If you work with link reports, you need to distinguish the recorded link data from the opportunity you still have to qualify. Terms used across this site when discussing links, prospects and outreach research.
Backlink
A link on one website pointing to another. The page carrying the link is the referring page, and its site is the referring domain.
One referring domain can carry many backlinks to you. Backlink and referring-domain counts describe different things. Referring-domain count is usually more meaningful: fifty links from one site differ from fifty links from fifty sites.
Observed link
A link that was seen in collected data. This site uses the phrase deliberately.
"No observed link" is a weaker statement than "no link". It means none was seen when the data was collected, which can also happen because the page changed, because it was not collected, or because the link is rendered in a way that was not captured.
The practical rule: open the current page before acting on the absence of a link, particularly before telling a publisher they have not linked to you.
Link gap
A comparison between your site and competitor sites, returning sites with an observed link to those competitors and no observed link to yours.
The gap is a starting list rather than a set of available opportunities. A directory listing three competitors and not you may require membership, past awards, or a partnership. The report shows the difference and not the reason for it.
The competitor set decides the result more than any other input, which is covered in how competitor selection affects a backlink gap report.
Unlinked mention
A page that names your business without an observed link to its website.
These usually form the highest-yield outreach list available, because the publisher has already decided you are worth naming. The request is small and specific rather than a pitch.
Check the current page first. A link may have been added since the page was collected, and asking for one that already exists is the fastest way to be ignored.
Prospect
A page or site that might carry a placement: a guest contribution page, a resource list, an expert roundup, a podcast, an industry directory, an award program, a speaking submission.
A prospect is a candidate, not an opportunity. It becomes an opportunity once you have checked that it is relevant, that it accepts what you would offer, and that its requirements are ones you can meet.
Opportunity type
The type of placement rather than its subject. Searching by type asks where you could appear; searching by keyword asks which pages mention a phrase.
The difference matters because a competitor backlink analysis can only find placements competitors already took. If nobody in your market has appeared on a relevant podcast, that podcast never appears in a gap report.
Host, www variant and registrable domain
Three different things that are frequently treated as one, and the source of most confusion in link data.
- The registrable domain is
example.com. - The host is the hostname asked about, which may be
example.comorblog.example.com. - The www variant is
www.example.com.
A host and its www variant are counted separately in a link graph and their numbers do not agree. Subdomains are separate too: blog.example.com and example.com are distinct hosts, so a site whose content lives on a subdomain must be looked up by that subdomain.
This is why link graph reports show all three levels together rather than choosing one.
PageRank
A measure of a page or host's position in a link graph, derived from the pattern of links pointing at it.
Always name the dataset and implementation when interpreting a value, because the term describes a family of calculations rather than one number. A PageRank figure from one dataset is not comparable with a figure from another, and neither is the figure any search engine uses internally.
Used properly, it compares sites with one another within the same dataset, and compares one site with its own past.
PRoT
PageRank over Time. The PageRank values for every month held in the graph added together, describing how strong a site has been across the period rather than how strong it is now.
The distinction that matters when filtering a prospect list: a high current PageRank can come from a recent rise, while a high PRoT indicates a sustained record. Two sites with identical current values can have very different PRoT values.
It appears as a minimum domain or host filter in the opportunity and brand page reports. The Link Graph pages show PageRank only, so the monthly chart is where the shape behind a PRoT value is visible.
Indexed date and published date
The indexed date is when a document entered a collection. The published date is when its publisher put it online.
They are often far apart, and a result appearing in today's report is not evidence that it was published recently. A page found today may have existed for years.
Referring page context
Why a page links to a site, which is not stored in any link count and has to be read.
Three competitors appearing together on one page usually means there is a condition they all satisfied. Finding that condition is the difference between a prospect list and a plan.
Contact route
What a website publishes about how to reach it: a contact page, a submissions form, an editorial address, a phone number, a social profile.
A contact route is not a verified address, and it is not a named individual. Sites accepting contributions usually state how they want to be approached, and following the stated route generally works better than reaching past it.
Keep these distinctions in view when reviewing a prospect list. They help you identify what the data establishes and what needs a page check.
See how to evaluate a prospect or distinguishing mentions, links and opportunities.