Prominent SEO metrics provider MOZ is facing severe criticism and backlash as it refuses to address a glaring flaw in its SEO metrics tool, which allows the manipulation of domain authority (DA) scores.
This failure to take action has raised serious concerns about the integrity and reliability of MOZ's metrics, leaving businesses and SEO professionals disillusioned and questioning the validity of their assessments.
Domain authority, a metric developed by MOZ, is widely used to evaluate a website's ranking potential on search engine result pages (SERPs).
Unfortunately, the credibility of this metric has been compromised due to unethical individuals and organizations exploiting a flaw in MOZ's tool to artificially inflate their DA scores. By doing so, they mislead users and gain undeserved credibility in the online sphere.
Despite being aware of the problem, MOZ's refusal to fix the flaw has caused frustration and disappointment within the SEO community. This lack of action not only undermines the trust placed in MOZ's metrics but also contributes to a distorted digital landscape, where websites with lower-quality content and questionable practices can falsely portray themselves as authoritative and trustworthy.
Critics argue that MOZ's decision not to address the issue demonstrates a lack of responsibility and accountability. By allowing manipulated DA scores to persist, MOZ is failing to provide accurate and unbiased data to its users, compromising the foundation on which businesses and SEO professionals make informed decisions.
Furthermore, the reluctance of MOZ to rectify this flaw raises concerns about the company's commitment to staying relevant in an evolving SEO landscape.
Scammers Use MOZ To Make $$$
Scammers have been found exploiting a feature known as the redirect notice in Google properties to manipulate and fabricate fake domain authority (DA) scores provided by renowned SEO metrics provider MOZ.
This sophisticated scheme allows scammers to deceive businesses and SEO professionals by artificially inflating website authority, posing a significant threat to the integrity of online metrics.
In an industry where search engine algorithms continuously evolve to combat manipulation and spam, MOZ's refusal to address the manipulation of DA scores highlights a lack of adaptability and a disregard for the changing needs of users.
The redirect notice feature, designed by Google to inform users when they are being redirected to a different website, has been ingeniously utilized by scammers to create a false sense of credibility.
By generating a multitude of redirects from various Google properties, scammers can manipulate the data received by MOZ, ultimately leading to an inflated and misleading DA score.
The consequences of MOZ's inaction extend beyond businesses and SEO professionals. The presence of manipulated DA scores undermines the overall integrity of the SEO industry, making it increasingly difficult for users to discern genuine authority and credibility.
In a significant move to uphold the integrity of SEO authority scores, Ahrefs, a prominent third-party SEO metrics provider, decided to exclude the influence of redirect notices from its calculations.
This proactive step aims to prevent domain authority (DA)-DR metric hacking and ensure the accuracy and reliability of its SEO authority scores. However, in contrast, another well-known metrics provider, MOZ, has chosen to retain the inclusion of redirect notices
The move by Ahrefs has been well-received within the SEO community, with professionals appreciating the company's efforts to combat metric manipulation. By excluding redirect notices, Ahrefs aims to provide a more accurate representation of website authority, helping users navigate the online landscape with greater confidence.
Businesses and SEO professionals are urged to stay informed about the practices and policies of metrics providers and consider multiple data sources when evaluating website authority.
By critically analyzing the metrics provided by different tools and understanding their methodologies, users can make more informed decisions and mitigate the risk of relying solely on a single metric.
Example of an organic DA (Non-Manipulated Score) VS Fake
Lets take a look at these two websites :
- www.techbusinessnews.com.au
- www.mrtechbusiness.com
Tech Business News - Current DA Score - DA39
Mr. Tech Business - Current DA Score - DA59
So, Mr. Tech Business looks like the more powerful website in terms of domain authority, right? Wrong!
As it turns out. Tech Business News is over 100 times more powerful in terms of the MOZ DA score than Mr. Tech Business. So why?
The website Mr. Tech Business is currently being operated by a paid links blog scammer. This scammer has used the MOZ redirect notice hack to make the website look like it has a DA score of 59,
The truth is the Mr. Tech Business blog is a scam site and does not have a single natural or editorial hyperlink pointing to it. Instead, It has some no follow blog comment spam and redirect notices in order to create a legitimate-looking backlink/hyperlink profile.
The scammer has boosted this fake DA score in order to sell “Hyperlinks” on a worthless website with zero domain authority and trashy content.
So what’s the real “Organic” DA score of Mr. Tech Business? The truth is when manually checking the hyperlink profile for “Real Hyperlinks” that search engines such as Google would actually count, the score is estimated to be DA-2. Not DA 58.
Also, this scam links blog is also using what experts in the SEO industry call “Spam Blog Posts” that don’t allow search engine indexing and don’t further increase the real score.
Here is an example below of one of these noindex spam blogs in the scammers’ backlink profile used to make it look like they have a high DA score.
https://jaidengcxsn.jiliblog.com/75659167/nh%E1%BB%AEng-%C4%90%E1%BB%90i-t%C3%81c-c%E1%BB%A6a-nh%C3%80-c%C3%81i-kubet
Google does not count links within the content from these sites. They are blocked from indexation. However, SEO tools still detect the URLs and count them (They don’t provide any ZERO value)
If these fake redirect notices were filtered out and removed from the MOZ DA calculation, the actual DA score will be showing an organic ZERO.
The site Mr. Tech Busines has zero authority and zero organic traffic. However, Tech Business News has real organic traffic and real quality hyperlinks referencing the publication’s content making it the more powerful website in terms of domain authority and SERP impact.
Final thoughts
Businesses and SEO professionals are left in a precarious position, questioning the validity of MOZ's metrics and searching for alternative solutions to accurately assess website authority and make informed decisions.