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logo",81,36,[],{"asset":393},[394],{"type":27,"image":395,"mobileImage":401},[396],{"src":397,"alt":398,"width":399,"height":400},"https:\u002F\u002Fd191k2rrohvvg6.cloudfront.net\u002Fimages\u002FLogos\u002Flogo-google-partner.svg","Google Partner logo",87,61,[],[403,408,413],{"buttonLink":404},[405],{"ariaLabel":9,"target":9,"url":406,"text":407,"entryType":12},"https:\u002F\u002Fpixis.ai\u002Fprivacy-policy\u002F","Privacy Policy",{"buttonLink":409},[410],{"ariaLabel":9,"target":9,"url":411,"text":412,"entryType":12},"https:\u002F\u002Fpixis.ai\u002Fleapus-csr-policy\u002F","Leapus CSR Policy",{"buttonLink":414},[415],{"ariaLabel":9,"target":9,"url":416,"text":417,"entryType":12},"https:\u002F\u002Fpixis.ai\u002Ffulfillment-policy\u002F","Pixis Fulfillment 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Chaudhary",[433],{"type":27,"image":434,"mobileImage":438},[435],{"src":436,"alt":9,"width":437,"height":437},"https:\u002F\u002Fd191k2rrohvvg6.cloudfront.net\u002Fimages\u002F1730657296846.jpeg",800,[],"Head of Visibility and VP-Business","\u003Cp>Suraj is the Head of Visibility and VP-Business at Pixis. An ex-Bain consultant with experience across growth, strategy, and operations, he is a thought leader AI search visibility and helps businesses understand how discoverability is changing in the age of generative search. Having scaled Visibility to $3M ARR in just 2 months is a testimony to his understanding of the space!\u003C\u002Fp>",{"url":442},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fchaudharysuraj\u002F?skipRedirect=true",[],{"title":445,"description":446,"advanced":447,"keywords":450,"social":451},"How to Analyze Backlink Velocity and Referring Domains | Pixis","Compare backlink velocity and referring domains with competitors: pull net growth from one tool, read the patterns and set a monthly link target.",{"canonical":448,"robots":449},"",[],[],{"facebook":452,"twitter":453},{"description":446,"title":422},{"description":446,"title":422},[455],{"type":27,"image":456,"mobileImage":462},[457],{"src":458,"alt":459,"width":460,"height":461},"https:\u002F\u002Fd191k2rrohvvg6.cloudfront.net\u002Fimages\u002Fhow-to-analyze-backlink-velocity-and-referring-domains-featured.png","Pixis Visibility referring domains chart with gains and losses, a net growth card and a five competitors label",1920,1360,[],[464,467,470],{"title":465,"slug":466},"SEO\u002FAEO\u002FGEO","seo-aeo-geo",{"title":468,"slug":469},"Pixis Visibility","pixis-visibility",{"title":471,"slug":472},"Content Marketing","content-marketing",true,[475],{"blocks":476},[477,480,492],{"type":478,"textBlock":479},"textBlock_Entry","\u003Cp>A competitor moves from page two to the top three for your main keyword in a single quarter. Their content did not change much. When you open a backlink tool, the explanation is a run of new referring domains you did not notice while it was happening.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Backlink velocity is how you notice next time. It measures how fast a site gains or loses linking domains, and comparing it against competitors tells you whether your link profile is keeping pace or quietly falling behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>The trap is that velocity numbers are easy to misread. Totals from different tools do not match, gross gains hide losses, and a big site will always add more links than a small one. A useful comparison controls for all three.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>This guide explains what to measure, how to pull and chart the data, how to read the patterns, and how to turn the gap into a monthly link target you can track.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Key takeaways\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>Use referring domains, not raw backlinks, as the primary metric. One sitewide link can add thousands of backlinks but only one referring domain.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>Velocity is net growth: new referring domains minus lost referring domains per month. Gross gains always trend up and hide decay.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>Pull every competitor's data from the same tool over the same 6 to 12 month window. Counts from different vendors are not comparable.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>Turn the gap to the median page-one competitor into a monthly target, then re-measure every quarter, because the pages ahead of you keep moving.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>Pixis Visibility benchmarks competitors on backlinks, referring domains and backlink velocity alongside domain authority and organic traffic; choosing which links to pursue stays a team decision.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>\u003Ch2>Pick the right competitors and window\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Start with 3 to 5 true search competitors: sites that rank for the keywords you want and target the same audience. They may not be the companies your sales team competes with. A publisher or a software directory can hold your target positions without selling anything you sell, so check the results page, not the pipeline.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Then set a comparison window of 6 to 12 months. Shorter windows miss seasonal patterns and make one campaign look like a trend. Longer windows dilute recent changes in strategy. Six to twelve months is long enough to show steady growth, campaign spikes, suspicious bursts and link loss in one view.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>If you are not sure who your real search competitors are, a \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fpixis.ai\u002Fblog\u002Fguide-to-keyword-gap-analysis-find-missing-keywords-and-grow-traffic\u002F\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">keyword gap analysis\u003C\u002Fa> shows which domains overlap with you on the terms that matter.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Step 1: Define what you are measuring\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Three terms need to be clear before any numbers go into a spreadsheet:\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Backlinks\u003C\u002Fstrong> are all links pointing at a site, counted page by page.