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The part of a webpage people see before they scroll. A backlink placed here usually gets more visibility than one buried at the bottom.

The buyer in the backlink marketplace. Usually an agency, SEO freelancer, business owner, or website owner looking to buy backlink placements.

Text that describes an image for search engines and accessibility tools. It helps Google understand what the image is about.

The clickable words in a hyperlink. Example: in “Buy shoes online”, the anchor text is “Buy shoes online”.

When a publisher needs to manually approve a backlink order before the link goes live.

A third-party metric used to estimate how strong or trustworthy a domain is for SEO.

A link from one website to another. Backlinks are a key ranking factor in SEO.

The specific spot where your backlink appears on a publisher’s website.

Unethical SEO tactics that try to trick search engines (risking penalties).

Anchor text that uses your brand name, like “FortyLinks” instead of a keyword.

A link that points to a page that no longer exists or returns an error, usually a 404.

A tag that tells search engines which version of a page is the main one. Useful when similar or duplicate pages exist.

The preferred version of a webpage when duplicate or similar content exists.

A backlink order that has been accepted or completed by the publisher.

When search engine bots (like Googlebot) visit your site to index pages.

The number of pages Google is willing to crawl on your site during a given time.

A score (developed by Moz) predicting how likely a website is to rank in search engines.

The process of telling Google to ignore certain backlinks pointing to your site.

A regular link that passes SEO value (“link juice”) to the target page.

A score from Ahrefs that measures the backlink strength of a website.

Identical or very similar content appearing on multiple pages, which can hurt SEO.

A link from your site pointing to another website.

Anchor text like “click here,” “read more,” or “visit website.” Natural, but not keyword-rich.

An article written for and published on another website, usually with a backlink included.

Publishing an article on someone else’s site in exchange for a backlink.

A backlink pointing directly to the homepage of a website.

The process where Google adds your web pages into its database after crawling.

A link from one page on your site to another page on the same site.

The search term or phrase users type into Google.

When multiple pages on the same website compete for the same keyword. Instead of helping you rank, they can confuse Google and split your SEO power.

How often a keyword appears on a page compared to the total amount of content. It used to matter more, but today the goal is natural writing, not keyword stuffing.

A metric that estimates how hard it may be to rank for a keyword. The higher the difficulty, the more authority, content quality, and backlinks you’ll usually need.

Overusing keywords in content in an attempt to manipulate rankings (bad practice).

A page created to convert visitors into leads, customers, signups, or inquiries. In SEO campaigns, backlinks often point to landing pages or supporting content.

The practice of acquiring backlinks from other websites to boost SEO.

The SEO value or authority passed from one page to another through a backlink.

When two websites agree to link to each other.

The speed at which a website gains backlinks over time. A natural pace looks safer than sudden, suspicious spikes.

A penalty applied by Google’s human review team when a site violates search guidelines. It can seriously hurt rankings until the issue is fixed.

The short description that can appear under a page title in Google search results. It doesn’t directly rank the page, but it can help improve clicks.

A tag that tells search engines what to do with a page, such as index it, noindex it, follow links, or nofollow links.

A page designed to generate revenue, leads, or sales. Examples include service pages, product pages, pricing pages, or lead-generation landing pages.

The estimated number of visitors a website gets from unpaid search results each month. In backlink buying, it’s often used as a quality signal.

Anchor text that is just the raw URL, like https://fortylinks.com. It looks natural and helps diversify a backlink profile.

A backlink that looks earned, relevant, and useful instead of forced or spammy. Natural links are usually placed in context and make sense for the reader.

A backlink inserted into an already published article. Also called a link insertion.

A link with a rel="nofollow" tag that tells search engines not to pass link equity.

A tag that tells search engines not to show a page in search results. A backlink on a noindexed page usually won’t give much SEO value.

Visitors who find your website naturally through search engines, not paid ads.

The process of contacting website owners/editors to request backlinks.

A Moz metric predicting how likely a single page is to rank.

Google’s original link-based ranking system. It measured the importance of pages based on the links pointing to them.

Anchor text that includes part of your target keyword, but not the exact full keyword. It’s usually safer and more natural than using exact match anchors every time.

A group of websites created for the sole purpose of building backlinks. Risky for SEO.

Visitors who are actually relevant to your business or offer. In SEO, quality traffic matters more than random clicks.

Visitors who come to your website through a link on another site.

The estimated number of times a keyword is searched in a specific period. Higher volume means more potential traffic, but usually more competition too.

The page you see after entering a search query on Google.

A file that lists all the important pages of a website, helping search engines crawl them.

Low-quality or manipulative backlinks that can harm rankings.

A backlink from a suspicious or low-quality site that could hurt SEO.

Ethical SEO techniques that follow search engine guidelines.