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Links & authority

Glossary

Links & authority

Backlinks, anchors and the authority signals that still move rankings.

92 terms, each answer-first and checked against a primary source.

Ahrefs Rank Ahrefs Rank (AR) is Ahrefs' global leaderboard that orders every website in its database by backlink profile strength, effectively by Domain Rating. The site with the strongest dofollow referring domains holds AR #1, so a lower AR number means more link authority.
anchor text Anchor text is the visible, clickable words of a hyperlink. It tells readers and search engines what the linked page is about, which is why descriptive anchor text aids navigation and gives Google a relevance signal about the destination page.
anchor text distribution Anchor text distribution is the mix of link-text types across a site's backlinks, grouped into categories like branded, exact-match keyword, partial-match, generic ("click here"), and naked URL. A varied, natural spread reads as earned links; a heavy exact-match skew reads as manipulation.
anchor text over-optimization Anchor text over-optimization is when too large a share of a page's inbound links use the same keyword-rich, exact-match anchor text, producing an unnatural link pattern that Google's spam systems (including Penguin) can flag and devalue.
Authority Score Authority Score is Semrush's compound metric, scored 1 to 100, that grades a domain's or page's overall SEO strength. It blends eight weighted signals across three areas: link power, estimated organic traffic, and a natural-profile (spam) check. It is Semrush's own score, not a Google ranking factor.
backlink A backlink is a link from one website to a page on another site (also called an inbound or incoming link). Google uses links both to discover new pages and to judge relevance and authority, which makes backlinks one of the strongest off-page ranking signals.
backlink analysis Backlink analysis is the process of examining the inbound links pointing to a website, yours or a competitor's, to judge their quality, relevance, and risk. It reviews referring domains, anchor text, and link type to guide link building and flag potentially harmful links.
backlink audit A backlink audit is a systematic review of every domain and page linking to your site, checking each link's quality, relevance, and risk. It surfaces spammy or manipulative links that could trigger a Google penalty, plus healthy links worth protecting or building more of.
backlink checker A backlink checker is an SEO tool that reports which external pages and domains link to a given site, along with anchor text, referring-domain counts, and follow/nofollow status. It works from a crawler-built link index (Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz) or from your own confirmed links in Google Search Console.
backlink index A backlink index is the record of the backlinks a search engine has discovered, crawled, and stored. A link only influences rankings after Google crawls the page it sits on and keeps that page in its index; links on pages Google never crawls, or drops, pass little or no signal.
backlink monitoring Backlink monitoring is the ongoing tracking of the external links pointing to your site: the new referring domains you gain, the links you lose or that break, and any spammy spikes. It catches lost links early enough to recover them and flags toxic patterns before they hurt rankings.
backlink profile A backlink profile is the complete set of links pointing to a website, seen as a whole: how many referring domains link to you, from which sites, with what anchor text, and whether the pattern looks natural or manipulated. Search engines read it as an aggregate trust signal.
bad neighborhood In SEO, a bad neighborhood is a cluster of low-trust, spammy sites (link farms, PBNs, scraper pages, and "pills, porn, casino" domains) that exist mainly to manipulate rankings. Linking to them, or sitting among them in your backlink profile, signals to Google that your links are not trustworthy.
blog comment backlinks Blog comment backlinks are links placed in the comment sections of blog posts, forums, or community threads, usually by a visitor rather than the site's editor. Google treats them as user-generated content and generally does not count them as ranking votes.
blogger outreach Blogger outreach is the practice of contacting bloggers, editors, and site owners to pitch content and earn a link back to your site. It is the relationship-driven side of link building, used to place contextual links inside genuine editorial content on relevant, established sites.
brand mention A brand mention is any reference to your brand by name across the web, whether it is hyperlinked or plain text. Google does not treat unlinked mentions as links (no PageRank passes), but mentions build the entity reputation that both classic search and AI answer engines weigh.
branded anchor text Branded anchor text is a backlink's visible link text made up of a brand or domain name (for example, "SEOBRO" or "seobro.com") rather than a keyword phrase. It is the most common and lowest-risk anchor type in a link profile that grew naturally.
broken backlinks Broken backlinks are inbound links from other websites that point to a URL on your site that no longer works, usually returning a 404 (not found) or 410 (gone) error. The link still sits on the referring page, but clicks land on an error and its ranking value stops passing to you.
broken link building Broken link building is a link-building tactic where you find dead links (usually 404s) on other websites, then email the site owner suggesting your own relevant page as the replacement. It earns backlinks by fixing a real problem for the webmaster instead of just asking for a favor.
