A referring domain is a domain that links to a given website or page at least once. Several links from the same domain count as one referring domain.
How it differs from a backlink
A backlink is a single link. The number of referring domains shows how many distinct sources link to you. Two links from the same news site, for example, are two backlinks but one referring domain. A footer link on a partner site with thousands of pages can add thousands of backlinks while the referring domain count stays at one.
How domains are counted
Search Console groups the top linking sites by root domain. Subdomains and protocols are removed, so www.example.com and m.example.com both appear as example.com. Top-level domains stay intact, so example.com and example.com.de count separately. Third-party backlink tools apply their own rules and indexes, which is why their totals differ (assessment).
Example
A site has 120 backlinks. 100 come from the footer of one partner portal, 20 from 19 other sites. That is 120 backlinks and 20 referring domains.
Sources
- Links report – Search Console Helpsupport.google.com
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