SEMRush and Moz Link Indexes Compared

Historically, Moz has internally tracked comparisons with both Ahrefs and Majestic on a daily basis to ensure our Link Explorer product is a market leader. However, I have received several requests recently to compare Moz to SEMRush given their strides in growing a link index of their own. Below are the results of a simple study comparing index size based on the following metrics: Overall reported backlinks (Self Reported) Likelihood Moz or SEMRush reports more referring domains to a domain (Sample Size: 1000 domains) Likelihood Moz or SEMRush reports more backlinks to a domain (Sample Size: 1000 domains) Likelihood Moz or SEMRush reports more referring domains to a URL (Sample Size: 1000 URLs) Likelihood Moz or SEMRush reports more backlinks to a URL (Sample...

Sleep Hygiene Tips and Tricks

I recognize this has little to do with SEO, but it is a pretty important issue to proper functioning. I copy and paste this list for people dealing with sleep issues so often, I figured I should just post it that way I can more easily provide a list. The Rules No naps. No alcohol, especially after 6PM. No caffeine, especially after 3PM Exercise. You actually have to be tired to sleep. Try and go to sleep around the same time every night. Wake up at the same time every day. No screens for 30-60 min before bed. Prepare yourself (brush teeth, get into comfy clothes, etc.) and then settle into something relaxing like meditating or sitting calmly listening to light music with lowered lights for the 15 min prior to bed. DO NOT DO THIS IN THE BED. BED IS FOR SLEEPING...

Update to Moz Link Index Comparison Metrics

Here is an update to my post on Moz called “Big, Fast, Strong“. I give the definitions for all these metrics in that post, so I wont repost them here. I started with the only one we aren’t in first place or tied for first place, which is the fastest crawler. That honor still goes to Ahrefs. The rest of the metrics, well, they speak for themselves.   Ahrefs Still has the fastest crawler. Moz and Majestic are neck-and-neck on domain index matches, while Ahrefs is a few % behind. Moz is winning Google URL Index Matches Moz is winning Domain Root Linking Domains Moz is winning URL RLDs Moz is winning backlink counts for domains Moz is winning backlinks to URLs   Moz is in a dead heat with majestic for domain being present in index  ...

In Defense of Domain Authority

With the launch pending for Moz’s much improved Domain Authority metric, the debate has once again been resurrected on whether Google uses Domain Authority and whether it is worthwhile. Let me take a few minutes of your time to unpack this question fully. First, Google has quite unambiguously stated that they do not use Domain Authority in their search algorithms. I take their word on this. Not only do I know Google does not use Moz’s Domain Authority, I do not believe they have a pre-calculated metric that approximates a domain or site authority in general. But what follows from these statements? Does this mean that domain level metrics have no impact on rankings? Does this mean that DA has no value to search engine optimizers? Let’s address...

Measuring Link Index Freshness

Disclosure: I work for Moz. One of the hardest metrics to compare link indexes on is their percentage of “live links”. At first, it seems like a simple endeavor – just download the backlinks and check if they are live. It turns out that the process is far more complicated for a number of reasons. Redirect chains may not include the target domain in the URL, and there is no way to know which outlink begins the redirect chain without following every outlink on that linking page. Links aren’t always links – does the index count form action as a link? iframe? embed src? Linking sites might be temporarily down (do you count that as a missing link or ignore it). How do you know if it is temporary or permanent? Different indexes have...