How to assess sites using Moz DA and organic traffic properly

Estimated organic website traffic is another metric that is being abused by backlink sellers recently.

Simply because it ‘could’ equate to a website worth linking from, right?

It’s not a quantum leap to assume that estimated organic search engine traffic is a positive signal, but it needs to be used sensibly, and with other metrics (I will reveal how in this email).

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However, there are reasons to be cautious about this assumption, which I’ll also take you through one by one.

High traffic does not always = quality or suitability for placing your backlinks

Sites need to be assessed on a site and niche basis because low traffic isn’t always a deal-breaker.

A site could be receiving low traffic for a lot of reasons.

Good reasons for a site getting lower traffic estimates are:

It’s a site that is in a tiny niche with low volumes of search.

In this case, the site traffic may never grow but it may be an authority in its niche. You should look at other metrics such as Ahrefs Domain Rating and Majestic Trust Flow to assess relative authority.

It’s a new site (so maybe it has growth potential).

In this case, look at the content and quality of the design. If it is engaging readers and getting shares, then it could be a site on an upward trend.

It’s a tiny site but the content is top-notch for its niche.

As above, check out the content and look at the backlinks it’s acquiring.

This could easily be another small but authoritative site that is worth getting a link from.

A link from any of the sites described could be useful, so don’t discount without having a good look.

On the flip side, some people assume that high traffic is a winner

But this isn’t always the case.

Bad reasons for high traffic could be:

The site is in a niche with millions of long-tail keywords, so it scavenges traffic.

In this case, check the rankings of the keywords by using a tool like Ahrefs, where you can see the distribution of rankings. If they are mostly on page two and beyond, then the site isn’t an authority in its niche.

The site has masses of poor content so ranks for lots of long-tail keywords.

This could mean the site is not an authority but is so big that it is visible.

The site content has no topical focus and ranks for a ton of useless keywords.

A lot of old but poor news sites have this profile. In this case, look at the inner pages and see if they are garnering any Ahrefs UR or Moz PA – this will show you whether any link you place has any chance of being worth anything.

In most cases, you probably need to avoid these kinds of sites.

So how can you find sites that meet your needs for SEO?

Without setting a minimum of thousands of traffic and high backlink metrics (which is just making life harder for no reason).

Easy.

You use a formula that looks at a range of trusted metrics.

(like I discuss in the e-book I sent or in this video here).

And the way it needs to work is if one metric is low like traffic, it is counterbalanced by another metric such as Moz DA which may be higher and vice versa.

Using a properly weighted formula you can check that your low (or high) traffic backlink prospects have some link building value.

For example, a higher DA site with lower traffic may show that a site may be an authority in a smaller niche.

Or a lower DA site with higher traffic might be more trusted by Google due to its visibility, but the site is up against a lot of higher DA sites in its niche.

(DA is relative, not absolute, but that often gets overlooked too).

And finally, if all of the metrics are low, the site is either brand new or garbage.

So, now there’s no need to rely solely on one metric like traffic or Moz DA or any other metric.