Commerce Graph · Sephora vs Ulta authority analysis
Sephora vs Ulta: earned authority vs rented authority
1.76x
Sephora's referring-domain lead
87.6%
of Ulta's top links are affiliate/deal
31.5%
of Sephora's are earned influencer
Sephora carries 1.76x more referring domains than Ulta — but composition is the real story. Ulta's top-authority inventory is overwhelmingly affiliate and deal sites. Sephora's includes a large slice of earned influencer coverage, which is the inventory AI engines actually cite.
TL;DR
- Sephora carries 1.76x more referring domains than Ulta.
- 87.6% of Ulta's top-authority links are affiliate and deal sites — rented authority that stops when the campaign stops.
- 31.5% of Sephora's top-authority links are earned influencer coverage — the inventory AI engines cite.
Read the flow left to right. How we measure this.
Authority volume
Referring domains
Ulta link composition
Top-authority inventory
Sephora link composition
Top-authority inventory
Why it matters for citation
What AI engines pick up
the inventory models quote
high link count, low citation value
Durability
What happens when spend stops
Merchant resolution
Consequence for brands
earned inventory feeds citation
affiliate inventory does not feed citation
Want the row-level data behind this table? Email hello@aqxle.ai and we will send it.
Findings
What the stack rewards
- 01
Raw referring-domain counts rank Sephora ahead, but the durable difference is composition, not volume.
- 02
87.6% of Ulta's top-authority links are affiliate and deal sites. That inventory is bought, it decays when the campaign stops, and AI engines rarely cite it.
- 03
31.5% of Sephora's top-authority links are earned influencer coverage — exactly the kind of page models quote when asked what to buy.
- 04
For a brand choosing where to concentrate retail effort, the retailer's authority composition changes how often your products surface in AI answers at all.
One link chain, resolved. Every Friday.
Where AI-driven demand actually landed this week — one publisher, one category, one resolved path.
Method
Backlink Intelligence analysis of referring domains and top-authority link composition for sephora.com and ulta.com. Independent public benchmark analysis — no client endorsement or partnership implied.
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