Marketplace backlinks glossary: twelve terms, plainly explained
Open a donor row and the columns can feel like airport signage in a language you half speak. This list translates them, one at a time.
The columns you will see on a marketplace row
Domain Rating (DR)
Ahrefs' 0 to 100 score for the strength of a site's backlink profile. A guide, not a verdict.
Organic traffic
Estimated visits from search. Real traffic suggests real readers.
Referring domains
How many different sites link to the donor. More variety usually reads as healthier.
Niche and language
The topic and tongue of the donor. For a blog about a place, both should match.
Terms that decide how a link behaves
| Term | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| Dofollow | A normal link that can pass authority |
| Nofollow | A link marked as one you do not vouch for |
| Sponsored (rel) | A link that was paid for or traded |
| UGC (rel) | A link left by users, such as in comments |
| Anchor text | The clickable words of the link |
| Link insertion | Your link added to an existing article |
| Editorial placement | A new article written to carry your link |
| Permanent placement | A link meant to stay, not expire after a month |
Two terms that trip people up
Insertion and placement are not the same. An insertion drops a link into a page that already exists; a placement means a fresh article.
On this marketplace the article for a placement is written automatically from your target URL and keyword, from your own prompt or from your own finished text, and the link is permanent dofollow. Keep Ahrefs' backlink checker or Search Console's links report open in another tab, because they show what search engines can actually see, and use them to confirm each placement is live.
More words you will meet in a pitch or an invoice
Pay attention to these. A proforma invoice is a preliminary bill you can use to arrange payment before money arrives. A basket is the list of placements you have chosen but not yet paid for, and filling it never charges you. Ordered links is the list where each placement appears with its status. Referring domain counts sites, not links, so a thousand links from one blog is still one referring domain. See the rel attribute checklist for how sponsored and ugc differ.
Words people use wrongly
Authority is not a Google metric. Domain Rating comes from Ahrefs, Domain Authority from Moz, Authority Score from Semrush. Each tool measures its own index with its own formula, so a DR 40 and a DA 40 are not the same site. Use one scale consistently when you compare donors, and let the traffic and the topic break ties.
How to use this list with the marketplace
Keep it open.
Read the row first, then check the term here if a column puzzles you. The two budget plans show what a sensible shortlist looks like once you know the words, and the Lisbon example applies them to a hypothetical guide. The more you browse, the faster the vocabulary sticks, and the sooner a row of numbers becomes a picture of a site you would be happy to appear on. Soon it clicks. A row of numbers turns into a map, and the donors you cannot picture stop tempting you at all.
A thirty-second row review
- Is the language the same as your post?
- Does the donor's niche touch travel, food or the region?
- Does the traffic figure look real for the size of the site?
- Is the price in line with the rest of the rows you shortlisted?