Do you know what referrer data is? If you care about your search engine optimization (SEO), you should.
When examining your website, it is useful to know that a referrer is the website that is the source of a link, or perhaps several links, to your site. Every link on the referrer's homepage is called a backlink, which means that you might look up this data and discover more backlinks to your site than referrers. For instance, one referrer site might have five backlinks.
Now think about site visitors. Your site statistics will show referrers, and that is the place a visitor was when they clicked a link to get through to your site. In Google Analytics, you'll see referrer statistics, and that means you can see the location from which the visitor reach your site (the location is the "referrer").
Those two definitions have a subtle difference. One says that referrer is anyone with a link, one says that a referrer is anyone with a link that someone clicked.
When reporting to its clients, an SEO services company may very well prefer to use the first definition; a referrer is a site with backlinks to your site. You see, even if no one ever clicks a particular link, its still important to you. In fact, making sure you have those links is a vital part of the work done by an SEO services firm.
Referrers and their backlinks help create authority for your website. The search engines interpret links to you as a way of saying that your site is worth reading on the subject matter. This helps your ranking. It's as if I wrote an article about (for example) paper, and used a footnote to the American Journal of Things Made of Paper. The footnote is giving the American Journal of Things Made of Paper authority, by saying it has value to me on the subject. In this way, backlinks can improve site authority, and help you rise to the top.
People tend to assume that Google provides easy access to referrer data. It doesn't. Using link:nameofwebsite.com in Google gives you only a small percentage of your total number of backlinks, although Google Webmaster Tools does a better job of this. I prefer to use Yahoo to find this information, and based on Yahoo's data, I can estimate (or guesstimate) my Google data. In Yahoo, type link:http://www.nameofwebsite.com. From here you can filter the data for the whole site, for homepage only, and exclude or include internal (from you to you) links. SEO companies sometimes spare their clients this effort by including that information in their reporting.
When examining your website, it is useful to know that a referrer is the website that is the source of a link, or perhaps several links, to your site. Every link on the referrer's homepage is called a backlink, which means that you might look up this data and discover more backlinks to your site than referrers. For instance, one referrer site might have five backlinks.
Now think about site visitors. Your site statistics will show referrers, and that is the place a visitor was when they clicked a link to get through to your site. In Google Analytics, you'll see referrer statistics, and that means you can see the location from which the visitor reach your site (the location is the "referrer").
Those two definitions have a subtle difference. One says that referrer is anyone with a link, one says that a referrer is anyone with a link that someone clicked.
When reporting to its clients, an SEO services company may very well prefer to use the first definition; a referrer is a site with backlinks to your site. You see, even if no one ever clicks a particular link, its still important to you. In fact, making sure you have those links is a vital part of the work done by an SEO services firm.
Referrers and their backlinks help create authority for your website. The search engines interpret links to you as a way of saying that your site is worth reading on the subject matter. This helps your ranking. It's as if I wrote an article about (for example) paper, and used a footnote to the American Journal of Things Made of Paper. The footnote is giving the American Journal of Things Made of Paper authority, by saying it has value to me on the subject. In this way, backlinks can improve site authority, and help you rise to the top.
People tend to assume that Google provides easy access to referrer data. It doesn't. Using link:nameofwebsite.com in Google gives you only a small percentage of your total number of backlinks, although Google Webmaster Tools does a better job of this. I prefer to use Yahoo to find this information, and based on Yahoo's data, I can estimate (or guesstimate) my Google data. In Yahoo, type link:http://www.nameofwebsite.com. From here you can filter the data for the whole site, for homepage only, and exclude or include internal (from you to you) links. SEO companies sometimes spare their clients this effort by including that information in their reporting.
About the Author:
Karolinna Maxwell is an expert consultant working with the New Jersey-based SEO firm ClickResponse.net. Click for a free search engine optimization services website consultation and quote.
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