Backlinks: What They Are and How to Earn Quality Links
A backlink is a link from another website to a page on your site, as Google’s definition explains. Backlinks can help people and search engines discover your pages. To earn useful ones, publish material worth citing; to evaluate them, inspect the linking page, the link itself, and its destination.
Backlinks and related terms
Backlinks are also called inbound links. The direction depends on the website being discussed: an external link is outbound for the website that publishes it and a backlink for the website it points to. An internal link connects pages within the same website, following the distinction in Google’s link guidance.
Three terms help make backlink reports easier to read:
- Referring page: the individual page containing the backlink.
- Referring domain: the website the backlink comes from. Multiple pages on one website can supply multiple backlinks without representing multiple referring domains.
- Anchor text: the clickable words in a link. Google’s anchor-text documentation explains that these words describe the destination to readers and Google.
Keep the referring page and destination URL together when reviewing links. A domain name alone does not show which page made the reference or what it said.
Why backlinks matter for SEO
Google uses links to find new pages and assess relevance. Its ranking-systems guide also describes systems that analyze connections between pages, including PageRank, which remains part of Google’s core ranking systems in an evolved form.
These are different roles. Discovery helps a search engine encounter a URL; ranking determines which indexed results it presents for a query. Google’s guide describes multiple systems and signals, so a backlink total alone cannot explain a page’s ranking or establish how much an individual link contributed.
For practical evaluation, keep search visibility and referral value separate. Assess changes in search performance alongside other changes to the page, and use visits from the linking website to evaluate whether the citation brings readers. A link can be useful to visitors without providing a measurable ranking improvement.
Regular, nofollow, sponsored, and UGC backlinks
The publisher can use a link’s HTML rel attribute to describe its relationship with the destination. Google’s outbound-link documentation distinguishes these forms:
| Link form | Meaning in Google’s guidance |
|---|---|
| Regular link | An ordinary link needs no qualifying rel attribute. |
rel="nofollow" | Used when other values do not apply and the publisher prefers that Google not associate its site with, or crawl the destination from, that link. |
rel="sponsored" | Identifies advertising and paid placements. Google prefers this value for paid links, while accepting nofollow. |
rel="ugc" | Recommended for links in user-generated content, including comments and forum posts. |
These attributes belong on the link in the referring page’s HTML. Check that page’s link markup to establish which qualification it uses.
Google’s explanation of link attributes says it treats nofollow, sponsored, and ugc as hints about which links to consider or exclude in Search. That does not guarantee ranking credit. A visible link with one of these attributes can still give readers a route to its destination.
How to evaluate backlink quality
Use the following checks to assess a backlink’s usefulness and identify issues worth investigating. They are a review method, not a formula for calculating Google’s ranking signals.
Read the surrounding content. Establish why the source refers to the destination. Check whether the reference supports a claim, explains a term, or provides a relevant resource. Google’s link-text guidance recommends concise, descriptive anchors that fit both the linking page and the destination, with context around them.
Check the publisher and evidence. Look for an identifiable author or organization, clear sourcing, and accurate content. These checks align with Google’s content-quality guidance, which asks whether a page makes its expertise and evidence clear. Read the actual referring page rather than relying on the site’s reputation alone.
Inspect the destination. Click the backlink and check that it reaches the promised content. Record broken links, irrelevant redirects, and references to outdated material. Prioritize corrections that let readers reach the exact information being cited.
Check the link’s implementation. Google says it can generally extract links from HTML anchor elements with an href. Text styled as a link without usable link markup is not an equivalent technical implementation. Inspect the markup and any rel values when a placement needs verification.
Use domain scores as supporting information. Ahrefs defines Domain Rating as a relative measure of a website’s backlink profile within its database. It explicitly cautions against judging a website solely by a site-wide authority score. Treat DR as a way to organize a review, then assess relevance, content, and the specific link. It is an Ahrefs metric, not a disclosed Google score for that backlink.
Keep a concise record: source URL, destination URL, anchor text, qualification, date checked, and any correction needed. This makes the review actionable without reducing different links to a single count.
How to earn backlinks
An earned backlink is a publisher’s decision to cite a resource. Use a process that gives the publisher a clear reason to make that reference and leaves the decision under its control.
