A Beginner’s Guide to Referring Domains in SEO

What Is a Referring Domain?

A referring domain is immoderate website that links backmost to your website. Hence the sanction of those kinds of links: backlinks.

The website linking to yours is the referring domain. The idiosyncratic nexus (or links) the website uses to nexus to you are the backlinks.

People often get referring domains and backlinks confused. They spell manus successful hand, but they’re not the aforesaid thing.

Let’s look astatine this referring domain illustration from Adobe:

Image Source: Adobe

In Adobe’s “The Top 10 Content Marketing Trends of 2023” article, they see 2 links to our “69 Podcasts Statistics to Boost Your Podcast Strategy” piece. So, Adobe.com is the referring domain. And the idiosyncratic links to our contented are the backlinks.

How Do Referring Domains Influence SEO?

Referring domains interaction the mode hunt engines similar Google fertile your web content.

Google wants to aboveground helpful, applicable contented to searchers. And arsenic noted connected Google’s Ranking Results page:

One of respective factors we usage to assistance find this is knowing if different salient websites nexus oregon notation to the content. This has often proven to beryllium a bully motion that the accusation is good trusted.

Getting backlinks from topically relevant, authoritative, and trusted referring domains has a beneficial interaction connected your website’s show successful hunt results.

The much backlinks you get from antithetic high-quality sources, the stronger your backlink illustration is.

But getting backlinks from low-quality domains that Google marks arsenic spam tin effect successful a Google link-related penalty. 

And if you get a punishment from Google, you’re apt to suffer galore of your rankings. Or adjacent get your full website removed from hunt results.

Let’s excavation into the differences betwixt adjuvant and hurtful referring domains:

What Makes a Referring Domain High Quality?

Google describes these types of domains arsenic “prominent.”

And portion there’s nary authoritative explanation of what that looks like, it’s wide known that topical relevance, authority, and backlink profiles play large roles successful boosting a website’s credibility:

First off, you’ll get much worth with a nexus from a referring domain that’s topically applicable to yours.

Why?

Because that backlink emphasizes which industries and areas of expertise your website is connected with. Which helps hunt engines to “get to know” your marque better.

And the much established and fashionable a referring domain is, the greater interaction it tin person connected your backlink profile. Think of it similar getting a personage endorsement.

Lastly, portion of however those well-established domains gain that prominence is done the prime of their ain backlink profiles.

You tin rapidly measure the wide prime of a referring domain with Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool.

Enter the domain sanction of the website you privation to evaluate. Click “Analyze.”

You’ll spot a summary dashboard popular up with a assortment of metrics. Start by looking astatine the “Authority Score” (AS.)

This Semrush metric measures the online estimation and SEO show of a website. It’s measured connected a standard from 0 to 100.

AS scores domains based connected 3 things:

• Link Power: The fig of backlinks and referring domains that a website has (and their quality)
• Organic Traffic: The estimated magnitude of integrated hunt postulation that the website gets monthly.
• Spam Factors: The wellness of the backlink illustration (spammy vs. earthy backlink profile)

You tin spot the domain’s strengths and weaknesses by looking astatine the ellipse graph. For a deeper explanation, hover implicit the blurb to the close of the AS (in this example, “Excellent and niche relevant.”)

Based connected the AS alone, we tin safely accidental that this is simply a coagulated referring domain that would beryllium beneficial to get a backlink from. As agelong arsenic the website is topically applicable to your own.

But if you’d similar to excavation successful to larn much astir the domain (like which different salient websites nexus to it), you tin bash truthful by clicking connected the different metrics connected the dashboard.

What Makes a Referring Domain Low Quality (Spam)?

Low-quality domains see ones that deficiency tract visits, credible backlinks, oregon an integrated backlink profile.

For example: 

Backlink Analytics shows america that the referring domain does person a beardown backlink profile. But with apt “technical issues oregon mediocre content,” getting a nexus from them whitethorn not fortify your illustration (at slightest not long-term).

“Bad” domains besides see ones that effort to manipulate hunt results. Specifically, Google describes them arsenic ones that interruption their spam argumentation with definite “content and behaviors.” 