Citation Flow Citation Flow (CF) is a Majestic backlink metric scored 0 to 100 that predicts how influential a URL is based on the quantity of links pointing to it, regardless of their quality. It is one half of Majestic's Flow Metrics, paired with Trust Flow, which scores link quality.
co-citation Co-citation is when two websites or brands are mentioned together on a third-party page, which search engines can read as a signal that the two are related, even when no direct link connects them. The idea comes from academic citation analysis, not from any confirmed Google ranking factor.
co-occurrence Co-occurrence in SEO is the presence of relevant keywords in the text around a link or brand mention, not just inside the anchor itself. Search engines read that surrounding context to work out what the linked page, or the mentioned brand, is about.
competitor backlink analysis Competitor backlink analysis is the practice of studying which sites link to your rivals to find domains that link to them but not to you, then pursuing those same sites for your own backlinks. It is also called link gap analysis.
contextual link A contextual link is a hyperlink placed inside the body text of a page, surrounded by relevant content, not in a menu, sidebar, or footer. Because the words around it signal what the target page is about, search engines treat these in-content links as strong relevance signals.
digital PR Digital PR is a link building method that earns high-authority backlinks and brand coverage by pitching newsworthy stories, original data, and useful assets to journalists and publishers, so links arrive as editorial coverage rather than bought or traded placements.
directory submission Directory submission is the practice of listing a website (its URL, a short description, and business details) in a categorized online directory to earn a backlink. Google treats low-quality directory links as link spam, so only relevant, curated, or local-citation directories add real value today.
disavow To disavow is to ask Google, through Search Console's disavow links tool, to ignore specific inbound links (by URL or whole domain) when it assesses your site. It exists to neutralize spammy or manipulative backlinks tied to a manual action or a likely one, not for routine link cleanup.
disavow file A disavow file is a plain-text (.txt) list of backlink URLs or domains you upload through Google Search Console to tell Google to ignore those links when it assesses your site. Google treats it as an advanced feature that most sites never need.
dofollow link A dofollow link is a standard hyperlink that search engines follow and use to pass ranking authority (PageRank) to the linked page. It is the default for any link: there is no rel="dofollow" value, and a link only stops passing authority when someone adds rel="nofollow", "sponsored", or "ugc".
Domain Authority Domain Authority (DA) is a metric from Moz that scores a website from 1 to 100 to predict how likely it is to rank in search results, based mainly on the strength of its backlink profile. It is a third-party estimate, not a signal Google itself uses.
Domain Rating Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' 0-100 score that measures the relative strength of a website's backlink profile compared with other sites in Ahrefs' index. A higher DR means more and stronger referring domains. It is Ahrefs' own metric, not a Google ranking factor.
editorial link An editorial link is a backlink a publisher adds on its own, inside real content, because it finds the linked page genuinely useful. It is not paid for, swapped, or requested, and Google treats these earned links as the natural votes of confidence that carry the most weight.
exact match anchor text Exact match anchor text is clickable link text identical to the keyword the destination page targets, such as an anchor reading "link building services" pointing to a link building page. Google reads anchor text as a relevance signal but treats a high ratio of exact-match anchors as a link-spam pattern.
external link An external link is a hyperlink that points to a page on a different domain than the one it sits on. Seen from the page it leaves, it is an outbound link; the same link viewed from the destination site is an inbound link, or backlink.
footer link A footer link is a hyperlink placed in a website's footer, usually repeated on every page (site-wide). Internal footer links aid navigation. External, widely distributed footer links (template or "website by" credits) count as link spam under Google's policy unless marked nofollow or sponsored.
forum backlinks Forum backlinks are links to your site placed in forum threads, replies, or profile signatures. Most pass little ranking value: reputable forums tag user links with rel="ugc" or nofollow, and Google's spam policy treats keyword-stuffed forum posts and signatures as link spam.
foundation links Foundation links are basic, branded backlinks (social profiles, business directory listings, and NAP citations) that establish a site's baseline legitimacy and a natural-looking link profile before you pursue editorial links. They carry little ranking power on their own and act as a trust base, not a growth engine.
