The Complete Link Building Glossary for Beginners

Backlink

A link from one website pointing to another. Also called an inbound link or external link. Backlinks are one of Google's primary ranking signals — the more high-quality backlinks a page has, the more authority Google attributes to it.

Referring Domain

A unique website that links to your domain. The referring domain count is more important than the total backlink count — 100 links from 100 different domains is far more valuable than 100 links from the same domain.

Link Equity

The ranking value passed from one page to another through a backlink. Also called 'link juice'. Link equity flows from the linking page to the linked page, and is influenced by the authority of the linking domain, the number of other outbound links on the page, and whether the link is dofollow or nofollow.

Domain Rating (DR)

Ahrefs' metric scoring a website's backlink profile strength on a scale of 0–100. Calculated based on the number and quality of referring domains. Logarithmic — moving from DR 70 to DR 80 requires far more link equity than moving from DR 20 to DR 30.

Domain Authority (DA)

Moz's metric predicting how likely a domain is to rank in search results, scored 0–100. Based on Moz's link index and a machine learning model trained to correlate with Google's rankings. Not the same as DR — a site can have very different DR and DA scores.

PageRank

Google's original algorithm for ranking web pages based on the quantity and quality of links pointing to them. PageRank is still a core component of Google's ranking system but is no longer published publicly. DR and DA are third-party approximations of PageRank-style authority.

Link Profile

The complete picture of all backlinks pointing to a domain — the referring domains, their quality, the anchor texts used, the pages linked to, and the historical pattern of link acquisition. Your link profile is what Google evaluates when assessing your domain's trustworthiness and authority.

Dofollow Link

A standard hyperlink that passes link equity from the referring page to the linked page. Most editorial links are dofollow by default unless the publisher has added a nofollow attribute. When someone talks about 'building backlinks', they generally mean dofollow links.

Nofollow Link

A link with the rel='nofollow' attribute added, which instructs Google not to pass link equity through it. Nofollow links were introduced by Google in 2005 to combat comment spam. They still appear in your backlink profile and may have indirect SEO value through brand signals and referral traffic, but do not directly pass PageRank.

Sponsored Link

A link with the rel='sponsored' attribute, indicating a paid or affiliate relationship. Google introduced this attribute in 2019 alongside the ugc attribute. Paid placements technically should be marked sponsored — in practice most link sellers don't do this.

UGC Link

A link with the rel='ugc' (User Generated Content) attribute, typically applied to links in comments, forum posts, and user profiles. Google does not pass full link equity through UGC-tagged links.

Sitewide Link

A link that appears on every page of a website — typically in a header, footer, or sidebar. Sitewide links from a single domain count as one referring domain regardless of how many pages they appear on, and are now largely ignored or treated as a spam signal by Google when clearly paid.

Editorial Link

A link placed naturally within content because the publisher genuinely found the linked resource valuable. Considered the gold standard of backlinks — editorial links are what Google's quality guidelines explicitly describe as legitimate link building.

Guest Post Link

A backlink acquired by contributing an article to another website as a named author. The link appears within the article content. Guest posts are a widely used and effective link building tactic when the content is genuinely useful and the host site has real organic traffic.

Niche Edit

Also called a link insertion or curated link. The placement of your backlink into existing published content on another website, rather than a newly created article. Niche edits pass authority faster because the hosting page already has indexing history and potentially its own backlinks.

Anchor Text

The visible, clickable text of a hyperlink. Anchor text tells Google something about the topic of the page being linked to. Over-optimised anchor text (too many exact-match keyword anchors) is a manipulative link building signal that can trigger algorithmic suppression or manual action.

Exact-Match Anchor

Anchor text that matches the exact target keyword — e.g. 'best online casino UK' linking to a page targeting that phrase. Effective in moderation but risky in excess. Most SEOs cap exact-match anchors at 8–12% of a link profile.

Partial-Match Anchor

Anchor text that contains the target keyword alongside other words — e.g. 'top online casino options in the UK'. Less risky than exact-match and still passes topical relevance signal.

Branded Anchor

Anchor text using the brand name or domain — e.g. 'LinksPulse' or 'linkspulse.com'. Branded anchors are the most natural-looking link type and should make up the largest share of any site's anchor text distribution, typically 35–50%.

Naked URL Anchor

Anchor text that is the bare URL itself — e.g. 'https://linkspulse.com'. Looks entirely natural as it's how links are often shared in online discussions. Should make up 5–10% of a link profile.

Generic Anchor

Non-descriptive anchor text such as 'click here', 'read more', 'visit site', or 'learn more'. Looks organic and should represent 15–25% of a natural link profile.

