This section is a quick reference guide for a range of terms used in this book that are
specifically related to link building.
Anchor text – part of a link that is clickable for the user, usually highlighted in a different
colour and underlined.
AC Rank – standing for “A citation rank” this is a metric used by Majestic SEO to give a value to
a particular page based on the number of domains linking to it. It is measured from 0 – 15
with 15 being the highest.
Advanced search query – a query that you can use to tell the search engines to return a
specific set of results compared to standard keyword searches.
AuthorRank – also known as AgentRank, a value assigned to a document based on the
reputation of it’s author, perhaps changing the way that document ranks and the amount of
link equity it can pass to other pages.
Authority – Often used to describe a website or a person who is influential in their field of
work.
Branded keywords – Keywords that include the name of a brand, company or website.
Broken link – a link that when clicked on or crawled by a search engine returns an error code
such as 404, 410 or 503.
Cached page – the version of a web page or document stored by the search engines on their
servers.
Commercial keywords – Keywords that include words that a particular website wants to rank
for that are not it’s own brand name.
Content – the information on pages of a website, can include text, images, videos, audio files
etc.
Crawling – refers to search engines bots (or spiders) that moving around the web, collecting
Deep link – a link that points to any page except the homepage of a domain.
De-indexed - when a particular page is not in the index of a search engine, usually meaning it
will not appear in search results.
Directory – a website that collects and categories lists of links to websites.
Domain authority – refers to how strong a domain is by looking at the number of quality links
pointing at it. Commonly referring to a metric used by SEOmoz to measure the strength of a
domain, giving it a score between 0 – 100 with 100 being the highest.
External link – a link on a domain that points to another domain.
Followed links – links that the search engines count in their link graph of the web.
Footprints – often referring to patterns displayed by various links that are similar to each
other. Can be used to identify link networks or automated links.
Guest posting – writing a piece of content for a domain that is not yours and giving it to them
in return for a link to the domain that you do own.
HTTP status code – the response code returned to a search engine crawler or web browser
when a page is loaded. Most common codes include 200, 301, 302, 404 and 500.
Inbound link – a link from another domain pointing at your domain.
Infographic – a visualization of data or information into an easy to consume form than text
content.
IP address – stands for Internet Protocol address. Every computer connected to the Internet
has a unique number assigned to it that is known as an IP address.
Link bait – a piece of content created with the specific purpose of attracting inbound links or
attention.
Link building – the process of acquiring links from other domains to your own, usually
through some intentional or passive activity.
Link profile – a list of links pointing at a single domain.
Link removal – the process of removing links to a domain.
MozRank – a metric used by SEOmoz to determine the strength of a domain based on the
quantity and quality of links pointing at it.
Negative SEO – the practice of building low quality links to a domain that you do not own,
with the goal of reducing it’s organic search rankings.
Nofollow link – a link that is not counted by the search engines in their link graph.
Page authority – the strength of a single page on a domain, commonly referring to a metric
created by SEOmoz which assigns a score between 0 – 100 based on the quantity and quality
of links pointing at it.
PageRank – invented by Larry Page, this is what Google use to measure the strength of a
page, based on the quantity and quality of links pointing at it.
Paid links – links that are acquiring by exchanging money.
Penalty – refers to the search engines reducing the rankings of a particular page or domain
because of violating their guidelines. Can be manual or algorithmic.
Penguin – a Google update first launched in April 2012 focusing on reducing the rankings of
websites that had been over-optimised.
Reconsideration request – sent by a Webmaster to Google if their website has had a penalty
applied to it, in the hope of having that penalty lifted.
Redirect – used to direct users and search engines to a different location to the link they
originally tried to visit. Usually with a HTTP status code of 301 or 302.
Sitewide links – external links that are placed on every (or the majority) of pages on a
website. Common examples include blogroll links or footer links.
Spam links – links that are not editorially controlled, produced in large numbers and
automated by software. Usually add no value for real users.
Toolbar PageRank – The PageRank seen by users, not the actual PageRank of a page. Usually
updated by Google every few months.
Unnatural link warnings – messages sent by Google to Webmasters to inform them of the
presence of what they believe to be unnatural (also known as low quality or spam) links.
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