The myth that Google cares about Domain Age, Domain Link profile, Domain Spam hublot replica level, and TLDs have SEOs wasting a lot of money on links that aren’t as powerful as they could be.

I said ENOUGH! I’ve been building successful link networks since 2003. I know link building in and out. I just didn’t buy into Google using Domain Authority as a ranking factor.

We decided to put it to the test.

This test proved what I already knew. Domain Authority really isn’t a thing. Domains don’t have any inherent authority. What we often attribute to Domain Authority is actually the linking between pages that have authority. Authority is definitely at the page level.

The test idea is simple. If we create multiple test sets and Domain Authority IS a thing, these test sets should start to rank in an orderly fashion.

If these domains have different values attached to them, then the test pages should start to rank in the same order that we build them.

You can see that the .com should be the clear winner here. It has a Moz DA of 15. The rest have a Moz DA of 2.

We tested a .win, a .com, .club, and .loan.

The .com has 874 backlinks where the rest have 0 or 1 backlinks. If there is some sort of Domain Authority, the .com should be at the top christian dior 27466 fashionable slippers of each set every time.

For the others, there is nothing that distinguishes them because they are all around the same “authority”.

Or you could argue that there will be Domain Authority attached to them. The domains attached to those backlinks are all different.

The .club is the only one without any backlinks so that should come out on bottom. The .com should be at the top if Google cares about Domain Authority.

The .com should be the winner but it isn’t consistently at the top. In fact, in the next set, it drops even lower. And it isn’t near the top.

The only consistency is the .win at the bottom every time. It was the .club that didn’t have any linking domains. In one of the sets, the .club was even at the top!

This test confirms that the domain itself isn’t the thing carrying the authority. Domain Authority definitely rests in the pages itself and how those pages are linked together.

Just the domain itself, having a particular Domain Authority isn’t being passed to the fresh page.

So what’s the point?

A lot of people sell links on high DA domains and are using that DA metric as a selling point. But the reality is there is little benefit, in itself, to having a link from a high DA site.

Instead, you should be looking at how well the internal link structure for that site is set up in order to determine how much link juice is going to be passed through that backlink.

For example, if you get a link on a DA60 site and the article is linked from the homepage, great! You probably have a valuable link.

But if you are getting a link from a site where your article is buried inside the blog somewhere, there isn’t much value to that link.

I discovered something powerful. When I linked my pages in a very specific way, that powerful link juice flowed through the site. This is how I create my link networks.

We’ve seen an exciting year in SEO.  Our very own Kyle Roof went head to head with other experts in an SEO ranking competition.  He was the talk of the competition when he dominated using Lorem Ipsum text. The S.I.A. continued to expose what was scientifically needed to rank a site in Google.  

The S.I.A. has continued to grow by leaps and bounds since we first began four years ago.  We now boast some of the brightest minds all working at taking the mystery out of the Google ranking algorithm.

Our members are testing exactly what Google wants, and coming up with some startling answers.

Our best SEO optimization experts are committed to ranking and helping other people rank.

SEO facts not SEO guessing.

We’ve chosen these SEO experts because they continue to crack the Google ranking code.

So…

How’d you like to see our secret authority experts and resources to blow past your competition?

Today is the day that we offer you a rare peek behind the S.I.A. curtain…

We are sharing some of our absolute BEST sources with you.

Warning:  Many of these names may be new to you.  Some of theses names have risen to fame.  All are part of the secret underground elite.

In true Dori Friend style… you won’t read about Rand Fishkin or Brian Dean here.  No matter how much of a big deal Neil Patel is you won’t find him on this list either.

You WILL learn about people that you probably don’t know or may have not heard about.  

These influencers are part of an SEO network that has been turning Google on it’s ear.  They are keeping one step ahead, while letting the mass SEO guessers get hit with the Google algorithm smack downs.

But today… I am going to reveal our SEO influencers…

So you can follow them.

This is for my list only…

Follow them and learn their tricks.

Because you never know when or where they are going to drop their next golden nugget.

