What Backlinks Are and Why They Matter

Backlinks are the part of SEO with the most mythology attached, and the part where beginners lose the most money. This page covers what a link actually is, why Google cares, and what makes one worth having.

A backlink is just a link from someone else

A backlink is a link on another website that points to yours. That is the entire definition. If a food blog writes about your bakery and links to your site, you have a backlink.

Two words come up constantly and are worth knowing:

• Anchor text: the visible, clickable words of the link. In "try this sourdough recipe", the italic part is the anchor text. It gives Google a hint about what the linked page is about.
• Nofollow: an attribute a site can add to a link, written rel="nofollow", that tells Google not to pass credit through it. Comment sections and many social platforms add it automatically to every link. It is one of three link attributes, and the other two are more specific.

Why Google counts them, and what makes one good

Google's original insight was that a link is a kind of recommendation. If many independent sites reference a page, that page is probably worth something. That idea is still part of how Google works, though it is now one factor among a great many rather than the dominant one it was in 2005.

What separates a valuable link from a worthless one comes down to a few things.

Relevance. A link from a baking magazine to a bakery means something. A link from an unrelated directory of car parts does not.

Editorial choice. Google's guidelines draw the line at whether a link was freely given. A writer choosing to cite you counts. A link you placed yourself, paid for, or traded does not, and can actively hurt.

Trustworthiness of the source. A link from a site people actually read carries more weight than one from a site built only to host links.

The practical consequence is that counting backlinks is close to meaningless. Ten thousand links from link directories are worth less than nothing; they are a liability. Three links from respected sites in your field can change your results.

What to do

• Check what you already have. Google Search Console has a Links report showing which sites link to you, free and accurate.
• Look at who links to competitors ranking above you. It shows you which publications in your field link out at all.
• Make something worth linking to before trying to get links. This is the step everyone wants to skip and nobody successfully skips.
• Mark any link you were paid for, or that you placed as an advert, with rel="sponsored". This applies to links you publish too.
• Be patient. Backlinks accumulate over months. Anything that promises them in days is selling the kind of link that causes penalties.

Common mistakes

Buying them. Paying for links that pass ranking credit is a direct violation of Google's spam policies. The seller keeps your money; the risk stays with you.

Treating the count as the score. "Domain authority" and similar metrics are invented by SEO tool companies. They can be useful for comparison, but Google does not use them and does not publish anything equivalent.

Panicking about spam links pointing at you. Google is generally good at ignoring links you did not ask for, and says most sites should not need the disavow tool at all.

Sources: Google's spam policies and Link best practices for Google.