Anchor Text Distribution

The breakdown of all anchor text types across a site's backlink profile. A natural distribution has branded anchors dominating, with a mix of generic, partial-match, naked URL, and a small proportion of exact-match. Skewed distributions toward exact-match are a red flag Google monitors in competitive niches.

Link Prospecting

The process of identifying potential websites to acquire links from — based on niche relevance, DR, traffic, and editorial standards. Link prospecting is the research phase before outreach begins.

Link Outreach

The process of contacting website owners, editors, or authors to request or negotiate a link placement. Outreach quality — personalisation, relevance, and clarity of value proposition — directly determines conversion rates.

Broken Link Building

Finding broken links (404 errors) on relevant websites, creating content that replaces what the dead link pointed to, and informing the site owner so they can update the link to your content. Effective because you're offering a genuine service alongside the link request.

Skyscraper Technique

Finding well-linked content in your niche, creating a demonstrably better or more current version, then reaching out to sites linking to the original to suggest updating their link. Works best when 'better' is objectively verifiable — updated data, more comprehensive coverage, or corrected errors.

HARO (Help a Reporter Out)

A platform connecting journalists with expert sources. By responding to journalist queries with expert commentary, you can earn editorial links from news sites and media publications. HARO links are highly credible because they're genuinely earned, not purchased.

Digital PR

Creating content — data studies, research, surveys, or newsworthy assets — that earns media coverage and backlinks organically. Digital PR links tend to come from high-authority news and media sites and are among the most algorithm-resistant links you can acquire.

Resource Page Link Building

Identifying websites that maintain 'useful resources' or 'recommended links' pages in your niche and getting your site listed on them. Particularly effective for charity, research, and educational adjacent sites.

Toxic Backlink

A backlink from a low-quality, spammy, or manipulative source that can harm your site's rankings rather than help them. Common sources: link farms, PBNs, irrelevant directories, and sites with Moz spam scores above 7/17.

PBN (Private Blog Network)

A network of websites created or purchased specifically to build links to a target site. PBNs are explicitly against Google's guidelines and can trigger manual actions. Modern Google detection has become sophisticated enough to identify most mid-tier PBNs.

Link Farm

A website or network of websites that exists primarily to sell links rather than to serve genuine readers. Link farms typically have thin content, hundreds of outbound links per page, low or misaligned organic traffic, and inflated DR from mutual linking.

Disavow File

A text file submitted to Google Search Console listing domains or specific URLs you want Google to ignore when evaluating your backlink profile. Used to neutralise toxic links that you cannot remove through direct outreach. Should only be used for links clearly causing harm — indiscriminate disavowing can remove good links.

Manual Action

A penalty applied by a Google human reviewer when a site is found to violate Google's Webmaster Guidelines. Manual actions for link schemes suppress rankings and require submitting a reconsideration request after cleaning up the offending links. Recovery typically takes 3–6 months minimum.

Moz Spam Score

Moz's metric indicating the percentage of sites with similar link profiles that have been penalised or banned by Google. Scored 0–17. Sites scoring above 7–8 warrant careful scrutiny before acquiring links from them.

Link Velocity

The rate at which a site acquires new backlinks over time. Unnaturally fast link velocity — a sudden spike of hundreds of new links in a short period — can trigger algorithmic review. Natural link velocity grows gradually and consistently.

Organic Traffic

Website visitors arriving through unpaid search engine results. The primary outcome metric for SEO. Third-party estimates of organic traffic (visible in Ahrefs and Semrush) are approximations — only Google Search Console shows actual organic traffic data for your own site.

Trust Flow (TF)

Majestic SEO's metric measuring the quality of links pointing to a site, based on the trustworthiness of the linking sources. Used alongside Citation Flow (CF) — a high TF/CF ratio indicates quality links relative to quantity.

Link Gap

The difference between your site's backlink profile and your competitors' backlink profiles for a target keyword. A link gap analysis identifies which referring domains your competitors have that you don't, providing a prioritised outreach target list.

Topical Authority

Google's measure of how comprehensively and credibly a website covers a specific subject area. Built through content depth, internal linking architecture, and inbound links from topically relevant sources. Sites with strong topical authority rank new pages in their niche faster and with fewer links.

E-E-A-T

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — the four dimensions Google's quality raters use to evaluate content quality. Particularly important for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) content including finance, health, and gambling. Strong E-E-A-T requires author credentials, editorial standards, and external authority signals including backlinks.

YMYL

Your Money or Your Life — Google's classification for content that could materially affect a reader's financial wellbeing, health, or safety. YMYL content (including gambling, finance, health, and legal topics) is held to a higher quality and authority standard than general content.

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