48 Essential Backlink Terms for SEO Beginners

If you are just starting with SEO or link building and feeling overwhelmed by all the jargon, don’t worry! We are here to help you.

Here we have broken down the most important backlink terms that any beginner will find helpful; whether they are a website owner, a marketer, or a client looking for link building services.

Backlink Terms

1. Backlink

Backlinks are links on one website that send users to another. They act like votes of confidence from the source site about the credibility of the linked site.

For instance, if a popular travel blog links to a hotel’s website, that’s a backlink that potentially boosts the hotel site’s credibility and rankings.

To illustrate, let’s imagine Forbes magazine links to your personal website in an article. Since that Forbes link points directly to your site, it serves as a backlink endorsement for your content.

Google analyzes these backlinks to help determine which sites offer worthwhile information on a given topic. More backlinks generally signal a site is more authoritative.

2. Backlink Profile

A backlink profile is the collection of hyperlinks from other websites that point to a specific website. It covers the various sorts of backlinks, anchor text, linking domain quality, and relevancy.

This profile directly impacts your Google’s rankings, because Google’s crawlers seek out these backlinks across the web to evaluate your site’s authority and popularity on a topic. More high-quality, relevant backlinks signal you should rank highly in results.

Factors like follow/nofollow links, anchor text phrases, and more contribute to your backlink profile. SEO marketing companies can optimize these to try improving your profile.

However, Google wants to avoid artificial inflation of rankings through backlink manipulation. The goal is to develop a diverse, natural-looking backlink profile, just like careful landscaping or subtle cosmetics.

This natural profile, earned through genuine links instead of tricks, can be the difference between ranking at the top or disappearing from search results.

3. Link Building

Link building is a critical part of SEO because it helps Google discover and rank your website pages. You can create great content, but if there are no external links directing Google to that content, it will likely go unseen.

Google needs links from other sites to find your pages. More links are better, but link quality also matters significantly. Not all links have equal value, and some can even negatively impact your site.

In essence, link building involves getting reputable external websites to link back to your site. This summary provides a high-level overview of why link building is important for rankings.

Further articles can offer more in-depth guidance on best practices for building quality links effectively to improve SEO. The key is getting links that truly reflect your site’s merit rather than low-value or manipulative links.

4. Link Equity/Link Juice

Link equity is also known as link juice and refers to the ranking power or value that gets transferred from one webpage to another through links. When Site A includes a link to Site B, some of Site A’s authority and value passes to Site B through that link.

The amount of link equity passed depends on things like how authoritative and relevant Site A is, how relevant the specific content Site A links to on Site B is, and how many other links Site A has.

More authoritative sites with fewer links pass more equity. Gaining links from reputable sites with high trust and relevancy scores transfers more ranking power versus low-quality links.

The goal of getting quality links is to build link equity that boosts your rankings.

5. Referring Domain

Backlinks that come from other external websites linking to your site are referred to as referring domains. In other words, referring domains are the original websites that contain and create the backlinks pointing to your site.

While backlinks are the actual hyperlinks themselves, referring domains are the external sites housing and generating those links back to your pages.

So for example, if Site A, Site B, and Site C all have links directing users to your website, those three sites would be considered your referring domains.

Any external website with at least one link leading to your content counts as a referring domain. Building backlinks from a diverse range of quality referring domains is important for SEO.

6. Referring Backlink

A referring backlink refers specifically to a backlink that comes from an external website linking back to your site and attributes the source of the traffic being referred.

When visitors click on a referring backlink to your site, data is usually passed along indicating where the traffic originated. This allows you to see which specific external sites are directing traffic to your pages through their backlinks. Ahrefs, SEMrush and Google Search Console analyze referring backlinks.

For example, if Site A has an article that links to your website, that would be considered a referring backlink. When users click that link from Site A to your site, it would be logged as a visit referred from Site A due to the attribution.

Referring backlinks, therefore, are backlinks that help track the original referrer or source of the incoming traffic to your site through links on external pages. Analyzing referring backlinks can provide valuable insights for SEO and determining which sites are good sources of quality backlinks driving visits.

7. Referring Page

A referring page is the specific web page that contains a link directing users to your website. When someone clicks on a link to your site from another page, that page they originated from is considered the referring page.

For example, if an article on Site A contains a link to your website, that particular article page on Site A is the referring page. It’s the specific external page that refers traffic to your site through its link.

Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush track referring pages. Monitoring referring pages is key to assessing backlink profile strength and quality.

When users click a link to your site, analytics tools can track the referring page URL that the visit originated from. This allows you to see which external pages are driving traffic to your site through their links and content.

Identifying key referring pages can provide useful SEO insights into where your high-quality backlinks are coming from and opportunities for getting additional links from related relevant pages to boost rankings. The referring page contains the backlink directing users your way.

8. Anchor Text

The clickable words in a link are called anchor text. Anchor text can assist you optimize your backlinks for better rankings.

Choose anchor text keywords that are relevant to the page you are connecting to. Vary your anchors – don’t overuse the same ones or it will look spammy.

Keep your anchor text short and descriptive so users understand where the link goes. Avoid stuff like “click here.” Use your brand name for anchors linking to your site.

The words around the anchor text give context about the link, which search engines like. To get natural anchor text links, create good content first, then add your links.

9. Domain Authority

Domain Authority is a score from 1-100 that estimates a website’s ability to rank well in search engine results pages (SERPs). The higher the Domain Authority score, the better positioned a site is to rank highly.

