Off-Page SEO & Links

Negative SEO

Quick Definition

Negative SEO is the practice of deliberately harming a competitor's rankings by directing spammy links, scraping content, or other manipulation.

In context

Google's algorithms now ignore most negative SEO attacks automatically. Disavow only when there's clear evidence of an attack and ranking impact. Most negative SEO panic is overblown.

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Related terms

PageRank

PageRank is Google's original link analysis algorithm that estimates page importance based on the quantity and quality of inbound links.

Backlink Profile

A backlink profile is the complete set of links pointing to a domain, including their source, authority, anchor text, and topical relevance.

Domain Rating (DR)

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

Link Reclamation

Link reclamation finds existing brand mentions or broken backlinks and converts them into proper, working links.

Link Building

Link building is the process of earning or acquiring backlinks from other websites to improve search rankings.

Editorial Link

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

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