Glossary

Every term used in the docs, in alphabetical order. SEO terms are defined in the way TraceLinker specifically uses them, which sometimes differs from generic SEO terminology.

A

AI Score A 1-100 number assigned by the DeepSeek model to estimate the SEO value of a single backlink. Higher = more valuable. See AI Scoring Methodology.

Anchor text The clickable text of a hyperlink. "Click here" is a generic anchor; "best widget tool" is a keyword anchor; "yoursite.com" is a brand/URL anchor.

Anchor over-optimization A toxicity signal that fires when too many exact-match keyword anchors point at the same target. Can trigger Google Penguin penalties.

Audit A one-time evaluation of a list of backlinks against a target domain. Produces scored, classified rows. Snapshot, not continuous.

B

Backlink A link from one site to another. The source page contains an anchor pointing to the target URL.

Backlink Score (Domain) A composite 0-100 score for your entire profile, computed as Quality × 50% + Diversity × 25% − Toxicity × 25%. See Domain Backlink Score.

C

Caution (toxicity) Toxicity classification between safe and toxic. One or two soft signals fired but not enough to recommend disavow.

Changed (status) Monitoring status meaning the link still exists but something changed since the last check (anchor edit, dofollow→nofollow, position, etc.).

Competitor audit A separate type of audit where you upload a competitor's backlink CSV and we compute the gap (domains linking to them but not to you). See Competitor Gap Analysis.

Composite score See Backlink Score (Domain).

Crawl4AI The open-source crawler library TraceLinker uses to fetch source pages. Free, no per-call cost.

D

Dead (status) Monitoring status meaning the link can no longer be found. Either the page 404s or the page exists but the anchor is gone.

DeepSeek The LLM provider TraceLinker uses for AI scoring. We use deepseek-chat model with temperature 0.1.

Discovered backlink A row in the discovered_backlinks table created by an audit. Snapshot data.

Disavow file A .txt file you upload to Google's Disavow Tool to ask Google to ignore specific backlinks during ranking decisions. See Disavow Toxic Links.

Diversity (score component) 25% of your Backlink Score. Measures unique source domains and TLD spread.

Dofollow A link without rel="nofollow" (or sponsored/ugc). Passes link equity from source to target.

F

False positive When a check returns a status that's wrong (e.g. shows dead but the link is actually fine, or flags toxic but the link is legitimate). Mark in the row dropdown to re-verify.

G

Gap analysis See Competitor audit.

GSC Google Search Console. The free Google tool for monitoring search performance. We import backlinks from it via OAuth.

H

Hourly check Monitoring frequency available on Agency tier. Re-checks each monitored link approximately every 60 minutes.

I

Is_toxic Boolean flag on every audited link. True if the toxicity score crosses 70.

L

Link See Backlink.

Link equity The ranking value passed from a source page to a target page via a backlink. Aka "link juice" colloquially. Higher-authority sources pass more equity.

Lost link reclaim The workflow where TraceLinker auto-drafts an outreach email when a monitored link goes alive → dead. See Reclaim Lost Links.

M

Monitored link A row in the monitored_links table. Re-checked on a schedule, fires transition events on status change.

Monitor log A row in the monitor_logs table representing one historical check of a monitored link.

N

Negative SEO Adversarial linking targeting your site to harm your rankings. Common patterns: PBN spam, anchor over-optimization, comment spam. Toxicity classifier and disavow workflow address this.

Nofollow rel="nofollow" on a link. Tells Google not to pass link equity. Now a hint, not a strict rule, but still relevant for our scoring.

O

Outreach draft An AI-generated email subject + body created by the Reclaim or Competitor pitch engine. Editable before send.

P

PBN (Private Blog Network) A network of artificial sites built solely to host backlinks. Toxic in Google's view; we flag with multiple signals.

Plan Free, Pro, or Agency. Determines quotas and feature access. See Plans & Pricing.

Q

Quality (score component) 50% of your Backlink Score. Average DeepSeek score across monitored + valuable discovered backlinks above the 30 threshold.

R

Reclaim See Lost link reclaim.

Reasoning The one-sentence explanation accompanying every AI score. Visible in the audit detail page, link detail page, and exports.

Rel attribute HTML rel value on an <a> tag. Common values: nofollow, sponsored, ugc. We extract it during crawl and use in scoring.

S

Safe (toxicity) Lowest toxicity classification. No negative signals fired.

Score See AI Score (per-link) or Backlink Score (account-wide composite).

Source URL The page hosting the backlink (where the <a> tag lives). The "from" side of a link.

Status (monitoring) Latest check result for a monitored link: alive, changed, or dead.

T

Target URL Where a backlink points (the "to" side). Should be on your domain.

Toxic (toxicity) Highest toxicity classification. Multiple signals fired, or one strong signal. Disavow candidate.

Toxicity A separate classification from the AI score, focused on negative-SEO signals (PBN, anchor over-optimization, suspicious context).

Transition A change in monitoring status between two consecutive checks. alive → dead, alive → changed, etc. Triggers emails and (for alive → dead) reclaim drafts.

U

UGC (user-generated content) rel="ugc" indicates the link came from user-generated content (comments, forums). We treat as ~no link equity but not inherently toxic.

W

White-label The Agency-tier feature that swaps TraceLinker's branding for your own (logo, name, color) on shared reports and PDFs. See Share Reports.

Workspace

Workspace One TraceLinker account = one workspace. All audits, monitoring, drafts, and competitor audits within a workspace share a common quota and view. We don't currently offer multi-workspace per account.

See also

• Core Concepts - the three or four key concepts in narrative form.
• FAQ - common questions cross-referenced to this glossary.