# Reading a backlink profile: a worked example (/docs/off-page-seo/backlink-profile/backlink-profile-worked-example)

---
type: Document
title: "Reading a backlink profile: a worked example"
description: "A real backlink-profile export (referring URL, DR, domain traffic, linked domains, and external links), walked through as a worked example of the reverse-engineering method, taught by Dr Shahid."
status: stable
order: 34
added: 2026-09-22T10:29:45Z
generated: { by: human:ahmedraza, at: 2026-11-06T18:14:10Z }
ksor:
  audience: [public]
  owner: human:ahmedraza
  approval: { by: human:ahmedraza, at: 2026-11-06T18:14:10Z }
sources:
  - id: backlink-subdomain-sheet
    title: Backlink Sub-domain report
    resource: "Backlink SUB DOMAIN iSkills Dr Shahid.xlsx, iSkills course material"
verified: [{ by: human:ahmedraza, at: 2026-09-22T12:00:00Z }]
trust_tier: human-reviewed
build_id: sha256:401a1d4b5eead93b53bbfcc53b1ee4048e592b4be6f6059d848ed6ffaa614755
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ksor_version: 0.0.60
---

*This document is from lectures taught by Dr Shahid.*

A real referring-page export for one site's backlink profile, from Ahrefs'
subdomain-level report, the same kind of report [Competitor backlink
analysis](../off-page-seo-fundamentals.md) describes reading. Each row is one
page that links to the analyzed site.[^backlink-subdomain-sheet]

## How to read the columns

- **Referring page URL**: the exact page carrying the backlink, not just the
  domain.
- **DR (Domain Rating)**: the referring domain's own authority.
- **Domain Traffic**: that domain's estimated total organic traffic, not
  the traffic of this one page.
- **Linked Domains**: how many distinct external domains that page links
  out to.
- **External Links**: the total count of outbound links on that page
  (higher than Linked Domains when a page links to the same external domain
  more than once).[^backlink-subdomain-sheet]

A page with a high Linked Domains / External Links count is sharing its link
authority across many other sites at once: a backlink from a page like that
is diluted compared to one from a page that links out sparingly.