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Referring domains\u003C\u002Fstrong> are the unique websites that link to it. A footer link on 2,000 pages of one site counts as 2,000 backlinks but one referring domain.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Velocity\u003C\u002Fstrong> is new referring domains minus lost referring domains in a period, usually a month.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>\u003Cp>Use referring domains as the primary metric. They show how many independent sites vouch for you, and they cannot be inflated by one sitewide link the way a backlink total can.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Step 2: Pull new, lost and net referring domains\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Use one backlink tool with historical data for every site in the comparison. Ahrefs, Semrush and SE Ranking all report new and lost referring domains over time. Each vendor crawls and deduplicates differently, so the same site can show noticeably different totals in two tools. Mixing sources makes the comparison meaningless.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Set up a spreadsheet with these columns: competitor, month, total referring domains, new referring domains, lost referring domains and net change. Fill it in for your own site and each competitor across the full window.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Then chart it. Plot new referring domains above the axis, lost below, and net as a line, with months along the bottom. Chart gained, lost and net together, because, as \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.metabase.com\u002Fmetrics\u002Fbacklink-velocity\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Metabase's backlink velocity definition\u003C\u002Fa> points out, gross gains always trend upward and hide decay.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>An illustrative example: a profile that gains 40 referring domains a month and loses 35 has a net velocity of 5. Reported as \"40 new domains,\" it looks healthy. Reported as net, it is barely growing.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Step 3: Read the patterns before you react\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Once the chart is built, most competitor profiles fall into a few recognizable shapes:\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Steady growth\u003C\u002Fstrong> usually reflects consistent content marketing, digital PR or outreach. This is the pattern to learn from.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Campaign spikes\u003C\u002Fstrong> often line up with a product launch, a data study or a PR push. Look at the linking pages to see what earned them.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Suspicious bursts\u003C\u002Fstrong> are sharp jumps followed by steady decay. They can indicate paid or low-quality links that disappear over time.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Loss spikes\u003C\u002Fstrong> are often caused by the tool recrawling or pruning its index, not by real links disappearing. Sample the lost domains and check whether the linking pages still exist before you treat it as a real loss.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>\u003Cp>A rolling average, such as 3 months, smooths out the single-month steps that recrawls create and makes the underlying trend easier to see.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch3>Filter for quality\u003C\u002Fh3>\u003Cp>A count of referring domains says nothing about whether those links help. Before drawing conclusions from a competitor's growth, filter their new domains by three things: relevance to your industry, real traffic to the linking site, and whether the link is followed. A competitor adding 50 irrelevant directory links a month is not ahead of you in any way that matters.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Step 4: Turn the gap into a monthly target\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>For your most important keyword, list the referring domains of each page on the first results page. Take the median, not the average, so one very strong page does not distort the target. Subtract your own page's referring domains from that median to get the gap.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Then divide the gap by the number of months you are willing to wait. An illustrative example: your page has 120 referring domains, the median page-one result has 180, and you want to close the gap in 12 months. Your target is 5 net new referring domains a month, on top of replacing anything you lose.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Treat the target as a moving one. The pages ahead of you keep earning links, so a target set today aims at where the competition was, not where it is heading. Re-measure every quarter and adjust.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Where velocity comparisons go wrong\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>A few errors turn the analysis into noise:\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Comparing totals across tools.\u003C\u002Fstrong> One vendor's 5,000 referring domains might be another vendor's 4,200. Neither is Google's count. Pick one tool and stay with it.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Reporting gross gains.\u003C\u002Fstrong> Without losses subtracted, every profile looks like it is growing.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Treating every spike as a scheme and every loss as real.\u003C\u002Fstrong> Spikes can be a genuine PR win, and losses are often recrawl artifacts.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Ignoring size.\u003C\u002Fstrong> A site with a very large link profile gains hundreds of domains a month on momentum alone. A young site earning a handful may be growing faster relative to its size. Compare velocity against your own history or competitors of similar scale.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>\u003Cp>It also helps to remember what velocity is not. Google has not described link velocity as a ranking signal. Its guidance focuses on whether links are natural, so a slow, steady profile of relevant links is a better goal than a fast one.