Domain Authority
Domain authority is a SEO ranking tool that is used to figure out how well your website ranks. Created by the company Moz, domain authority scores your web pages from 0-100, based on several factors. The higher your score, the better your SEO rank. Your DA does not impact your site ranking. There are several tools you can use to see your domain authority, the most popular being: Moz and Keywords Explorer. Use your domain authority score as a comparative metric.
Backlinks
A backlink is a link that connects one website to another. If you have backlinks that come to your website, it is seen as a vote of confidence as it helps you optimize your content. Like a line outside a restaurant is seen as a popular spot that drives more people to it, a backlink prompts search engines to recognize your site worth linking to. A backlink is also a critical part of off-site SEO.
(Background on backlinks: https://moz.com/learn/seo/backlinks )
Referring Domain
A referring domain is a metric used to track the number of domains directed to your website. For example, if a site has a backlink from The Wall Street Journal, then it has one referring domain. The Ahrefs Site Explorer is a great tool to find your website’s referring domains, among other metrics, including backlinks and competitor’s keywords?
Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is traffic generated by users who visit websites from unpaid search results, as opposed to paid ads that generate the traffic. A great way to monitor your site’s organic traffic for free is via Google Analytics. The user landing on your website is only the first step to turning those people into customers.
Keywords
An essential part of attracting traffic is using keywords on your web pages. Keywords are words that are used in your website content to generate traffic to your site. Keywords for your unique website are chosen by looking at the keyword volume to help you grow organically in search engines Google and Bing.
Search Results
Search results are the results a user gets when they type in a search query on a search engine. Results will match up to your phrase or words you type into Google or Bing. Your search results will show on a SERP, a search engine results page, and allow you to see paid (ads) and organic search results.
Rankings
Rankings in SEO refer to the position of the website URL on the SERPs. There are many ranking factors that determine where your site will end up on the search engine page. The ranking is important as most people never scroll past the first page of Google.
According to HubSpot, 75% of searchers never go past the first page of search results — therefore it is so essential to rank on the first page of Google.