Backlinks vs External Links vs Referral Links vs Outbound links

[NCOREGSEO]

Hello all,

I was just wondering if you could explain the difference between all the links above? I'm confused as they all seem to be the same or similar and I would just like to clearly know what distinguishes them from eachother.

Thanks for your help,

Jayne

[NCOREGSEO]

Thanks Ian - that's a great help

[Ian_Lewis]

Hi there!

Let's say that you have website A, with the domain aaa.com ...

Backlinks: Any link that points to a page within website A is a backlink (at least it is from YOUR point of view). These links could come from other websites, but also from within website A

Referral Links: A referral can be a link that isn't from a crawable web. For example, a link in an email or from Facebook.

Outbound Links: Outbound links are links that are meant to take you elsewhere. These are links that are going to direct you to another specific webpage or website altogether. Most, if not all, websites have outbound links.

**External Links: **External Links are hyperlinks that point at (target) any domain other than the domain the link exists on (source). In layman's terms, if another website links to you, this is considered an external link to your site

Hope this helps!

Thanks,