A
- Anchor Text
- The clickable words of a hyperlink. Search engines read anchor text as a clue about the linked page's topic, which is why we plan exact, partial, and branded anchors across a campaign.
- Authority Link
- A backlink from a website with strong, trusted link metrics, usually DR 40 or higher with real organic traffic. One authority link typically moves rankings more than many weak ones.
- Author Bio Link
- A link placed in the author biography box at the end of a guest post rather than inside the article body. It carries less ranking weight than a contextual link, so we treat it as a bonus, not the deliverable.
B
- Backlink
- A hyperlink from one website to another. Search engines count backlinks as votes of confidence, which is why earning them from real sites is the core of off-page SEO.
- Backlink Profile
- The complete set of links pointing to a website, including their anchors, sources, and quality. Auditing a backlink profile is the first step before any outreach campaign.
- Brand Mention
- A reference to a brand by name on another website, with or without a link. Unlinked mentions can sometimes be converted into links by contacting the publisher.
C
- Citation
- An online mention of a business name, address, and phone number, with or without a link. Citations are a local SEO staple because they confirm a business is real and established.
- Contextual Link
- A backlink placed naturally inside the body of an article, surrounded by relevant text. Contextual links are the standard deliverable in guest posting because they read as genuine editorial references.
- Co-citation
- When two websites are mentioned together across the web without necessarily linking to each other. Search engines may use co-citation as a soft relevance signal.
D
- Dofollow
- A link that passes ranking credit from the linking page to the linked page, which is the default state of a normal hyperlink. Dofollow is what campaigns target; nofollow, sponsored, and UGC links do not pass the same credit.
- Domain Authority (DA)
- Moz's 0-100 score estimating how likely a domain is to rank. It is a third-party metric, not a Google signal, and we use it only as an initial screening filter.
- Domain Rating (DR)
- Ahrefs' 0-100 score measuring the strength of a domain's backlink profile. Our publisher standards require DR 40 to 90, always confirmed with real traffic data.
- Disavow
- A Google Search Console tool that tells Google to ignore specific backlinks pointing to your site. It is a cleanup measure for toxic links, not something a clean outreach campaign should ever need.
E
- Editorial Link
- A backlink a publisher adds because the content genuinely deserves the reference, as opposed to a paid or self-placed link. Guest posts earn editorial links when the article adds real value to the host site.
- External Link
- Any link pointing from one domain to a different domain. Backlinks are simply external links viewed from the receiving site's perspective.
G
- Guest Post
- An article written by an outside contributor and published on someone else's website, usually containing a contextual backlink to the contributor's site. It is the most controlled way to earn editorial links at scale.
- Guest Posting
- The practice of placing guest posts on relevant websites through outreach, writing, and relationship building. Done manually on real sites, it is a white hat link building method; done with spun content on PBNs, it is not.
- Google Penalty
- A ranking demotion applied manually by Google's team or triggered algorithmically, often after manipulative link schemes are detected. Manual outreach on real sites is designed to avoid ever triggering one.
H
- Homepage Link
- A backlink pointing to a website's homepage rather than an inner page. Homepage links build general domain authority, while deep links push specific pages and keywords.
- Hub Page
- A comprehensive page that links out to many related resources on a topic. Earning a link from a hub page can pass strong topical relevance along with the usual authority.
I
- Internal Link
- A link from one page to another page on the same website. Internal links distribute authority around your own site and are part of on-page SEO, not link building.
- Indexed Link
- A backlink on a page that Google has crawled and added to its index. A link only passes value once the linking page is indexed, which is why placement QA includes index checks.
- IP Diversity
- Links coming from websites hosted on different IP addresses and networks. Natural link profiles show wide IP diversity; hundreds of links from one server block is a classic PBN footprint.
J
- Journalist Outreach
- Pitching story ideas and expert quotes to journalists and editors, the core of digital PR. It earns links through newsworthiness rather than contributed articles.
K
- Keyword Anchor
- Anchor text that matches a target search phrase exactly or closely. A few exact-match anchors are normal; too many looks engineered, so we spread them across branded and natural variants.
L
- Link Building
- The practice of earning hyperlinks from other websites to improve search rankings and referral traffic. Manual outreach, digital PR, and guest posting are white hat forms of it.
- Link Equity
- The ranking value a link passes from one page to another, sometimes called link juice. Equity depends on the linking page's own authority, its relevance, and how many other links share the page.
- Link Farm
- A group of low-quality websites built solely to cross-link and inflate rankings. Links from farms are toxic, and our publisher vetting exists to keep them out of every campaign.
- Link Velocity
- The speed at which a site gains new backlinks over time. Natural profiles grow steadily; sudden spikes from hundreds of new links can look manipulated.