If your website has backlinks from referring domains engaging successful forms of link spam, you’re astatine hazard of getting a Google penalty. These either travel from automated detection oregon a quality reviewer. And they tin earnestly messiness up your rankings.

Some examples of nexus spamming practices include:

• Many links from referring domains that aren’t indexed by Google
• Links from referring domains that were created to merchantability backlinks
• Links from private blog networks that artificially summation authorization by linking to each different and selling backlinks to different sites.
• Links successful forums and comments with highly over-optimized anchor text

Here's a Backlink Analytics study for a website that mightiness beryllium utilized for nexus spamming.

This website has 1 backlink from a azygous referring domain. And it links retired to 545,000 antithetic websites, which is simply a immense reddish flag.

Based connected the quality betwixt referring and outbound domains, it’s apt that this website was created to merchantability backlinks.

It besides lacks integrated traffic. So, the website mightiness person a method contented oregon subpar content.

In short, you don’t privation to spot a backlink from this benignant of referring domain. 

How to Boost Your Backlink Profile with Backlinks from Trusted Referring Domains

Besides earning links to your website organically, you tin besides look for ethical ways to summation them. This process is called link building.

By actively reaching retired to credible referring domains for applicable backlinks, you tin fortify your backlink profile. Which tin person a affirmative interaction connected your show successful hunt results.

Audit Your Backlink Profile 

Evaluating your backlink illustration volition assistance you place however galore high- and low-quality referring domains nexus to your website.

This investigation volition assistance you fig retired what your adjacent determination should be: either gathering much links oregon doing immoderate attraction enactment to archetypal cleanable up your profile, similar removing spam links.

Semrush’s Backlink Audit makes it casual to analyse your backlinks.

Click “Start Backlink Audit” and travel these configuring steps to acceptable up the audit.

Once you implicit those steps, you’ll spot an overview dashboard with antithetic metrics related to your backlink profile:

Start by looking astatine the Overall Toxicity Score.

If your people is “Low,” that suggests, among different things, that astir of your backlinks are from what look to beryllium prime referring domains.

But if it’s marked arsenic “Medium” oregon “High,” you whitethorn privation to reappraisal the backlinks marked arsenic “toxic” (red) and “pot. toxic” (orange) to determine if you request to region them.

Then, power to the “Audit” tab and research the backlinks flagged for review.

The Semrush Backlink Audit instrumentality analyzes backlinks utilizing 45+ markers and assigns them a Toxicity Score (TS) ranging from 0 to 100.

Click connected the reddish fig nether the “TS” file to spot the referring domain’s Authority Score and Toxic Markers associated with each perchance toxic backlink.

Search engines whitethorn presumption backlinks with anchor texts containing galore instances of invaluable keywords arsenic nexus manipulation attempts.

The audit study flags these types of anchor texts arsenic "Money” and “Compound” successful the “Anchor” column.

By hovering implicit the reddish successful the “Anchor” file you tin larn wherefore the backlink was flagged.

If you privation to spot what the backlink looks similar connected the website, click connected the arrow adjacent to the link. This volition unfastened the referring page, truthful proceed with caution if it looks harmful.

In lawsuit you request assistance successful determining whether a backlink whitethorn beryllium harmful to your website, person a look astatine our toxic backlink guide.

As you spell through, you tin determine whether you privation to:

• Whitelist: Mark the backlink arsenic non-toxic 
• Remove: Reach retired to the website proprietor to inquire them to region the link
• Disavow: Use Google’s Disavow Tool to fto the hunt motor cognize not to see these links

Important:

Be very cautious erstwhile disavowing backlinks. If you take the incorrect links to disavow, you tin harm your website’s show successful hunt results.

Google advises to disavow links lone aft you effort to region them manually. And if you’re definite that the backlinks are hurting oregon could wounded your rankings.

After reviewing the perchance toxic backlinks, click “Overview” to instrumentality to the dashboard.

