Link Signals glossary

A link that is in a page’s HTML but made invisible to visitors, usually with inline styles, so that crawlers read it and people don’t.

A link from a page on your site to a page on a different domain. Outbound links are what Link Signals checks.

The visible, clickable text of a link. In a report it is the quickest way to find the link on the page.

A link whose destination has nothing to do with the page that carries it, such as a casino link in an article about tomatoes.

A published list of domains known to host a type of content, such as adult or gambling sites. A match is the strongest evidence in a Link Signals report.

An XML file that lists other sitemap files instead of pages. Large sites and many platforms publish one.

A harmless link that a check flags by mistake, such as an article about casinos matching the gambling words.

Serving a page differently depending on who asks, so that search engines read content a visitor, or the site owner, never sees.

The first full monitoring pass over a site. It records what is already there, so alerts afterwards are about what changed.

The `<lastmod>` date a sitemap lists for each page. Monitoring uses it to decide which pages to read again.

A domain whose owner stopped renewing it. Once it lapses anyone can register it, along with whatever links still point at it.

The value a link is thought to pass from the page that carries it to its destination. It is why links to your site, and from it, matter to people who work on search rankings.

An attribute on a link that says how you relate to the page it points at. Google uses nofollow, sponsored and ugc to tell links you vouch for from links you don’t.

One of five ranks a flagged link falls into. The order is the order to deal with them in, and every finding belongs to exactly one.

A domain that is registered but not in use, showing a placeholder or a page offering it for sale. A link to one means the site you meant to link to has gone.

Two different things. Reviewed is your word. Resolved is ours, after we read the page again and the link has gone. A link still there but no longer flagged is shown separately and not counted as fixed.

A quick check of just the links a report flagged, to see whether your fixes worked, without scanning the whole site again.

A response header that tells browsers to use https:// for your site every time, so a visitor can’t be downgraded to the unencrypted version.

The file that lets a browser trust that it is talking to your site over https. It runs out on a set date, and if it does, visitors are shown a warning.

How a scan covers a sitemap that is bigger than your plan: a spread of pages across the whole site, not just the first ones in the list.

A score out of 100 for a site’s outbound links and the link-related health of the site itself. It is Link Signals’ own metric, with published rules.

A scan run again from a finished report, labelled as a rescan and set against the scan it repeats, so a change is shown from evidence and never guessed.

A scan that reached its link limit before it had read everything. It is saved and labelled, and never presented as a full picture of the site.

A domain whose registration date has passed while its registry still lists it as active. It is a reason to watch, not yet a lapsed domain.

A link that is still on its page but that the latest check does not flag. It is shown with what was seen, and it is never counted as fixed.

An outbound link with no nofollow, sponsored or ugc marker. It can pass ranking credit to the page it points at.

The phrase a report uses for what a followed link can pass on. The panel counts links that send it to flagged destinations. It never claims a quantity.

A link you have said belongs where it is, such as a client logo or a sponsor. Later scans still read it, and count it as safe while it stays no more serious.