- Link Reclamation
- Finding unlinked brand mentions or broken links pointing at your site and asking the publisher to add or fix the link. It converts existing equity instead of building from zero.
M
- Manual Outreach
- Contacting website owners and editors personally, with researched pitches written for that specific site. It is slower than automation and dramatically more effective, and it is the only outreach method we use.
- Manual Action
- A penalty applied to a site by a human reviewer at Google, visible in Search Console. Sites hit with link-related manual actions usually bought links or used PBNs.
- Money Anchor
- Anchor text built around commercial keywords. Money anchors convert well but attract scrutiny, so we use them sparingly within a natural anchor mix.
N
- Niche Edit
- A backlink inserted into an existing article that already ranks and already receives traffic. Because the page has history, niche edits often pass value faster than brand-new guest posts.
- Niche Relevance
- How closely a linking site's topic matches your own. A link from a site in your industry carries more weight than a stronger link from an unrelated one, so we only pitch relevant publishers.
- Nofollow
- A link attribute (rel='nofollow') that tells search engines not to pass ranking credit. Nofollow links can still send referral traffic and appear in a natural profile, but they are not the goal of a campaign.
- NAP
- Name, Address, Phone number. Consistent NAP information across citations and directories is a foundational local SEO signal.
O
- Outreach
- The process of contacting publishers, editors, and bloggers to propose content or request links. In our campaigns it means researched, personalized emails, never bulk blasts.
- Organic Traffic
- Visitors who arrive at a website from unpaid search results. We verify a publisher's organic traffic before pitching because it is the hardest metric to fake.
- Outbound Link
- A link leaving a page to another website. Pages with a reasonable number of relevant outbound links look editorial; pages stuffed with dozens look sold.
P
- PBN (Private Blog Network)
- A network of websites built or bought solely to sell links, designed to look independent while under one owner's control. PBN links violate Google's guidelines, and we have a zero-tolerance policy for them.
- Placement
- A published guest post or link insertion that is live on a publisher's site. A placement is only complete after QA confirms the link is dofollow, contextual, and indexed.
- Pitch
- The email or message proposing a guest post topic to an editor. Good pitches reference the site's actual content and audience; template blasts get deleted.
- Press Link
- A backlink earned through media coverage rather than a contributed article. Press links usually come from digital PR campaigns and carry strong trust signals.
R
- Referring Domain
- A unique website that links to you at least once. SEO tools count referring domains separately from total backlinks because ten links from one site are worth far less than ten links from ten sites.
- Reciprocal Link
- An exchange where two sites link to each other. A few natural reciprocal links are normal; organized three-way exchanges are a manipulation signal.
- Resource Page Link
- A backlink from a page that curates helpful resources on a topic. Resource pages are strong editorial targets because every link on them is a deliberate recommendation.
- Rel='sponsored'
- A link attribute marking a link as part of a sponsorship or advertisement. Google requires paid links to carry it; our placements are earned editorially, not bought.
S
- Sponsored Link
- A backlink paid for as advertising, which Google requires to be marked rel='sponsored'. Buying dofollow links without disclosure violates Google's spam policies.
- Sitewide Link
- A link that appears on every page of a website, usually in the footer or sidebar. Sitewide links can look unnatural in large numbers and are not our standard placement.
- Spam Score
- Moz's metric estimating how likely a site is to be penalized, based on flags it shares with known spam sites. High spam scores disqualify a publisher during our vetting.
T
- Topical Relevance
- The degree to which a linking page's subject matter matches the linked page's subject. Topical relevance is why we pitch SaaS sites for SaaS clients and legal blogs for law firms.
- Tiered Link Building
- Building links to the pages that link to you, creating layers of link equity. It is an advanced tactic we use selectively, never with low-quality tiers.
- Referral Traffic
- Visitors who click through to your site from a backlink. Beyond rankings, referral traffic is the direct business value of being mentioned on sites your buyers actually read.
U
- UGC Attribute
- The rel='ugc' link attribute marking user-generated content such as comments and forum posts. Like nofollow, it does not pass full ranking credit.
- Unlinked Mention
- A reference to your brand on another site without a hyperlink. Outreach can often convert unlinked mentions into links with a short, polite request.
V
- Vetting (Publisher Vetting)
- The process of checking a website's traffic, content quality, ownership, and link profile before pitching. Our vetting standards are published openly on our publisher standards page.
W
- White Label
- Delivering a service under another company's brand. Our agency partners sell link building as their own while we handle outreach, writing, and reporting invisibly.
- White Hat
- SEO practices that follow search engine guidelines, such as earning editorial links through genuine outreach. Every GuestProx campaign is 100 percent white hat.
Y
- YMYL (Your Money Your Life)
- Google's category for pages about health, finance, and safety, held to higher quality standards. YMYL niches need links from especially trustworthy publishers, which raises the bar for outreach.