The Domain Authority score is calculated using over 40 different factors, including the quantity and quality of backlinks pointing to the site, the value of the root domain, content quality, social signals, and overall SEO effectiveness. Websites with more high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites, like Wikipedia, tend to have greater Domain Authority.

Since Domain Authority is logarithmic, it becomes harder to increase the closer you get to 100. Jumping from 10 to 20 is easier than 70 to 80, for example. Domain Authority can also decrease if top sites garner more backlinks, diluting the value of others’ backlinks.

While not directly used by Google, Domain Authority correlates with and predicts SEO success because it encapsulates many ranking factors. Despite not being a Google-designated metric, Domain Authority remains a useful indicator of a site’s potential to gain organic traffic.

10. Page Authority

Page Authority is a 1-100 score from Moz predicting a specific page’s ranking potential. It considers multiple factors using machine learning to estimate the page’s backlink profile value.

Higher Page Authority indicates greater ranking ability. Unlike Domain Authority for entire sites, Page Authority is a single-page metric.

Both can inform how well pages or sites may rank but should be considered in the context of business and industry.

11. Do-Follow Link

Do-follow links are standard hyperlinks that search engine crawlers can follow. They pass “link juice” to boost the rankings of linked pages by transferring authority.

Unlike no-follow links, do-follow links are valued for SEO since they accumulate link equity.

By default, links are do-follow unless manually set as no-follow. These pass-along links help pages rank higher and gain more backlinks.

12. No-Follow Link

No-Follow links contain code telling Google not to pass authority or equity to linked pages. They fight spam and ranking manipulation from bought or spammy links.

No follow is common in comments, social posts, and user-generated content. High authority sites like Wikipedia use no follow to maintain quality.

Nofollow doesn’t directly impact rankings but can drive traffic and branding. A mix of dofollow and nofollow links creates a natural link profile.

13. Natural Link

Natural links – also called organic links – are voluntarily created by website owners who find value in linking to content. They are not paid or artificially obtained.

Natural links occur organically when creators decide to link based on merit. Google highly values natural links since they are not sponsored and do not contain tracking.

For SEO, natural links are ideal as they authentically endorse content. They are key for healthy backlink profiles and boosting rankings. In short, natural links organically demonstrate the worth of content and are the best type of backlink for SEO.

14. Manual Link

The term “manual link” has two main meanings depending on context. In SEO, “manual link building” refers to active efforts to acquire backlinks through outreach, content creation, and other human-driven strategies.

The goal is to earn high-quality links to boost rankings. “Manual link” can also mean a hyperlink to user manuals or instructional guides, as seen in sites offering downloadable manuals.

15. Editorial Link

Editorial links, also called earned links, are organic backlinks that are not traded, requested, or paid for. They result from quality content and marketing.

As genuine signals of value, editorial links are highly valued for improving rankings.

These links come naturally from publications or experts showcasing content. Editorial links are more impactful than paid or requested links.

16. Inbound Link

Inbound links are another name for backlinks directed from external sites to your own site’s pages. They are important for SEO, determining authority, and ranking. They are highly valued for strengthening backlink profiles and boosting organic visibility and traffic.

17. Outbound Link

Outbound links direct users from your site to external sites, providing additional value and resources. Inbound links, or backlinks, go from other sites to your own pages.

Outbound links demonstrate authority by citing credible sources and can impact SEO. But inbound links more directly affect SEO rankings, as search engines see them as endorsements of your content’s quality.

While outbound links give users more information, inbound links bring ranking authority and credibility from other sites.

18. Internal Link

Internal links connect pages within the same website or domain. They enable site navigation, establish informational hierarchy, and distribute link equity for SEO.

Internal links help Google understand a site’s structure and page relationships. Linking internally passes ranking power to other pages, potentially boosting their rankings. Internal links may be in menus or page content. They are vital for solid site architecture and improving organic traffic and search performance.

19. External Link

External links direct users to outside websites, providing additional resources and context.

Internal links connect pages within the same domain, helping with site navigation and passing SEO authority between pages.

While external links demonstrate credibility by citing other sources, internal links help Google index site structure and distribute ranking power.

20. Broken Link

A broken link, also known as a dead link, is a hyperlink that does not connect users to the intended website, typically due to deletion, relocation, or problems. Broken links provide a bad user experience and can harm SEO.

21. Toxic Link

Toxic links are harmful backlinks from spammy or low-quality sites that can damage search rankings. They often originate from link schemes and shady SEO tactics.

Google may punish websites with a high number of harmful backlinks for manipulating results. Monitoring backlink profiles and removing harmful connections is critical for maintaining a healthy link profile and avoiding penalties.

22. Branded Anchor Text

Branded anchor text means using a website’s brand name or branded phrase as the clickable text in a link.

It’s considered a natural way to link that builds brand recognition. Branded anchors commonly cite sources or directly link sites.

Examples are “Ahrefs” or “Internal Link Juicer.” A mix of branded and non-branded anchors is ideal for a natural link profile.

23. Exact Match Anchor Text

Exact match anchor text uses the exact target keyword as the hyperlink text, like “sleeper sofa” linking to a sleeper sofa page. While once common for SEO, too much exact match text now risks penalties.

A mix of anchor text types is better. Anchor text should descriptively indicate the content users will find on clickthrough. The focus should be on providing value for users, not just targeting keywords.