What is Referring Domain?
A unique site linking to you. Domain diversity matters more than raw link counts: 100 links from one site look like one relationship, not 100 votes.
Related terms
Backlink
A link from another site to yours, still the strongest authority signal at page level. One relevant editorial link beats dozens of low-quality ones, and aged links decay as sources disappear.
Domain Rating (DR)
Ahrefs’ 0–100 measure of a site’s backlink strength. Like all third-party scores it approximates authority; it does not confer topical relevance.
Link Velocity
The rate at which a site gains (or loses) links over time. Unnatural spikes invite scrutiny; steady earned growth alongside real coverage is the healthy pattern.
Off-Page SEO
Everything that builds a site’s reputation elsewhere: backlinks, mentions, reviews, and digital PR. Off-page signals validate what on-page content claims about expertise.
Link Equity
The ranking value passed through a link, shaped by the source’s authority, relevance, and number of outbound links. Internal links distribute equity; external links earn it.
PageRank
Google’s original link-graph algorithm scoring pages by the quantity and quality of inbound links. Still conceptually alive inside modern systems, even though the public score is long dead.