S.I.A. Influencers for 2018

Special Mention: SEO King of the S.I.A. is Bill Hartzer – Bill Hartzer is an SEO and Domain Name Consultant, based in the Dallas, Texas area. He provides technical SEO audits to clients, as well as ongoing monthly SEO services, as well as domain name consulting services. Flipping domain names, PBNs and being quoted on some of the biggest SEO channels online, Bill is ahhhhmazing.  He hosts the super popular weekly SEO Podcast for S.I.A. members. If you aren’t a member, you’re definitely missing out on some amazing SEO and business building tactics.
www.hartzer.com
twitter @bhartzer
https://www.facebook.com/billhartzer

Clint Butler – As an Army veteran, 21 years in with three deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Clint learned real world applications of problem solving and adapting quickly to change. He is the Head of SEO for Over The Top SEO and owns his own agency. He is the host of SEO This Week and has co-hosted other SEO podcasts. He runs an exclusive mastermind for six and seven figure earners looking to reach the next level in their business while supporting others. Clint regularly presents at SEO Rockstars and SEO Spring Training. He has created beginner and advanced SEO and marketing courses which taught concepts based on his affiliate and adult industry experience. Clint has one of the brightest (some say devilish) minds in SEO.
https://www.overthetopseo.com/
https://www.digitaleer.com/

Ted Kubaitis – Ted Kubaitis regularly appears on the White Hat Versus Black Hat youtube show and speaks at SEO conferences such as CMSEO, DMSS, SEO Rockstars and many more. Ted has founded multiple startups and was issued a patent in web querying technology.Ted came into the S.IA. hot with some SEO Mind Bombs and he hasn’t cooled off.  Creator of the SEO software Cora, Ted is continuing to be a dominating force in the SEO world. He joins Clint and Kyle in a popular weekly Youtube series called SEOFightClub.
https://seotoollab.com
http://seofightclub.org

Jeff Lenney – Jeff Lenney is a full time Affiliate Marketer, SEO Expert & High End SEO Consultant. He lives in Orange County, CA, with his wife and 2 kids and is currently working for himself full time in order to support his wife’s Disney Habit. Jeff has become the lethal weapon with SEO and Launch Jacking that you want to know. He started an affiliate site in 2018 and shared every step of his process inside the S.I.A. and it has boomed.  Jeff is a wealth of knowledge.
https://JeffLenney.com

Bory B – Constantly testing, Bory adds a depth of information to the Skype conversation.  He isn’t afraid to ask questions and jump into conversations to share what he knows. He is a big part of the S.I.A’s underground elite and wishes to remain anonymous to the general public.

Craig Ramsay – Craig Ramsay is a digital marketing consultant based in Edinburgh, Scotland, focused on a “many hat” data driven approach to SEO for local and Ecommerce clients.Joining us in the first quarter of 2018, Craig has been a valuable asset to our Skype group discussion.  He’s always quick to jump in with tool recommendations that solve unique SEO issues.
https://www.shakedigital.com
https://www.facebook.com/ramsay.craig

Terry Power – Terry surprised us all.  He came in quietly and soon made a huge splash and became one of the guys that everyone listens to when he speaks.  As a speaker at the 2018 SEORockstars event, people really got to see the brilliance behind this great and humble man.  Since presenting at SEORockstars, Terry has been continuing hs Cloud research, developing a method of misusing some of them for increasing CTR and continued to pass on knowledge to others in the SEO community. He also has his own very popular Mastermind group where he helps people take the Ranking Factory software to the next level.
Facebook.com/GoogleGuy    
https://TerrysTipsandStrategies.com

Michael Chrest  – Michael Chrest discovered his passion for internet businesses in 2002, having bought his first online business from a friend. He then began his first web design business and discovered the power of SEO. After years in the business, he decided to focus on helping other businesses grow and succeed online. Never afraid to rock the boat or inject humor, Michael offers a fresh and knowledgeable perspective on many SEO topics.  
https://www.calgaryseocompany.ca

Todd Weeks – Todd Week’s passion for Mentoring, Marketing, and Storytelling has helped guide his career from Social Media Technologist to Video Production & Director, Educator, and Blogger. He currently manages growth and direction for 2Surge. Known as the man when it comes to AWS and Route53, he has helped many people who are stuck with hosting or even getting emails to inbox.  He always gives tons of value to our S.I.A. members.
https://2surge.com/
Twitter: 2surge

Chris Jeffry – Truly valued for his insight, Chris has both asked valuable questions and offered valuable answers to other’s questions.  He accidentally stumbled into SEO in 2016 and it’s officially replaced his twitter addiction. Coming from the finance and data analytics world, he brings a technical, data-driven approach to learning SEO while building a portfolio of sites. He’s your guy for any and all Excel geekery.  He’s a strong member for the S.I.A. and another member that likes to stay underground.

S.I.A. Rising Stars for 2019

Mr Sir
Benjamin Killingsworth
Alex M-W Maggs Wellings
Suzy Bloomfield

Make sure to look for this badge to know if you are following an SIA Influencer!

