Backlink & SEO glossary
Plain-English definitions for the terms we use across the tools, methodology, and blog.
- Anchor text
- The clickable words of a hyperlink. A key relevance signal to search engines — and a common target of manipulation. Learn more →
- Backlink
- A link from one website to another. Google treats links from relevant, reputable pages as one of many signals, though it has heavily de-emphasized links built purely for manipulation. Learn more →
- Branded anchor
- An anchor that is your brand or domain name (e.g. "BacklinkingTools"). Natural profiles are usually dominated by branded anchors. Learn more →
- Exact-match anchor
- An anchor that is exactly a target keyword (e.g. "backlink checker"). Low single-digit shares are natural; high shares are a classic over-optimization signal. Learn more →
- Partial-match anchor
- An anchor containing a keyword plus other words (e.g. "free backlink checker"). A safe way to keep some keyword relevance without over-optimization. Learn more →
- Naked URL
- A link whose anchor is the URL itself (https://backlinkingtools.com). Common in citations, bios, and comments. Learn more →
- Dofollow / nofollow
- Nofollow (and rel="sponsored"/"ugc") instructs crawlers not to pass ranking credit. Most links from forums, comments, and social media are nofollow. Learn more →
- Referring domain
- A unique domain that links to you. 100 links from 1 domain count as 1 referring domain — diversity matters. Learn more →
- Link equity
- The ranking signal a link passes (the "PageRank" concept). Passed only by followed, indexable links from pages Google trusts. Learn more →
- Link velocity
- The rate at which you gain or lose links over time. Sudden spikes look unnatural; steady decline signals decay. Learn more →
- Toxic link
- A link Google likely ignores or distrusts — from spammy, irrelevant, or manipulative sources. Since the December 2022 link spam update, Google neutralizes these automatically via SpamBrain. Learn more →
- SpamBrain
- Google’s AI-based spam-prevention system. Since 2022 it detects sites buying links and sites built to pass outgoing links, and nullifies their impact. Learn more →
- Disavow file
- A plain-text file uploaded in Search Console asking Google to ignore specific links or domains. Google says most sites never need one. Learn more →
- Manual action
- A penalty applied by a human reviewer at Google, shown in Search Console. Unnatural-link manual actions are the main legitimate reason to disavow. Learn more →
- Penguin
- The historical Google algorithm (2012) that targeted link spam. Its approach was later folded into Google’s core ranking systems. Learn more →
- Link gap analysis
- Comparing the backlinks of competitors against your own to find sites that link to them but not to you. Learn more →
- Broken link building
- Finding dead outbound links on relevant sites and pitching your content as a replacement. Learn more →
- Skyscraper technique
- Finding content with many links, making something clearly better, and asking those linkers to switch. Learn more →
- Guest posting
- Writing an article for another site in exchange for a byline/link. Legitimate when content is original and links are natural; risky when done at scale purely for links. Learn more →
- Private blog network (PBN)
- A network of sites built solely to link to a target site. Against Google’s spam policies and routinely detected. Learn more →
- Topical relevance
- How closely a linking page’s topic matches yours. A link from a relevant page in your niche is worth more than an unrelated one. Learn more →
- Trust Flow / Citation Flow
- Majestic’s metrics: Trust Flow estimates link quality, Citation Flow estimates link quantity. Learn more →
- noindex
- A robots directive telling search engines not to index a page. A noindex page can still accumulate links, but passes no value. Learn more →
- 301 redirect
- A permanent redirect that consolidates signals (including most link equity) to the destination URL. Learn more →