Now, look astatine “Referring Domains” and “Analyzed Backlinks” and evaluate:

• Their full numbers
• Their ratio

In this case, this website has a batch of referring domains and backlinks. Which tends to mean it has a beardown backlink profile.

However, this website has importantly much backlinks than referring domains. That means it has a batch of websites that nexus to it aggregate times.

While this isn’t a atrocious thing, the domain could amended by gaining much unique, applicable backlinks from caller referring domains.

The much unique, high-quality referring domains a website has, the amended (in general).

Here’s however to find caller ones:

Find and Evaluate Referring Domains for Link Building

A communal nexus gathering signifier is reaching retired to applicable domains and asking them to nexus to your content. 

You tin look for these websites done Google Search. But that takes a batch of clip and manual effort. 

Semrush’s Backlink Gap lets you easy find caller nexus gathering prospects.

The instrumentality shows you referring domains that already nexus to your competitors, but not to your site.

So, you cognize for definite that they’ve antecedently linked retired to brands akin to yours. Making them a bully campaigner for nexus building.

Enter your domain sanction and up to 4 competitors. Click “Find prospects.”

In this example, we tin spot that sites specified arsenic Parade and Oracle don’t person immoderate contented that links to the task absorption level Asana. But they bash nexus to akin brands similar Monday, Slack, Basecamp, and Zapier.

Once you person your list, you tin rapidly spot the prime of the referring domain by clicking the fig nether the “AS” column. 

When you click connected the AS, you’ll spot a drop-down summary of:

• Referring Domains: The full fig of referring domains that nexus to this domain astatine slightest once
• Backlinks: The full fig of backlinks this domain has
• Monthly Visits: The fig of unsocial visits this domain had past month
• Organic Traffic: The estimated fig of integrated postulation this domain gets from hunt results
• Outbound Domains: The full fig of domains this website links to

Besides the AS, these metrics tin assistance you justice whether you’d privation a nexus from a definite domain. 

Here’s an example:

If you privation to excavation deeper into immoderate metric, you tin click connected the referring domain sanction to unfastened the Backlink Analytics dashboard.

Now, you tin repetition the aforesaid steps arsenic before: Evaluate the AS graph and blurb and click connected the different metrics you’re funny in. 

Once you consciousness assured that you’ve recovered a bully referring domain candidate, prevention it for your adjacent nexus gathering campaign.

In Backlink Gap, cheque the bluish boxes of the sites you’d similar to get links from. Click “Start outreach.”

In the “Select project” section, take oregon region the domains you program to scope retired to. Then, click “Send prospects” to prevention them to the Link Building Tool.

Further reading: 11 Cold Email Templates Sure to Attract Hot Leads

Use Different Link Building Strategies to Grow Your Referring Domains

Besides outreach, determination are different ways to physique links to your website that won’t origin Google to deliberation you’re trying to manipulate their algorithms. These nexus gathering techniques are based connected providing worth to different websites and their audiences. 

Trying a assortment of nexus gathering approaches volition assistance you find ones that enactment champion for you.

Here are immoderate examples:

• Guest articles: Share your expertise done articles published connected applicable websites. But support successful caput that Google considers “excessive” impermanent blogging to beryllium a manipulative linking practice. Find retired however to bash it good with our guest posting guide.
• Become a source: Contribute to sourcing platforms similar HARO for nexus building. If idiosyncratic uses your punctuation successful a piece, you whitethorn get a backlink.
• Broken nexus building: Find websites that person non-functioning outer links and scope retired to inquire them to nexus to your adjuvant resource(s) instead
• Create linkable assets: Linkable assets are types of contented that thin to gain links people (e.g., manufacture reports and studies, escaped tools, infographics)
• Link reclamation: Find websites that notation your marque but don’t nexus to your tract and inquire them to adhd a link

Learn much astir doing these techniques successfully with our link gathering strategies guide.

Get More Referring Domains with Semrush

Gaining backlinks from new, authoritative referring domains volition fortify your backlink portfolio. And positively power your SEO performance.

With Semrush’s Backlink Audit and Backlink Analytics, you tin easy support way of the wellness of your website and the prime of the websites you’ll beryllium reaching retired to.