Link building glossary
If you are buying backlinks for a SaaS site, the jargon gets in the way fast. This glossary explains DR, DA, anchor text, niche edits, link equity, indexation, and the rest in language a founder can read in one pass, with links to go deeper.
Buying links should not require a second language. But the moment you open a backlink listing, you hit a wall of acronyms: DR, DA, RD, dofollow, anchor, niche edit, velocity. Most of them are simple ideas dressed up in shorthand.
This page collects the terms that actually matter when you are deciding whether a link is worth your money. The definitions are short and practical, written from the buyer's seat rather than the textbook. Where a term deserves a full breakdown, we link to the deep-dive post so you can keep going.
If you only learn three things here, learn these: a link's value comes from the real organic traffic of the page it sits on, not just its DR score; a backlink does nothing for you until Google indexes it; and natural-looking anchor text keeps you out of trouble. Everything below supports those three ideas.
Start here. These are the words you will see on every listing and in every link building conversation.
A link on another website that points to your site. It is the vote of confidence search engines use to gauge trust and authority. The whole game is earning or buying backlinks from pages people actually visit. See [types of backlinks](/blog/types-of-backlinks).
Ahrefs' 0 to 100 score estimating the strength of a domain's backlink profile. Useful as a rough filter, easy to inflate, and never the whole story. Full breakdown in [Domain Rating explained](/blog/domain-rating-dr-explained-good-dr-how-its-gamed).
Moz's competing 0 to 100 metric, similar idea to DR but calculated differently, so the two rarely match. Treat both as directional. Compare them in [DA vs DR](/blog/domain-authority-da-vs-dr-moz-vs-ahrefs).
The clickable words a link is wrapped in. Anchors signal context to Google, so the mix of branded, exact-match, and generic anchors matters a lot for safety. Start with [anchor text optimization](/blog/anchor-text-optimization).
A backlink added into an existing, already-indexed article on a relevant site, rather than a new post. Faster and often cheaper than a guest post. See [niche edits and link insertions](/blog/niche-edits-link-insertions).
A brand-new article you place on a host site that includes a link back to you. The classic, controllable way to buy a contextual link. Learn the craft in [guest posting for SaaS](/blog/guest-posting-for-saas).
A dofollow link passes ranking signals (link equity); a nofollow link tells Google not to pass them. A healthy profile has mostly dofollow with some natural nofollow mixed in.
The ranking value, sometimes called 'link juice', that a link passes from one page to another. How much flows depends on the linking page's authority, relevance, and traffic. Full guide: [link equity for SaaS](/blog/link-equity-guide-saas).
Whether Google has crawled a page and added it to its index. An unindexed backlink is invisible and passes nothing, which is why we track every order to indexed. See [backlink indexing](/blog/backlink-indexing).
The numbers on a listing, and what they really tell you about a link's worth.
The count of unique websites linking to a domain. Generally a more honest authority signal than raw backlink count, since 100 links from one site count as a single referring domain.
The estimated monthly search visitors a site or page receives. The single best signal that a site is real and worth buying from. Read [organic traffic vs DR/DA](/blog/organic-traffic-vs-dr-da-when-buying-links).
How closely a linking site's subject matter matches yours. A link from a SaaS or marketing site beats a higher-DR link from an unrelated site for [topical authority](/blog/topical-authority-for-saas).
A vendor metric flagging patterns common to low-quality or manipulative sites. Useful as a warning light, not a verdict. Pair it with a manual look for [fake traffic and PBNs](/blog/how-to-spot-fake-traffic-pbns-and-link-farms).
A network of sites built solely to sell links and manipulate rankings. A clear Google violation and a fast way to a penalty. We refuse them; learn to [spot them](/blog/how-to-spot-fake-traffic-pbns-and-link-farms).
Ahrefs' estimate of what a site's organic traffic would cost if bought through ads. A handy sanity check on whether a domain's traffic is genuine and commercially meaningful.
The vocabulary around staying on the right side of Google.
An anchor that is your target keyword word-for-word. Powerful but risky in volume; too many is a classic over-optimization signal. See [exact-match anchor text](/blog/exact-match-anchor-text-how-much-is-too-much).
An anchor that is your brand or domain name. The safest, most natural anchor type and the backbone of a healthy profile. Read [branded anchor text strategy](/blog/branded-anchor-text-strategy-saas).
The pace at which you acquire new backlinks over time. Sudden unnatural spikes can look manipulative. What is safe is covered in [link velocity](/blog/link-velocity-how-many-links-per-month-is-safe).
A demotion applied when Google decides your links are manipulative, either by algorithm or a human reviewer. Recovery is slow. See the [link spam penalty recovery guide](/blog/google-link-spam-penalty-recovery-guide).
The full collection of backlinks pointing at your site, viewed as a whole: the mix of anchors, link types, referring domains, and velocity. Google judges the pattern, not just individual links.
Our promise that if a link we place is not indexed by Google within 30 days, we make it right. The full terms are in the [30-day indexation guarantee explained](/blog/30-day-indexation-guarantee-explained).
Browse vetted, real-traffic SaaS-relevant sites, fund a wallet, and track every order to indexed with a 30-day guarantee. No retainer, no lock-in.