Backlink
A backlink is a link on someone else's website that points to yours. It is the same object as any hyperlink - 'backlink' simply names it from the perspective of the site being linked to.
Also called: inbound link, incoming link, backward link, back link
Last reviewed
Not all backlinks are counted the same way. A link's value to search engines depends on where it sits (a link inside the body of a relevant article carries more weight than one in a footer or a sidebar template), whether the linking page is itself reachable and indexed, what the clickable text says, and whether the link is marked with an attribute that tells crawlers not to pass ranking credit.
Relevance is the part people most often underrate. A link from a modest site whose subject genuinely overlaps yours is usually worth more than one from a large site with no topical connection, because the link makes sense to a reader in the first case and looks arbitrary in the second.
Backlinks are also not permanent. Pages get rewritten, sites get redesigned, articles get pruned - and a link that existed last quarter may be gone. Programs that count links at the moment of placement and never look again systematically overstate what they have.
Why backlinks matter in SEO
Google's original ranking idea, PageRank, treated a link from one page to another as a vote: a page linked to by many important pages was probably important itself. The modern system weighs hundreds of signals, but Google still describes links as one of the ways it discovers pages and judges how relevant and useful they are.
Backlinks do three jobs at once. They help search engines find a page in the first place, they act as a signal of its value, and they send visitors directly - referral traffic that arrives whether or not the link does anything for rankings.
What makes a good backlink
- Relevance. The linking page covers a subject your page genuinely relates to, so the link makes sense to a reader.
- An editorial choice. Someone at the linking site decided to add it, rather than you placing it yourself or paying for it.
- Placement in the content. A link in the body of an article, beside the claim it supports, counts for more than one in a footer, sidebar or sitewide template.
- A real audience. The linking site is read by people, which shows up as organic traffic and readers who might click through.
- Descriptive anchor text. The clickable words describe your page naturally, without being forced into an exact commercial phrase.
Types of backlinks
- Editorial links. Added by a writer because your page helps their reader - citations of your research, references in articles, mentions in coverage.
- Earned through outreach. Links that exist because you told a relevant site about something useful, such as a guest article, a resource suggestion, or a replacement for a broken link.
- Self-placed links. Profiles, directory listings, forum signatures and comments you created yourself. Mostly nofollow and weak as a signal, though a few business directories are worth having for visitors alone.
- Paid and sponsored links. Placements you paid for. Google's policy requires them to carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", which means they should pass no ranking credit.
How to check your backlinks
Google Search Console's Links report is the free, first-party view: it lists the sites that link to you most and the pages they link to, from Google's own crawl, though it samples rather than listing every link. Third-party tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz and Majestic each crawl the web themselves and report what they found, so their counts differ from Google's and from each other. Use one consistently for trends rather than treating any of them as the true total.
Common questions
How many backlinks do I need?
There is no target number, and any specific figure is invented. Ranking depends on the competitiveness of the query, the relevance and quality of the linking sites, and everything else about your page - a handful of strong, relevant links routinely outperforms hundreds of weak ones.
What is the difference between a backlink and an internal link?
A backlink comes from a different website; an internal link points from one page on your site to another page on the same site. Both help search engines discover and understand pages, but only backlinks are an endorsement from someone else, which is why they are harder to get and carry more weight as a signal.
Are backlinks still important for SEO?
Yes. Google continues to describe links as one of the signals it uses to find pages and judge their relevance, alongside content quality and many other factors. What has changed is that low-quality and manufactured links are mostly ignored, so a few relevant, editorially earned backlinks matter far more than volume.