Metrics

What Is Link Velocity?

Link velocity is the rate at which a site acquires new backlinks or referring domains over a period — for example, new referring domains per month.

Why it matters

Plotted over time it is a useful diagnostic. A profile that is flat for years and then jumps by a thousand domains in a fortnight usually indicates a campaign, a network, or a scrape — and that is worth knowing whether you are auditing your own site or vetting one you are about to buy from.

Example

A site averaging 15 new referring domains a month suddenly shows 900 in one month with no press coverage to explain it. That pattern is the reason to look closer, not the conclusion.

Common misconception

That there is a safe monthly rate you must stay under. Google has never published one and no threshold has been demonstrated — a genuinely newsworthy launch can pick up thousands of links in a day without issue. What draws scrutiny is a pattern with nothing behind it, not a number.

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