Publish something that can be cited
Google’s helpful-content guidance asks creators to provide original contributions, thorough explanations, and material people would want to recommend. Apply those principles to a specific resource:
- Publish original findings with the collection method, dates, and limitations beside them.
- Explain a process with the detail needed to carry it out, including prerequisites and constraints.
- Provide a reference, calculator, or checklist that answers a defined question.
- Add substantive analysis to existing evidence and link to the original sources.
Make authorship, sources, and scope easy to inspect. Keep the useful material accessible at a stable URL, and link to it from relevant pages on your own site. These steps make the resource easier to assess and reference; they do not promise backlinks.
Bring the resource to relevant publishers
Google’s SEO Starter Guide identifies promotion and community engagement as ways to help people interested in the subject discover new content. For backlink outreach, start by reading pages that already discuss the topic.
Identify a specific place where the resource supplies missing evidence, explains a point in greater depth, or updates an obsolete reference. Contact the editor with the destination URL and a brief explanation of that connection. Let the editor choose whether to cite it and which words to link.
Use this same review process for existing mentions of your work and broken references. Request a source link where it would help readers verify a mention. Request a replacement for a broken citation only when the replacement serves the original purpose. Neither request establishes that the publisher owes a link.
Maintain the pages that receive links
Review cited pages for accuracy, working downloads, and functioning URLs. Correct broken destinations you control, and ask publishers to update obsolete references when appropriate. Keep the request tied to the information their page cites.
Evaluate the work by the relevant citations earned, the resources being referenced, and the visitors those references bring. Avoid presenting outreach volume or an increase in a tool’s domain score as proof of improved search rankings.
How to check your backlinks
Google’s Search Console Links report provides top linked pages, top linking sites, and linking text for your website. To inspect a citation:
- Open Links → External links → Top linked pages.
- Select More, then choose the destination page.
- Select a linking site to see its referring pages.
- Open a referring page and verify the live link and destination.
The report’s documented limitations matter: it shows a sample, combines duplicate links, and can include links that have since disappeared. It also does not identify whether a link is marked nofollow.
Use the report to locate references for inspection. A listed link is not proof that it remains live or that Google gives it ranking credit. Before requesting any correction, check the source page’s current state.
Backlink practices to avoid
Google’s link-spam policy covers links created primarily to manipulate rankings. Its examples include buying links for ranking, exchanging goods or services for links, automated link creation, excessive exchanges, low-quality directory links, and optimized anchors in distributed guest posts or press releases. Policy violations can lead to lower visibility or exclusion from search results.
Paid advertising can include links when they are appropriately qualified. Before commissioning a placement, establish whether it is advertising and how its links will be marked. Assess the placement’s audience and content rather than treating payment as the purchase of ranking credit.
When to remove or disavow backlinks
Google’s disavow guidance says most websites do not need the tool. It recommends disavowing only when both conditions apply: a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality backlinks, and an existing or likely manual action caused by those links.
For unnatural links associated with such a problem, Google recommends trying to remove them first. Disavow is the fallback for links that cannot be removed. Used incorrectly, the tool can harm search performance.
An unfamiliar domain or low third-party score alone does not establish those conditions. Investigate the links and their acquisition history before deciding on removal or disavow.
Frequently asked questions
How many backlinks does a website need?
Google’s ranking-systems guide does not provide a universal backlink requirement. It describes multiple signals and systems. Set priorities around useful pages and relevant references instead of inferring a guaranteed ranking threshold from a competitor’s link count.
Is a high Domain Rating enough to identify a good backlink?
Ahrefs’ own guidance advises against judging a website by site-wide authority alone. Inspect the referring page’s relevance, content, and link placement, then test the destination. A domain-level metric does not replace that review.
Are nofollow backlinks useful?
A visible nofollow backlink can still provide a route for readers. Google’s hint-based treatment of link attributes also prevents a simple attribute label from establishing a fixed ranking effect. Evaluate the referral and reference without assuming ranking credit.
Can backlinks be bought?
Google’s spam policy prohibits buying links for ranking purposes. Advertising links must be qualified as paid placements, using sponsored or the accepted alternative, nofollow. Payment for exposure does not establish an independent editorial recommendation.