Understand Backlinks vs Referring Domains with Example & Best SEO Practices

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It’s simple! To understand what backlinks are? what are referring domains? but the major question lies in between whether is there any best SEO practices around backlinks vs referring domains or not?

So let’s dive in these topics one by one.

What are Backlinks?

From the point of view of SEO, backlinks are a links that direct users from one site to another site. Backlinks are also known as inbound links or incoming links.

Whenever you link out someone else’s website, you’re providing a backlink to another website.

Each time you link to another single website, it creates an additional link. These backlinks accumulate over time, enhancing the site’s overall link profile and improving its search engine rankings.

What are Referring Domains?

Referring Domains are websites that link to your website; they are also known as linking domains. A single referring domain gives you a lot of links.

In simple terms, we can conclude that if multiple pages from the same website link to your webpage, they are counted as backlinks, but they contribute only to one referring domain.

On the other hand, if multiple websites link to your webpage, each of those websites is considered a unique referring domain. Now, moving further to learn some new details about it.

Example to Understand Backlinks vs Referring Domains

If Website A include 2 links to Website B in its content, that links are backlink for Website B. (2 Backlink for Website B and 1 Referring Domain)

Referring domains, on the other hand, are unique websites that contain backlinks pointing to a specific website.

For instance, if Website X, Website Y, and Website Z all have links pointing to Website W, then Website X, Website Y, and Website Z are considered referring domains for Website W. (3 RD for website W, 3 Backlinks)

And If website X pointing 2 links to website W, website Y pointing 1 link to website W then it’s 2 referring domain and 3 backlinks pointing to website W.

Ah! I hope you got an understanding on this.

In summary, backlinks are individual links from one website to another, while referring domains are unique websites that contain backlinks to a specific website.

Both backlinks and referring domains play a significant role in determining a website’s SEO performance and search engine rankings.

Major Difference Between Backlinks And Referring Domains

Now that we have studied both and have an understanding of both backlinks and referring domains, why not take an overview of the difference between the two?

Backlinks are individual hyperlinks from one webpage to another, while referring domains are different and unique websites that provide backlinks to a webpage.
Backlinks affect a webpage’s authority and relevance and referring domains give diversity and context to a website’s link profile.
Backlinks are considered for their quality and relevance, and Referring domains are evaluated for their authority, trustworthiness, and diversity.
Backlinks directly impact a webpage’s ranking and traffic, but referring domains indirectly influence the ranking of a webpage by providing context and diversity to the backlink profile.
Backlink-building strategies focus on earning quality links from various sources, while referring domain strategies involve building relationships with different websites to diversify the link profile.

Building referring domains and quality backlinks is a critical but important aspect of improving your website’s SEO. Below, I’ll share some of the best strategies to earn both referring domains and high-quality backlinks for your website.

In addition to this, we will also take a look at how to check your website’s existing backlinks and referring domains.

How Referring Domain and Backlinks Impact SEO?

Backlinks and referring domains are critical and their impact on search engine rankings is considerable. Shall we take a look at how they influence SEO:

Referring Domains and Backlinks Both have an impact on SEO, although having backlinks from a varied range of referring domains is typically thought to be more useful, while the quality and relevancy of the backlink itself are also important.

Our research says that the more backlinks you earn from different sites, the more traffic you will get while referring domains influences the authority of backlinks.

Interesting facts by Ahrefs on this:

What should be the Ratio between Backlinks and Referring Domains?

Some website offers link from all pages of their website through footer or sidebar links and then let’s assume website A is having 300 pages and you got link from all the pages then the ratio between backlinks and referring domains are 300:1 (BL:RD).

Now, while accumulating all the backlinks and referring domains pointing to money website, In any case it shouldn’t exceed 50:1. Recommended ratio b/w BL : RD are 2:1.

In nutshell, more backlinks you got from different-2 domains, more the chances your website will rank. Avoid creating low quality backlinks and you are good to go.

How to Build Referring Domains and Backlinks?

This procedure is usually used by our agency OutreachKart. Let’s discuss it thoroughly.

Create High-Quality Content:

This is the foremost way to grow a website with the help of referring domains and backlinks. Develop informative, valuable, and quality content that naturally attracts backlinks from other websites. Use data, infographics, competitor’s strategy, case studies, and well-researched articles to make your content stand out.

