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Link exchange glossary

Updated

Link building has its own jargon. Here are the terms you will come across, in plain words.

Anchor text
The clickable words of a link. Natural anchor text is a site's name or a plain description; the same keyword on every link looks arranged.
A link from another website to yours, also called an inbound link. Search engines see backlinks from relevant sites as recommendations.
Dofollow
An informal name for a normal link without a rel attribute like nofollow. There is no actual "dofollow" attribute in HTML.
Domain authority
A score made up by SEO tool companies to estimate how strong a site's links are. It is not a Google measure, and Google does not use it.
A link from one page of your site to another page of the same site. Internal links help visitors and search engines find their way around.
Everything you do to get other sites to link to yours: creating content worth linking to, outreach, directories and link exchanges.
Two site owners agree to link to each other. Between related sites it is normal; done in bulk only for rankings, search engines see it as link spam.
A group of sites or pages that exist only to link to each other or to sell links. Links from link farms are worthless and can harm your site.
The value a link passes on to the page it points to, sometimes called "link juice". A link from a relevant, trusted page passes more.
A site you exchange links with. A good link partner has content that fits yours and visitors who would welcome your link.
Google's term for links made mainly to manipulate rankings, such as paid links without the right attributes and excessive link exchanges.
Nofollow
A rel attribute value (rel="nofollow") that tells search engines you do not vouch for the link. Since 2019 Google treats it as a hint.
A link that is not answered by a link back. One-way links that people give freely are the links search engines value most.
A link from your site to another site. Linkorado limits how many outbound links a link page may have, so your link stays visible.
Private blog network (PBN)
A set of websites owned by one party and used only to link to its own or its clients' sites. A classic link scheme.
A link that is answered by a link back: you link to me, I link to you. The result of a link exchange.
A rel attribute value (rel="sponsored") for links that are paid for, such as adverts and affiliate links. Google asks for it on paid links.
Site A links to B, B links to C, and C links to A, to make an exchange harder to spot. Search engines treat it as a link scheme.
UGC
Short for user-generated content. The rel="ugc" value marks links your visitors added, for example in comments, reviews or forum posts.

More background: Nofollow, ugc and sponsored links explained and Reciprocal links versus one-way links.

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