative to the old OSE is of little concern if your competitors saw similar movement. Is Domain Authority/Page Authority an absolute score or a relative one? Both DA and PA are relative to the Internet as a whole. If Facebook acquired a billion new links, everyone’s PA and DA would drop relative to Facebook. Because of this, it’s always best to look at PA and DA in comparison to your competitors. What does a drop/raise in DA mean in Link Explorer vs OSE? How can I explain this to my clients when I’m reporting it? DA and PA should always be considered in the context of your competitors. A drop or raise in PA or DA relative to the old OSE is of little concern if your competitors saw similar movement. Reporting that your site has moved from a DA of 45 to a DA of 42 doesn’t tell the whole story, but reporting that your site has a DA of 42 while your main competitor moved from a 43 to a 37 shows that, relative to the sites you’re competing against in the SERPs, your site has significantly more authority and ranking power. What’s happening to MozTrust and MozRank and why, and what should I replace those with? The improvements to our DA/PA and Spam Score metrics now now account for more important nuances in helping you determine one site’s ability to rank higher than another. Because they no longer correlate with Google’s ranking model as well as they used to, MozRank and MozTrust are being deprecated for better metrics. Users should rely on Page Authority, Domain Authority, and Spam Score to determine the importance and quality of pages, domains, and links. I have historical data I use to help my clients benchmark their progress. What do I do now that DA is calculated differently? You should annotate any KPI changes referencing the change in DA and PA. However, most importantly, you should compare those changes to your competitors, as this will best show how strong your site’s authority is relative to the sites you’re competing against in the SERPs. We take updating our metrics very seriously, and our last major update to the model was 7 years ago. Users of Domain Authority and Page Authority can expect us to continue to produce steady, reliable metrics for the long haul, and only make changes to these metrics when we believe the benefits dramatically outweigh the stability of the metric. Do you have any questions about the new metrics? Anticipating a tough time reporting changes to clients or bosses? Metrics, features or functionality missing that you would want to see? Let us know in the thread, and we’ll work to find a good answer for you. Hope you enjoy the new Link Explorer product and the amazing new link index powering it. We are very excited to provide this valuable data to our community and customers.

                    Link Explorer | | IanWatson
                    9
                  • A_Fotografy

                    Open site explorer is giving me strange redirect message.

                    Hi all, I tried to find answer in help section. Few people have asked this before but in none of the answers it tells how they fix it. Sorry I will need to ask here again. In Open Site Explorer i get this message. You entered the URL https://a-fotografy.co.uk/ which redirects to http://www.a-fotografy.co.uk/. Because it's likely to have more accurate metrics, we're showing data for the redirected URL instead. Click here to analyze https://a-fotografy.co.uk/ instead? My current site is https://a-fotografy.co.uk/ not sure why it is redirecting to my old domain. Weird. My web developer couldn't explain this issue. Saying that I also go my first analytics report and in priority issues I have http://a-fotografy.co.uk   302 redirect and not sure where it is redirecting to. If someone could shed some light of how to figure out how to find exactly what is redirecting to what and where is the problem. Thank you guys, Regards, Armands

                    Link Explorer | | A_Fotografy
                    0
                  • benhond

                    Not existing domains linking to my website (spam)

                    Hello, When i run my platform www.taobao.nl through https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/ i see a lot of nasty adult domains that link to my platform. These give a very negative (spam)score to my platform. I already disavowed quite a few via Webmastertools, but they keep coming. When i check the names in the Whois, they don't even seem to exist! (anymore) What could cause this and how can i end it?? Thanks for your help! Sander

                    Link Explorer | | benhond
                    1
                  • lotterybase

                    Open Site Explorer and Expired Links?

                    Hi guys, I've been checking a few domains for SEO purposes and it appears that OSE is indexing a lot of links which no longer exist, this has been the case for over 6 months - does OSE cleanse expired links? As I'm sure they will be contributing to authority in the eyes of Moz?

                    Link Explorer | | lotterybase
                    0
                  • evan89

                    Open Site Explorer Recently Discovered Links Question

                    Hey Mozzers, I have a question regarding the Open Site Explorer Recently Discovered Links. I know that I have receive follow link from a few sites that have more DA than my site. I am wondering why it is taking so long for OSE to discover these links? I double checked the sites to make sure that they don't have NOFOLLOW (sorry for the double negative), and the sites have linked to my site for over a month now. Any ideas? I'm not concerned about it because Search Engines have discovered those links. I am just curious why this is, or if it is normal. Cheers!

                    Link Explorer | | evan89
                    0
                  • 720digital

                    Open site explorer

                    Hi, I am a little confused how open site explorer updates (not sure its working as aspected). It shows the recent discovered links but these then disappear and do not show in the main list (Inbound links) after a few days. Plus the links in the inbound links tab has not changed for nearly 10 weeks, my other tools are showing the new links..... Does it update on a certain data, if so where can i check the status? Thanks

                    Link Explorer | | 720digital
                    0

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.