Guest Blogging:

This is also one of the amazing and fruitful ways. We can write guest posts for reputable websites in your niche. Include a relevant link back to your website within your author bio or content. Also, make sure that your guest posts provide value to the host website’s audience.

Outreach and Relationship Building:

Identification of websites and bloggers in your industry is also suggested, and reach out to them with personalized emails. We can also share our proposal for collaborative content, interviews, or partnerships that benefit both parties.

Broken Link Building:

One can find broken or outdated links on other websites in your niche. Thereafter, contact the website owner and suggest replacing the broken link with a link to your relevant, high-quality content.

Social Media Promotion:

We can also share our content on social media platforms to increase its visibility. In addition to this, we can encourage our followers to share the content, which will automatically lead to organic backlinks.

Online Directories and Listings:

You can share your website with reputable online directories and listings in your industry or region. However, ensure that the directories are relevant and have a good reputation.

HARO (Help a Reporter Out):

One can also sign up for HARO to connect with journalists and bloggers looking for expert opinions in your field. We can provide them with valuable insights and include a link to your website when applicable.

Internal Linking:

The thing that should not be overlooked is internal linking. We should optimize our website’s internal linking structure to ensure that our pages are well-connected. Internal links help to pass authority and enhance user experience.

Monitor Competitors:

Don’t forget to analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles to identify potential linking opportunities. We can reach out to the websites linked to our competitors and give them a proposal for similar or superior content.

How Can We Check Backlinks and Referring Domains?

Now you must be wondering how to check your website’s backlinks and referring domains. You will be glad to know that there are several tools and methods that you can use for this.

Google Search Console:

With the help of Google Search Console, we can have a list of websites that link to our site. Though it may not show all backlinks, it’s a good starting point. It will help us understand the quality and ranking that each website might bring.

Backlink Analysis Tools:

One can utilize backlink analysis tools such as Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush, or Majestic which are developed for this purpose. These tools collect and share comprehensive data on your backlink profile, including referring domains, anchor text, and more.

Google Alerts:

The website owner can set up Google Alerts with keywords related to their brand, products, or services. With this, you’ll receive notifications when your website is mentioned or linked to online.

Website Analytics:

Google Analytics tool helps us review our website’s analytics data to track referral traffic. With the help of it, we will be able to identify websites that are sending traffic through backlinks.

Manual Searches:

Occasionally, one can conduct manual searches using search engines to identify new backlinks or can search for variations of your brand name, website URL, or key content to discover mentions.

Competitive Analysis:

Last but not least you can analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles using backlink analysis tools to discover linking opportunities they have earned that you may be missing.

FAQs

Are Backlinks And Referring Domains The Same?

Not quite. Backlinks are the links on other websites but a website that links to your site is called a referring domain also known as a linking domain.

How to select a good Referring Domain?

By utilizing a tool such as Ahrefs we can check our referring domains. It serves as a helpful initial step in assessing the worthiness of websites that link back to your own. Also, it’s important to note that every link originating from a different website to your site corresponds to a single domain.

What are Lost Referring Domains?

Lost referring domains imply websites or domains that were previously linked to your website but have since been removed or discontinued those links.

What is the Ideal Ratio of Backlinks and Referring Domains?

The ideal ratio of Backlinks and Referring domains should be 2:1, two for backlinks and one for referring domains. Our agency also follows this ratio.

Are Referring Domains Good?

Yes, referring domains are one of the ranking factors which enhance your SEO ranking. Each referring domain is analysed and viewed by Google as a recommendation from other sites.

What Are the Types of Backlinks?

There are two types of backlinks one is nofollow and the other is dofollow. A reader will never be able to tell the difference between them. We can see the difference only in the source code.

Let’s Wrap it Up.

Now you can tell anyone about the difference between Backlinks and Referring Domains. In Conclusion, we can say that referring domains and backlinks may be similar but their impact on SEO is different. While building the backlink and referring domain always remember the ideal ratio. So, keep creating high-quality content, reach out, and build strong connections with other sites.

If you still have queries in your mind, you can Contact Us anytime. Our SEO experts will assist you.