Backlinks vs External Links vs Referral Links vs Outbound links
-
Hello all,
I was just wondering if you could explain the difference between all the links above? I'm confused as they all seem to be the same or similar and I would just like to clearly know what distinguishes them from eachother.
Thanks for your help,
Jayne
-
Thanks Ian - that's a great help
-
Hi there!
Let's say that you have website A, with the domain aaa.com ...
Backlinks: Any link that points to a page within website A is a backlink (at least it is from YOUR point of view). These links could come from other websites, but also from within website A
Referral Links: A referral can be a link that isn't from a crawable web. For example, a link in an email or from Facebook.
Outbound Links: Outbound links are links that are meant to take you elsewhere. These are links that are going to direct you to another specific webpage or website altogether. Most, if not all, websites have outbound links.
**External Links: **External Links are hyperlinks that point at (target) any domain other than the domain the link exists on (source). In layman's terms, if another website links to you, this is considered an external link to your site
Hope this helps!
Thanks,
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Effects of a bad link linking to a image
i am getting a lot of links from wallpapers sites.. One person has created 1000's of similar sites that are linking back to my images. My guess is images do not pass link value positive or negative. But I am not sure what the potential effects would be. Does anyone know who linking to images might effect SEO especially when there coming from horribly low quality auto generated sites.
Link Building | | KentH0 -
I've watched a few backlinks disappear from our inbound link search.
After inquiring to Moz.org about this, they suggested this might be due to a new feature that was rolled out, however, this 2 year old backlink still hasn't shown up and I'm a little concerned. Has anyone else experienced this?
Link Building | | Deacyde0 -
How does PageRank pass through a backlink on a subdomain vs. subdirectory?
Scenario 1: I earn a link on exampleblog.root.com/example-page/. The DA is 90, but it's a brand new page so PA is 0. Subdomain is also new, zero backlinks. Scenario 2: I earn a link on root.com/example-page/. The DA is 90, PA is still new so 0 for now. My assumption is that PR will flow from the homepage through the subdirectory then ultimately to my domain. If the subdomain doesn't inherit any of the root-level metrics, then should I even be worried about the DA in scenario 1? What are the seo implications between the 2 scenarios?
Link Building | | mcelano_compassknowledge.com0 -
More than one link on an external website
Just wanted to clarify my understanding of this... I'm of the understanding that if an external site has more than one link going to your site, then it is only the one link that passes value. If this is the case.... Which is the link that passes value (i.e the first link established or the link that, all factors being considered, is the most valuable for passing authority?) If a second link established on an external website comes from and goes to a different webpage than the first (and is done for the purposes of targeting and boosting a different keyword category/theme), is this then a beneficial practice? If multiple links on an external website all serve to generate solid referral traffic, will this boost rankings, and thereby be a sound practice? Thanks in advance for your help in clarifying this for me!
Link Building | | Gavo0 -
Internal Links - First Link Rule Confusion
Hello All - I would like to create a guide for my team of rules for internal links and I could use some help. My understanding is that Google only counts the first link to a page, so any crafted keyword text links within the content do not count if the page in question is linked to from the main navigation. Is this correct? For example, if the menu or drop down menu in main site nav (which exists on all pages of the site) includes a link to a particular section that will be the only one that ever counts since the menu is on every page? Example: let's say a website selling cat toys includes a drop down menu on the homepage with links to "holiday cat toys". Does this mean that no other text links in content on the site will support that page from an SEO perspective since the link is in the main nav and will always be the first one counted? In the past we have added text links in the content on the homepage to important pages on the site. It seems to work, though now I'm questing these tactics based on the first link rule. I would appreciate some advice, clarification, thoughts, etc. Thanks!
Link Building | | JBMediaGroup0 -
Backlinking
Dear community, How do you deal with website that ask for return links? Regards, Martin
Link Building | | Onlinedesignmeubel0 -
Backlink Lists
I am trying to create a valid list of backlink domain to disavow after a 50% traffic cut by Penguin......problem is I have now pulled lists from 4 tool and the lists are all different. I find a toxic domain from the tool run on LinkResearchTools and look on Google and Site Explorer and the toxic link does not even show. I look at the page and sure enough the link from year ago on a link farm is there. Is there really a rue definitive tool that will give me a list of all links? Better yet is there a tool that will help me evaluate which domain to disavow ? I want to follow Dr. Pete's advice and go slow but I am also anxious to cut ties with SEO work done by someone else in the hay day of link farm SEO and frankly looking at resent links some Bad SEO by competitors.
Link Building | | freestone0 -
Should I unify my links?
Checking at opensiteexplorer.org I can see that: mydomain.com has has DA 26, linking root domains 1, total links 22 www.mydomain.com has DA 26, linking root domains 31, total links 89 The 22 links to the non-www domain come from the same site, which I would be able to convince to change to the www domain. Is it worth doing it? Will it add up to better DA? Thanks J PS: with only 32 root domains I think I have to do some serious link building...
Link Building | | TIBA0