How are referring domains different from backlinks?

When discussing SEO, you will likely hear two terms: referring domains and backlinks. So, what do they mean? Is one better than the other? Let’s take a look!

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What Are Backlinks?

Backlinks is probably the term that you hear most often when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO).

A backlink is a link to a website. That’s it. If you have a link on another website or even a page on your site, then you providing a backlink to that website or a page.

Backlinks are vital for boosting your position in the search engines. This is because search engines, like Google, see a lot of quality backlinks as an indicator that the site is pretty reputable. After all, why would a site get a ton of backlinks if it wasn’t a good website?

This means that, when you are engaging in SEO, the bulk of your time will be spent on link building. The more you get, the higher you climb the searches. Well, sort of. The link must be a good link. This means that it must come from a non-spammy website that is roughly in the same niche as yours.

Backlinks can come from a ton of different places. This includes:

Blogs in the same niche as yours
Forums
Social media (including Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit)
Your own website
Wikipedia
Government websites, etc.

Not all links will hold the same value, though. This is why it is ever so important that you take the time to work with a reputable link building company, such as ourselves. We can ensure that your backlinks are going to be of a high quality. This means that you will be able to enjoy the boost to your search engine positions in the shortest time possible.

What Are Referring Domains?

Referring domains go hand-in-hand with backlinks. You cannot have a backlink without a referring domain.

While a backlink looks at an individual link on a site, the referring domain is the site that the link is placed on. If you have ten backlinks on a single site, then you will have one referring domain, but ten backlinks.

While the quality of the link is important, the referring domain is also important when it comes to your search engine position. A referring domain with a good reputation (i.e. an established site) is going to have links that are worth a ton more than a site that is brand-new.

There are other considerations that you need to make here too. Ten backlinks from a single referring domain will be worth less than ten backlinks from ten different referring domains.

This means that you need to constantly work hard to boost the number of different sites that point towards your website. It isn’t enough to have a single site to do it. That looks suspicious. You need that backlink profile to be incredibly varied. Your links should be placed everywhere (but ensure that they are quality links!)

Improve Your Backlinks Profile Today

Building backlinks is hard. You need to focus heavily on not only gaining a ton of backlinks, but also gaining links from a lot of different referring domains. This is where we come in.

If you want the most hassle-free approach to backlink building, then get in touch with us today. Our experience will ensure that we can build the right backlink profile for you. We have a variety of different link building packages available, and we have gone to huge lengths to ensure that there is a package to suit all budgets. We can work with businesses of all sizes.