It is champagne time to celebrate Google Updated Penguin 4.0.

Yes, that is right, Penguin 4.0 finally released the day I got back from Africa. At least that is when they announced it. It actually started, maybe rolled in, the day I left on September 2^nd.

First of all, I want to say that it is hectic. It is really bad news for everything has been deindexed, everything has been down. The industry is going wild.

Just kidding.

We have been waiting for this for such as a long time and we are going to check out what is happening two weeks after penguin because penguin was released when I was in Africa. Actually, they released something the day that I left, and then they said it was Penguin the day that I got back. It’s very strange but we are going to check and see what kind of movement is going on and what you should be afraid of and what you should not be afraid of.

Actually, we didn’t even need to do research cause we at the SIA have hundreds of sites up and we know what is going on and what gets affected. In fact, we have this one site that we have been spamming a lot and we have just not been able to get an unnatural link penalty. We know that there isn’t much going on and our PBN network has had 0 deindexing since all of these have happened.

There was some stuff happening in the beginning of the month that was more tragic than what happened when the long awaited Penguin 4.0 was released. Let’s talk about what it actually is about. We are going to go to the blog and check out what is a going on. Basically, it is part of the algorithm now. What that means is that it is always going to be happening and it is always going to be affective which is awesome because that means we can test it in real time. We can set up tests and we can do it in real time and this has what we have been wanting to do for a very long time. You do not have to wait for it when you do your fixes – if you did fix this and waited for Penguin to come out again, hopefully you saw something. I do not know a lot of people that have seen anything and that is the problem with this. I feel that it is just a big press thing because this should have been a major update with a lot of people freaking out and everything going ballistic, but it hasn’t. There was local stuff that caused some scuffle at the beginning of the month but not much else. Now, Penguin is real time and it says it is more granular which we thought of anyway. We always thought it was page specific and not site specific. At least now, they are admitting it. That is pretty much all they say. Nothing else.

It has been a long four years since 2012 when Google ripped the SEO community. In that time, people who came in after 2012 have got it kind of easy. I kept thinking, when Penguin 4.0 hits, which has almost been – Barry Schwartz said this: a mars linear year where it takes two years for mars to rotate around the sun – that’s how long it has been. It has been October 2014 since Google last run Penguin. So I thought, when they are going to run it again, we are going to see everybody falling off, all the black hatters crying but no, nothing. Barely anything. Although Josh Bachynski has a great example – somebody who claims he has been hit by Penguin on September 2^nd which they said is when they released it, and then rolled out of it on September 23^rd after he has changed up some things – deleted his links and changed the anchor text on some of them. I thought that was interesting. It is important to know that we could now test things and look at sites that come in and pop in and pop out which is absolutely incredible. Now in the SIA, we are going to start testing anchor texts a lot more and different variations and things like that and see how sites go in and out. It is going to be amazing. I am really excited about this.

Once again, Josh Bachynski gets into the granular detail of Penguin 4.0. He proves that the disavow link doesn’t work – he has always said that. You can go watch his video – https://youtu.be/aVx7GXvsjl8. It is 41 minutes of pure Penguin stuff. It is eally granular and he talks about the politics at Google, what gets answered and what doesn’t, and about reading in between the lines. We all know that Google doesn’t tell the truth. This update, if anything else, proves that. Google is just doing a lot of other stuff besides search engine stuff and they just had to hire somebody to pull them back and put some discipline on them because their other projects – all their other stuff that has not been making any money. Google actually, more than being asleep, is kind of not paying attention to SEO. I kind of think they think they have got it handled which is good for us. But in any case, it is going to be in real time, we can test it, we don’t have to wait forever to make fixes or do anything.

And I have to say, this time around the group did better as a whole. Although, I did ask some questions that I had already given the answers to from Survey #1, I just changed the words around. lol

Also, if you haven’t heard, we have started a “Testing Club” that is a group of dedicated SEO Professionals combining efforts to test Google’s ranking factors. It is pretty incredibly.

For more information on becoming a member of that, visit:http://www.seointelligenceagency.com/joinsia-3/

Thanks again for playing and come join us in the SIA’s Testing Club and always KNOW instead of GUESS!

Join the SEO Intelligence Agency

Related Posts:

The Most Important SEO On-Page Factors

SEO Intelligence Quiz 1: Answers

My next post will be going over “How to Test” as I take one from start to end. But for now, enjoy the answers!

Cheers,
Dori