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Check that the target is working\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Each quarter, run the same pull with the same tool and window, then check four things:\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Col>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Net growth.\u003C\u002Fstrong> Is your net velocity at or above the monthly target? If not, adjust outreach volume or the types of link sources you pursue.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Quality.\u003C\u002Fstrong> Do your new links pass the same relevance, traffic and follow filters you applied to competitors?\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>The gap itself.\u003C\u002Fstrong> Is it closing? If you are hitting your target but the gap is widening, competitors are moving faster, and you need to study their sources.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Competitor changes.\u003C\u002Fstrong> Has any competitor spiked or dropped sharply? Look at the linking pages to see whether it was a campaign, a recrawl or something less natural.\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Fol>\u003Cp>For how link building fits into a broader authority plan, see \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fpixis.ai\u002Fblog\u002Fbuilding-topical-authority-at-scale-what-the-data-says-what-ive-tried-and-what-im-still-figuring-out\u002F\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">building topical authority at scale\u003C\u002Fa>.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Where Pixis Visibility fits\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>The repetitive part of this process is pulling the same numbers for the same competitors every quarter and keeping the comparison consistent. That consistency is what a single platform provides.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fpixis.ai\u002Fproducts\u002Fpixis-visibility\u002F\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Pixis Visibility\u003C\u002Fa> benchmarks your site against competitors on domain authority, organic traffic, backlinks, referring domains and backlink velocity, so the comparison always comes from one data source and one method. Keyword gap analysis sits alongside it, which helps you confirm that the sites you benchmark are the ones competing for your keywords. For teams moving from a traditional SEO suite, the \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fpixis.ai\u002Fblog\u002Fsemrush-vs-pixis-move-from-seo-tracking-to-geo-execution\u002F\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Semrush and Pixis comparison\u003C\u002Fa> explains how the two approaches differ.\u003C\u002Fp>",{"type":481,"asset":482,"assetWidth":491},"asset_Entry",[483],{"type":27,"image":484,"mobileImage":490},[485],{"src":486,"alt":487,"width":488,"height":489},"https:\u002F\u002Fd191k2rrohvvg6.cloudfront.net\u002Fimages\u002Fpixis-visibility-competitor-benchmark-referring-domains.jpg","Pixis Visibility Competitors and Keywords view comparing your domain with four competitors on authority score, organic traffic, keywords, total backlinks and referring domains",1440,778,[],"large",{"type":478,"textBlock":493},"\u003Cp>Visibility's competitor alerts are built for AI search, where they flag when a competitor gains ground in AI answers. They do not alert on link growth, so the quarterly backlink review stays a manual habit. Reading the patterns, judging link quality and deciding which sources to pursue also stay with your team.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Set one target and review it every quarter\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Pick your most important keyword and run the four steps for it this week: choose competitors, pull new and lost referring domains, read the patterns and calculate the gap. That gives you one realistic monthly target instead of a vague goal to \"build more links.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Put a quarterly review in the calendar, use the same tool and window every time, and judge progress on net growth and link quality, not on gross totals.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Get started with \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fvisibility.pixis.ai\u002F\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Pixis Visibility\u003C\u002Fa> to benchmark your referring domains and backlink velocity against the competitors that hold your target positions.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>FAQs\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Ch3>What is backlink velocity?\u003C\u002Fh3>\u003Cp>It is the rate at which a site gains or loses linking domains over time, usually measured as net new referring domains per month. Looking at net change, rather than gross gains, shows whether a profile is actually growing.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch3>Is link velocity a Google ranking factor?\u003C\u002Fh3>\u003Cp>Google has not described it as one. Its concern is whether links are natural, not how quickly they arrive. Use velocity as a diagnostic for comparing your link growth with competitors, not as a number to push as high as possible.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch3>How often should I compare backlink velocity with competitors?\u003C\u002Fh3>\u003Cp>Quarterly works for most sites. Monthly pulls are fine for tracking your own progress, but a quarterly comparison smooths out recrawl noise and campaign spikes, and it is frequent enough to catch a competitor's sustained push.\u003C\u002Fp>",[],{"blogBanner":496},{"bannerIcon":497,"bannerBrandName":502,"bannerHeading":507,"bannerCta1Text":508,"bannerCta1Url":79,"bannerCta2Text":509,"bannerCta2Url":259},[498],{"url":499,"title":500,"width":501,"height":501},"https:\u002F\u002Fd191k2rrohvvg6.cloudfront.net\u002Fimages\u002Fv-logo.svg","V logo",78,[503],{"url":504,"title":505,"width":506,"height":60},"https:\u002F\u002Fd191k2rrohvvg6.cloudfront.net\u002Fimages\u002Fvisibility-logo.svg","Visibility logo",191,"Increase your visibility on Google and AI search","Book a demo","Signup for free",1793384444226]