Google Penguin Google Penguin is a Google ranking system, launched in 2012 and folded into the core algorithm in 2016, that targets link spam and manipulative link building. Since Penguin 4.0 it works in real time and devalues (ignores) spammy links rather than penalizing whole sites.
guest blogging Guest blogging is writing and publishing an article on another website or blog, usually in exchange for an author byline and a link back to your own site. It is used to reach a new audience and to earn backlinks that build authority.
guest posting Guest posting is publishing an article on someone else's website, usually in exchange for a byline and a link back to your own site. It works as a link-building and brand-awareness tactic, but Google only passes ranking credit through links that are editorially earned, not paid or mass-produced.
HARO HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a journalist-query service that connects reporters seeking expert sources with people who pitch quotes in exchange for being cited, usually with an editorial backlink. The original service was discontinued in December 2024 and revived by Featured.com in April 2025.
high authority backlinks High authority backlinks are links from established, trusted websites that have strong backlink profiles of their own, as estimated by third-party scores like Ahrefs Domain Rating or Moz Domain Authority. Such links tend to pass more ranking value than links from weak or unknown domains.
hyperlink A hyperlink is a clickable reference that connects one web resource to another, letting people and crawlers move between pages. On the web it is built with an HTML anchor element (the <a> tag) whose href attribute holds the destination URL.
internal link An internal link is a hyperlink that points from one page to another page on the same website (domain). Internal links let search engines discover pages, pass ranking signals between them, and use the anchor text to understand what each linked page is about.
link building Link building is the practice of getting other websites to link to yours to grow authority and improve search rankings. Google uses links to discover pages and to judge relevance, but only editorially earned links count; buying or manipulating links breaks its link spam policies.
link building strategies Link building strategies are the methods used to earn backlinks (links from other websites) that signal authority to search engines. They range from digital PR and guest posting to linkable assets, broken link building, and unlinked-mention reclamation.
link dilution Link dilution is the loss of ranking value per link that happens when a page spreads its finite link equity across many links. A page's authority (PageRank) is divided among all its outbound links, so the more links it carries, the smaller the share each linked page receives.
link equity Link equity (also called link juice or link authority) is the ranking value one page passes to another through a hyperlink. Google treats a link as a signal of relevance and trust, so pages linked from authoritative, topically related sources tend to rank better.
link exchange A link exchange (or reciprocal linking) is an arrangement where two sites agree to link to each other. Google's spam policies treat excessive link exchanges done mainly for cross-linking as link spam, though a small number of natural reciprocal links between genuinely related sites is normal.
link farm A link farm is a group of websites built mainly to link to each other (or to a target site) so they inflate search rankings instead of serving real readers. Google classifies these links as link spam and can devalue or penalize every site in the network.
link gap A link gap (or backlink gap) is the set of referring domains that link to one or more of your competitors but not to you. Link gap analysis finds them, surfacing sites already willing to link in your niche as a ready-made list of link-building targets.
link juice Link juice is an informal SEO term for the ranking value, or authority, that one page passes to another through a hyperlink. Google confirms it uses links as a signal for a page's relevancy, so links from strong, relevant pages help the pages they point to rank.
link penalty A link penalty is a loss of Google rankings caused by manipulative backlinks that break Google's link spam policies. It arrives two ways: a manual action a reviewer applies (visible in Search Console), or algorithmic devaluation where SpamBrain ignores the offending links.
link prospecting Link prospecting is the process of finding and qualifying external sites worth pursuing for backlinks, then locating the right person to contact. It narrows a broad pool of candidate sites down to relevant, trustworthy ones by checking topical fit, traffic, and link quality before any outreach goes out.
link reclamation Link reclamation is the process of recovering backlinks you previously earned but lost, plus converting existing brand mentions into links. It targets links broken by 404s, changed URLs, removed links, or noindexed pages, restoring the ranking value those links were passing.
link rel attributes Link rel attributes are values on an HTML link's rel attribute that describe the linked page's relationship to yours. The SEO-relevant ones are nofollow, sponsored, and ugc, which tell Google not to pass ranking credit through that link. You can combine values in a space-separated list, like rel="ugc nofollow".
