SEMRush Employee Doubles Down on Bizarre, Misleading Link Data
I’d normally let this kind of thing slide, but my integrity has been impugned (Olga Andrienko has accused me of “yellow press type headlines and incorrect data” in her comment on the original post) so I feel obligated to respond. First, let me start by why I used the words “bizarre” and “misleading” and why I stand by them. To be clear, my original post said explicitly that I did not think SEMRush was falsifying data and “I do not think SEMRush is intentionally inflating their numbers“. What makes SEMRush’s Data Bizarre? In SEMRush’s IP reports, they will display all the IP addresses that link to you… [click image for larger picture] However, when you click on the domain number (in this case...
SEMRush IP Link Data Bizarre, Misleading
Disclaimer: I am Russ Jones and I work for Moz, which is a competitor of SEMRush. These are my opinions and do not represent those of Moz. That being said, the data speaks for itself. A response from a SEMRush employee, although not speaking officially, is below. I must admit that I was taken aback when Matthew Woodward’s recent Best Backlink Checker analysis came back so heavily in favor of SEMRush. I knew Matthew did good work and took this project seriously, vetting each provider to the best of his and his teams’ ability given the data they were provided, but it just didn’t mesh with the comparisons I run daily and weekly against Moz’s competitors. (I have spoken with Matthew about this issue and he is currently investigating...
SEMRush vs Moz Link Index Re-verified, Data Provided
Mea Culpa: It looks like I screwed up the exported CSVs from my code below. Thank you to Malte Landwehr of SearchMetrics for finding the bizarre issues. Having an unbiased 3rd party (especially of high reputation like Malte) review is hugely helpful. Malte also identified a high % of .jobs domains in the random data set. Because some crawlers have difficulty with the new TLDs, (I am not sure if this is true of SEMRush), I limited the Domains and URLs to .org, .net, and .com. There were no meaningful changes in the outcomes of the reports EXCEPT for Total Referring Backlinks to URL, in which Moz wins 2x rather than 6x. Comparing Domains [XLSX] Comparing URLs [XLSX] I often do not post data along side these mini research projects such as my most recent brief...
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...
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