Welcome to the Q&A Forum
Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.
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.
Hi,
External Followed Links: means that the links are "followed" by search engines and pass SEO value to the site they are pointing to.
Total External Links: includes links that are both "follow" and "no-follow". No-follow links pass no SEO value onto the sites they are pointing to.
Read this blog for a bit more info on the above.
Hope this helps
Hi Ash,
The best way to work out where you should point the backlink to is by asking yourself this question:
What is the most related and useful page on my website for the article I have written?
Take it from a readers perspective. Would they prefer to go to your homepage or a more specific internal page?
Once you can answer that question then you know where to link to.
Make sure to not over-optimise the keywords you use for your anchor text.Just put them on the most natural, relevant word in your article.
Hope this helps.
Hi,
Domain age can have an impact on Domain Authority.
However, it is generally considered to be fairly minimal and there are plenty of other elements that will impact domain authority on a much larger scale.
Take a look at the following resources on Moz for more information.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks
SilverDoor
Hey David,
Firstly, welcome to the world of SEO.
I know that things can seem pretty confusing and daunting, especially when your new to SEO. The key is to not rush into any decisions without having evidence to back the potential benefits. It's very easy to go storming into things and end up making poor decisions. Here is my recommendation for how to proceed from here:
Step 1:
Benchmark your current rankings, traffic etc. (You need to do this so you know if the changes you have made have had a positive or negative impact)
Step 2:
Do a quick health check of your website. Use Google Webmasters to check for any issues or penalties you may have received. Fix any issues as soon as possible.
Step 3:
Do a backlink audit using Open Site Explorer. Export your results to Excel and then analyse them. Look at every single URL and check to make sure that they're not harming your site. If you find any that you think may be harming your site, then get in touch with the webmaster of that site and request them to remove the link. If that doesn't work, use Google Disavow Tool to remove it. This article on Link Audit Guide For Effective Link Removals & Risk Mitigation will guide you through this process.
Step 4:
Use Open Site Explorer to analyse your competitors backlink structure. Look at the places they have obtained high quality links and attempt to target those same sites.
Step 5:
Once you have successfully obtained backlinks, analyse the results against the initial benchmark you did. Then you can see exactly what has improved and other areas that may still need work.
The above is a time consuming process and takes patience. Seriously though, it's worth doing it right as this will help prevent dips in traffic in the future.
Hope this is clear and concise enough.
Let me know if you need anything else explained.
SilverDoor