link roundup A link roundup is a curated blog post that collects and links out to the best recent content on a topic, usually published weekly or monthly. Getting your page featured in one earns an editorial backlink, which is why roundups are a common outreach target for link building.
link scheme A link scheme is any tactic that creates links to or from a site mainly to manipulate Google rankings, in violation of Google's spam policies. Common examples: buying or selling followed links, excessive link exchanges, and mass guest posts or private blog networks with keyword-rich anchor text.
link velocity Link velocity is the rate at which a site gains or loses backlinks over time, usually counted as new links or referring domains per month. Google's John Mueller and Gary Illyes say it is not a standalone ranking factor; what matters is link quality and how the links were acquired.
link wheel A link wheel is a black-hat link building scheme where a set of satellite sites you control all link to one central "money" site (and often to each other in a loop) to inflate its authority. Google treats link wheels as link schemes that violate its spam policies.
linkable asset A linkable asset is a piece of content built specifically to attract backlinks, such as an original study, a free tool, an interactive calculator, or a definitive guide. Because it gives other sites a reason to cite it, it earns editorial links naturally instead of relying on manual placement.
lost backlinks Lost backlinks are inbound links that used to point to your site but no longer count, because the linking page was deleted, redirected, noindexed, or edited to drop the link. They quietly shrink your backlink profile and the authority signals that search and AI answer engines rely on.
MozRank MozRank is Moz's link popularity score, a 0 to 10 logarithmic metric modeled on Google's PageRank that rates a page by the quantity and quality of links pointing to it. It is a legacy metric, largely replaced in Moz's own tools by Domain Authority and Page Authority.
naked URL anchor A naked URL anchor is a backlink whose visible anchor text is the raw URL itself (like https://example.com), not descriptive words. Google reads it as a normal link but pulls no keyword context from the anchor, so its main value is helping a link profile look natural.
natural link A natural link (also called an organic or editorial link) is an inbound link another site gives you voluntarily because your content is useful, not because you paid for, traded, or requested it. Google treats such editorial links as genuine endorsements, unlike manipulated links that break its spam rules.
negative SEO Negative SEO is the deliberate use of malicious tactics, usually floods of spammy backlinks, to hurt a competitor's search rankings. Google says it works hard to stop third-party actions from harming a site, and its SpamBrain system now ignores most spam links instead of penalizing the target.
niche edit A niche edit, also called a link insertion or curated link, is a backlink added into an existing, already-published article on another site rather than into a new post written for that link. The link sits inside relevant existing copy so it inherits that page's context.
nofollow link A nofollow link is a link carrying the rel="nofollow" attribute, which tells Google not to associate your site with the linked page or crawl it. Since 2019 Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than a strict rule, so it passes little to no ranking signal but can still send referral traffic.
outbound link An outbound link (also called an external outbound link) is a hyperlink on your page that points to a page on a different domain. It is the opposite of an internal link, which stays within your own site, and separate from a backlink, which points to your site from somewhere else.
Page Authority Page Authority (PA) is a 1 to 100 score from Moz that predicts how likely a specific webpage is to rank in search results, based mainly on its backlink profile. It is a third-party estimate from a machine learning model, not a metric Google uses to rank pages.
PageRank PageRank is Google's original link-analysis algorithm that scores a web page's importance by the quantity and quality of other pages linking to it, treating each link as a weighted vote. Created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford in 1998, it still runs inside Google's ranking systems.
paid link A paid link is a backlink obtained by paying money, goods, or services in exchange for placement. Google treats a paid link that passes ranking credit as link spam. It becomes policy-compliant only when tagged rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" so it does not pass credit.
private blog network A private blog network (PBN) is a group of websites, usually built on expired domains that still carry backlink authority, that one owner controls to plant links pointing at a "money site" and inflate its rankings. Google treats PBNs as a link scheme that violates its spam policies.
reasonable surfer model The reasonable surfer model is a Google patent (US7716225B1, granted 2010) proposing that a link passes weight in proportion to how likely a real user is to click it. Position, font, anchor text, and surrounding context change a link's value, so not every link on a page counts equally.
