Link building glossary
The vocabulary of link acquisition, defined the way we use it across LinkRobin's product and guides.
Terms
Backlink
A link on another website pointing to a page on yours.
Anchor text
The visible, clickable words of a link. It tells readers, search engines and AI systems what the linked page is about.
Referring domain
A unique website that links to you at least once. Ten links from one site are still one referring domain.
rel attribute
A value on a link such as nofollow, sponsored or ugc that tells search engines how the publisher wants the link treated.
Domain authority
A third party estimate of how strong a domain's link profile looks. It is a vendor metric, not a Google ranking factor.
Editorial link
A link a publisher added because they chose to reference you, without payment or exchange.
Link scheme
Buying, selling or exchanging links to manipulate rankings. Prohibited by Google's spam policies.
Niche edit
A link inserted into an existing published article. Legitimate when the editor adds it because it improves the piece; a link scheme when it is bought.
Link reclamation
Recovering links you already earned that now point at a broken, redirected or moved URL.
Unlinked mention
A page that names your brand, product or people without linking to you.
Linkable asset
Something on your site worth referencing on its own: original data, a tool, a template, a thorough guide.
Digital PR
Earning coverage and links by giving journalists something newsworthy, usually original data or a story.
Outreach
Contacting the person responsible for a specific page to propose a link, a correction or a contribution.
Prospect
A specific page, and the person behind it, that could reasonably link to you.
Search footprint
A repeatable search pattern used to surface one kind of page within a topic.
Link verification
Fetching the live page to confirm a link exists, reading its anchor and rel attribute, and recording dated evidence.
White hat link building
Earning links within search engine guidelines, by giving publishers a genuine reason to reference you.
AI search visibility
Whether AI answer systems encounter and cite your pages. It depends on the same open web crawling and referencing as classic search, and cannot be guaranteed.