## The top 50 referring pages by DR

| Referring page URL | DR | Domain traffic | Linked domains | External links |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| https://afthemes.com/blog/magazine-wordpress-themes/ | 92 | 204 | 39 | 67 |
| https://sites.uw.edu/pols385/2020/05/05/contemplative-practice-and-hunger/comment-page-1/ | 88 | 1,072,815 | 28 | 32 |
| https://blogs.uoregon.edu/artofnature/2013/11/30/featured-artist-sylvain-meyer/ | 86 | 478,891 | 80 | 157 |
| https://answers.themler.io/questions/217844/ | 85 | 313 | 6 | 6 |
| https://sites.gsu.edu/etalundzic2/2016/03/31/cdc-digital-record-1/comment-page-9/ | 85 | 826,786 | 44 | 54 |
| https://edspace.american.edu/wrtg101-83/2020/02/27/heytea-environmental-plan/ | 84 | 379,983 | 171 | 191 |
| https://scilogs.spektrum.de/page/8252/ | 83 | 314,149 | 7 | 8 |
| https://jebbidan.wixstudio.com/youtube/forum/general-discussions/ | 83 | 17,975 | 11 | 14 |
| https://portfolio.newschool.edu/zacharyfernandez/2020/11/15/girl-innovators-fun-home-book-review/ | 82 | 152,779 | 50 | 59 |
| http://park8.wakwak.com/~w22/cgi-bin/best/read.cgi | 82 | 31,818 | 9 | 14 |
| http://cmnsc-events.3.s1.nabble.com/Digital-Marketing-Agency-New-Jersey-td466i20.html | 82 | 7,618 | 13 | 13 |
| https://blogs.zeiss.com/news/metrology-uk/aukom-1-an-entirely-new-experience/ | 82 | 207,348 | 84 | 104 |
| http://criticalliteracy.freehostia.com/index.php (comment thread) | 81 | 14,420 | 3 | 3 |
| https://gitlab.uliege.be/-/snippets/28 | 81 | 143,532 | 64 | 119 |
| https://webkit.dti.ne.jp/bbs/thread.do (forum thread) | 81 | 34,011 | 8 | 8 |
| http://m056104.ppp.asahi-net.or.jp/cgi/patio_rakutaku/patio.cgi | 81 | 120,727 | 11 | 12 |
| http://studentambassadors.blog.jyu.fi/2019/10/student-story-how-to-combine.html | 80 | 74,364 | 35 | 94 |
| https://sites.williams.edu/srd4/methods-exercises/methods-exercise-6/ | 80 | 93,915 | 209 | 244 |
| https://manga-sama.blog4ever.com/forum/salon-de-the/how-to-play-the-heardle-game | 79 | 53,985 | 6 | 7 |
| https://feedback.challonge.com/forums/44455-feature-requests/suggestions/15618843-blind-draw-dart-tournament | 79 | 230,248 | 17 | 18 |
| https://sites.middlebury.edu/laurapreston/2016/02/15/getting-cameroonian-girls-involved-in-stem-a-newsletter/ | 79 | 101,933 | 6 | 9 |
| https://news.lex.bg/pregled-na-pechata/ (Bulgarian news comment) | 78 | 158,268 | 46 | 49 |
| http://www.kt.rim.or.jp/~youie/cgi-bin/nanmeri/nanmeri.cgi | 78 | 21,634 | 46 | 56 |
| https://blogs.ubalt.edu/siyer/2017/11/12/weaving-together-bangalores-local-citizen-engagement-efforts/ | 77 | 38,777 | 1,139 | 1,471 |
| https://blog.zhdk.ch/genderverhandeln/2017/09/27/ | 77 | 9,691 | 764 | 1,081 |
| https://sites.suffolk.edu/pandemicpolitics/2020/08/10/covid-19-and-the-impacts-on-college-students/ | 76 | 65,472 | 17 | 23 |
| https://pinshape.com/items/25852-3d-printed-articulated-facehugger | 76 | 8,883 | 12 | 19 |
| https://webinar.gea.com/the-wall-building-a-collaboritve-1 | 76 | 43,201 | 58 | 58 |
| https://videos.valtech.com/webinar-from-b2b-supply-chain-to-1 | 76 | 19,994 | 23 | 24 |
| http://hktagb.ddo.jp/diarypro-vb/diary.cgi | 75 | 3,177 | 87 | 148 |
| http://www3.wind.ne.jp/snowbravo/gesc_cgi/diarypro/diary.cgi | 75 | 6,708 | 205 | 272 |
| https://www.rcinet.ca/bhm-en/2020/02/25/it-reminds-us-of-who-we-are-5-songs-to-play-during-black-history-month/ | 75 | 3,176 | 37 | 65 |
| http://www.kcn.ne.jp/~gorosan/cgi-bin/diarypro/diary.cgi | 75 | 17,634 | 242 | 319 |
| https://www.environment.gov.ag/eia-submission/ | 75 | 8,048 | 925 | 1,435 |
| https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/foundationsforwriting/2020/08/22/pearls-before-swine-individual-responsibility/ | 75 | 62,256 | 36 | 49 |
| https://tdouniversity.tdo4endo.com/cracked-lower-second-molar/ | 75 | 315 | 13 | 13 |
| http://blogs.evergreen.edu/morisa24/2013/04/15/box-1-process/ | 75 | 33,641 | 87 | 108 |
| http://blog.twinspires.com/2012/02/twinspirescom-announces-1-million.html | 75 | 281,884 | 12 | 28 |
| http://worholicanada.mydns.jp/stamp/station/20120415_01.htm | 75 | 11,831 | 41 | 77 |
| https://mcmguides.fogbugz.com/default.asp | 75 | 381 | 5 | 5 |
| https://www.3dnatives.com/en/the-top-ebm-3d-printers-on-the-market-in-2025/ | 74 | 44,605 | 17 | 23 |
| http://kongtaigi.pts.org.tw/2016/01/17.html | 74 | 541,634 | 40 | 99 |
| http://nchu-smart-campus.nchu.edu.tw/2016/11/Smart-Meter.html | 74 | 148,139 | 26 | 134 |
| https://hawksites.newpaltz.edu/jennbrannigan/2016/09/09/memo-1/ | 74 | 41,510 | 94 | 104 |
| https://mypad.northampton.ac.uk/digitalleaders/2016/04/01/creating-a-class-blog-on-placement/comment-page-1/ | 74 | 117,464 | 21 | 23 |
| https://rhit.vivaldi.net/ (Vivaldi blog post) | 74 | 21,471 | 22 | 32 |
| https://scope.bccampus.ca/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=28073 | 73 | 130,465 | 24 | 26 |
| https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2015/09/16/netflix-responds-to-criticism-changes-its-sexist-description-of-pocahontas/comment-page-1/ | 73 | 2,317 | 16 | 24 |
| https://stevenpressfield.com/2013/03/how-to-respond/ | 73 | 2,823 | 32 | 43 |
| http://blog.squadup.com/last-minute-sxsw-event/ | 73 | 716 | 19 | 25 |

## Reading the pattern

Almost every high-DR referring page in this profile is a **university blog
comment section** (`sites.uw.edu`, `blogs.uoregon.edu`, `edspace.american.edu`,
`sites.gsu.edu`, and similar `.edu` subdomains), a **forum thread**, or an
**old CGI-based Japanese blog/forum** (`asahi-net.or.jp`, `wakwak.com`,
`kcn.ne.jp`), not homepages or editorial articles. This matches
[Off-page SEO fundamentals](../off-page-seo-fundamentals.md)'s own **Foundation
backlinks** and **Blog comments / Forum backlinks** categories directly:
university course-blog platforms in particular tend to run high domain
authority (from the parent `.edu` domain) while leaving comment sections open
to anyone, which is exactly the combination (high DR, low moderation) that
makes a page a repeatable backlink target rather than a one-off.[^backlink-subdomain-sheet]

[^backlink-subdomain-sheet]: Backlink SUB DOMAIN iSkills Dr Shahid.xlsx,
    iSkills course material.