Off-Page SEO & Links

Backlink

Quick Definition

A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Backlinks remain one of the top three ranking signals.

In context

Quality matters far more than quantity. A single editorial link from a major Canadian publication is worth thousands of forum links. Earned, relevant, contextual backlinks are the only kind that move rankings sustainably.

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Related terms

Authority Score

Authority Score is Semrush's 0–100 metric for domain strength, similar to Moz's Domain Authority and Ahrefs's Domain Rating.

Editorial Link

An editorial link is a backlink earned naturally because a publisher chose to link to your content as a citation or reference.

Paid Link

A paid link is any link acquired in exchange for money or other consideration. Paid links must be marked rel='sponsored' or rel='nofollow'.

URL Rating (UR)

URL Rating is Ahrefs's per-page version of Domain Rating — a 0–100 score for individual page backlink strength.

Domain Rating (DR)

Domain Rating is Ahrefs's 0–100 metric for domain backlink strength on a logarithmic scale.

Co-Citation

Co-citation occurs when two sites are mentioned in the same article without linking to each other, signalling topical association to search engines.

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