Link

What is a link?

A link or hyperlink refers to a reference in a digital document that takes users to another point online or offline. This could be anything from a webpage, a file, an email address, an app screen or even a location on the same page. Links, in fact, are connection points online that assist in navigating, highlight the relationship between pages, and share technical and SEO value. In simple terms, a link takes a user from one resource to another quickly. 

Main types of links (what they mean)

  • Internal link: A link between pages on the same domain (e.g., product to product category). Important for navigation and distributing authority within a site.
  • External link / Outbound link: Links from your site to another domain. Useful for citations and user experience.
  • Inbound link / Backlink: A link from another website pointing to yours. Backlinks are a critical signal in SEO and reputation, which also assist you in achieving better rankings.
  • Dofollow (default): search engines may transfer ranking value (“link equity”) through the link
  • Nofollow (rel=”nofollow”): instructs crawlers not to pass ranking credit. Modern engines treat these as hints rather than strict rules, but the intent is to avoid endorsing the target.
  • Canonical link: An HTML <link rel=”canonical”> pointing to the preferred URL when similar content exists at multiple addresses, preventing duplicate-content issues.
  • Deep link: A link that goes directly to a specific item or screen (inside an app or a website) rather than a home page. In mobile apps this requires special handling (URI schemes, universal links).
  • Link rot: Broken or outdated links that return 404s or lead to removed content — a UX and SEO problem.
  • Link baiting is all about producing content that can actually attract link builders to steal links from your site. Through your content, users end up getting their answers somehow and therefore it becomes useful. Articles from the newspaper, sources of data, guides and content that contains controversy tend to be linked due to accuracy and how they are written and updated. The result that link baiting brings to SEO, is that trust for content increases as well as its authority. The website or page will be ranked with better link-building and content methods, and it will become a trusted SEO method

Common subterms & Quick definitions

  • Anchor text: the clickable visible words. Google uses it to understand the target page’s topic.
  • Link juice / Link equity: informal terms for the SEO value a link passes.
  • Referral traffic: visitors who arrive at your site by clicking a link on another site.
  • Link profile: the collection of backlinks pointing to a domain—quality and diversity matter.
  • Sitemap & link discovery: sitemaps and internal linking help search engines discover content.