reciprocal link A reciprocal link is a mutual exchange where two sites agree to link to each other ("you link me, I link you"). Google's spam policies treat excessive link exchanges made mainly to manipulate rankings as link spam, though mutual links that occur naturally between related sites are normal.
referring domain A referring domain is a unique website that links to yours at least once, no matter how many individual backlinks it sends. If The New York Times links to you three times, that counts as three backlinks but still only one referring domain.
resource page link building Resource page link building is the practice of earning backlinks from curated "resources" or "useful links" pages that a site maintains for its audience. You find topically relevant resource pages, confirm your content deserves a spot, then email the owner suggesting they add it.
skyscraper technique The skyscraper technique is a link-building tactic where you find a page that already earns many backlinks, publish a clearly better version of it, then email the sites linking to the original and ask them to link to yours instead.
social bookmarking Social bookmarking is the practice of saving a web page's link to a public bookmarking site (Reddit, Pinterest, Mix) where others can find, tag, and vote on it. Nearly all these links are nofollow, so they pass no direct ranking authority; their real value is referral clicks and faster content discovery.
spam links Spam links are links created to or from a site mainly to manipulate search rankings rather than help users. Google's spam policies treat them as a violation, and systems like SpamBrain nullify the ranking credit they pass, so they add no lasting value and can trigger penalties.
Spam Score Spam Score is a Moz metric, shown as a 1-100% value, that estimates how closely a domain resembles websites Google has penalized or banned. It is built from 27 machine-learned flags and reflects correlation, not causation. It is not a Google ranking factor.
sponsored link A sponsored link is an outbound link tagged with the rel="sponsored" attribute, which tells Google the link exists because of advertising, a sponsorship, or another paid arrangement. Google introduced it in 2019 and treats it, like nofollow, as a hint not to pass ranking credit.
sponsored post A sponsored post is an article a brand pays a publisher to run, usually to reach that audience and earn a link back. Google requires any paid link inside it to carry rel="sponsored" (or rel="nofollow") so the link does not pass ranking credit.
three-way link exchange A three-way link exchange (ABC linking) is a link scheme where three sites trade links in a loop: Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, and Site C links back to Site A. The detour through a third site hides the reciprocity a direct A-to-B, B-to-A swap would expose.
tiered link building Tiered link building arranges backlinks in layers: tier 1 links point at your site, tier 2 links point at those tier 1 links to strengthen them, and tier 3 points at tier 2. Google treats the automated, low-quality versions as link spam.
toxic backlinks A toxic backlink is a low-quality or spammy inbound link (from link schemes, paid links, spam directories, or link farms) that can hurt a site's rankings or draw a Google penalty. "Toxic" is an SEO-tool label; Google's own terms are "link spam" and "unnatural links."
Trust Flow Trust Flow is a Majestic metric, scored 0 to 100, that rates the quality and trustworthiness of the backlinks pointing to a URL or domain by their proximity to a manually reviewed set of trusted seed sites. It is a third-party score, not a Google ranking factor.
TrustRank TrustRank is a semi-automated link-analysis algorithm, from a 2004 Yahoo/Stanford paper, that fights web spam by hand-picking a small seed set of trusted sites and propagating that trust outward through their links. Pages a few hops from trusted seeds are treated as probably legitimate; pages near spam are not.
UGC link A UGC link is an outbound link tagged with the rel="ugc" attribute, which tells Google the link came from user-generated content such as a blog comment or forum post. Google introduced it in 2019 and treats it as a hint, so these links are generally not followed and pass little ranking value.
URL Rating URL Rating (UR) is Ahrefs' 0 to 100 logarithmic score of a single page's backlink strength, where a higher number means a stronger link profile. It counts both internal and external links pointing to that URL and, per Ahrefs, correlates positively with Google rankings.
web 2.0 backlinks Web 2.0 backlinks are links you place yourself on free publishing platforms like WordPress.com, Blogger, Tumblr, or Medium, where you create a page on the host's subdomain that links back to your site. Because you control them, they are self-made links, not independent editorial votes.
white hat link building White hat link building is acquiring backlinks with methods that follow Google's spam policies: earning editorial links through genuinely useful content, original research, and digital PR instead of buying links or joining link schemes. Paid or sponsored links are allowed only when tagged rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".

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