Fourteen terms, one comparison each
Read across: term, plain meaning, the retail picture.| Term | Plain meaning | On the shop floor |
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| Backlink | A link from another site to yours | A stockist recommending you by name |
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| Donor | The site that carries the link | The stockist's shop |
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| Target URL | The page the link points to | The shelf the recommendation sends people to |
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| Anchor text | The clickable words of the link | The words on the sign |
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| Dofollow | A link that can pass authority | A recommendation Google is allowed to count |
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| Nofollow, sponsored, UGC | Link attributes that tell Google to treat the link differently | A recommendation with a footnote |
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| Domain Rating | Ahrefs' 0 to 100 score for a site's link strength | A stockist's reputation grade |
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| Organic traffic | Visits from unpaid search | Footfall that arrived on its own |
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| Referring domains | Distinct sites linking to a site | How many different stockists vouch for you |
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| Editorial placement | A link inside an article written around it | A feature in the shop's newsletter |
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| Link insertion | A link added to an article that already exists | A new sticker on an older display |
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| Link velocity | How fast links arrive | Delivery pace of a shipment |
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| Content hub | A cluster of guides on your own site | The advice counter next to the till |
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| Money page | A page that sells directly | The shelf with the price tags |
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Tier 2 links, because everyone asks
Tier 2 links, also called 2nd tier links, are links pointing at a page that itself links to you. Tier 1 is the page that mentions your guide, and tier 2 is whatever points at that page.
In shop terms: you ask the stockist to be recommended by someone else. In theory it passes strength down the chain. Sounds neat. In practice, most tier 2 packages are bulk spam aimed at a tier 1 page, which is exactly the pattern the offer teardown takes apart.
Our view for a shop? Leave it. Build solid tier 1 placements, confirm they are indexed, and only then ask whether a second layer would add anything. Most small shops never get that far, and nothing is lost.
Three terms people mix up
Ahrefs, Moz and Semrush each publish a site score, and the three are easy to confuse.
Domain Rating is Ahrefs' number, Domain Authority is Moz's, and Authority Score belongs to Semrush. They are calculated differently and should not be compared across tools.
Dofollow is a default, not a prize. Absence of a nofollow tag is all it means.
Anchor text is what you wrote, not what the page is about. An anchor of 'click here' tells the reader nothing, and an anchor of your whole keyword list tells Google something worse.
Quick answers
- Does a higher Domain Rating always mean a better link?
- No. It is a rough strength score for the whole site. A page can sit on a strong domain and still get no visits. Read it together with organic traffic, niche and language before buying anything.
- What is a natural-looking link profile?
- One with uneven timing, several kinds of donor, and varied anchors. Real mentions come from blogs, news pages, forums and customers, so a profile built from a single type stands out. See the weekly calendar.
- Can I use these terms when briefing an agency?
- Yes, and it helps. Naming the target URL, the anchor and the donor niche in your brief gets you a quote that compares cleanly. Ask for live URLs after delivery, and check them with the routine here.