What Is a Backlink?
A backlink is a link from a page on one website to a page on a different website. If a news site writes about saving money and links to a WhyExplain article on compound interest, that link is a backlink for WhyExplain. People also call them inbound links or incoming links.
Every link has two ends. From the news site’s side, it’s an outbound link. From WhyExplain’s side, it’s a backlink. Links between pages on the same site are a third type, called internal links.
| Link type | Where it starts | Where it points | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backlink (inbound) | Another website | Your website | A blog cites your guide |
| Outbound link | Your website | Another website | Your article links to official data |
| Internal link | Your website | Your website | Your article links to your glossary |
A backlink is not the same as a mention. If a site names your brand but doesn’t link to you, readers can’t click through and search engines see no link between the two pages.
Why Backlinks Matter
Backlinks do two jobs for a website: they help search engines find its pages, and they act as a signal of trust. Both come straight from how Google describes its own systems.
Links help Google find pages
Google finds most new pages by following links from pages it has already crawled.1 A brand-new page with no links pointing to it is harder to discover. A link from a site Google already visits often gives its crawler a path to your page.
Links are a signal of trust
Google says that when prominent websites link to or refer to a piece of content, that is generally a good sign the information is trustworthy.2 A link works a little like a citation in a research paper. The more respected the sources citing a paper, the more weight readers give it.
But links are one signal among many
Google is clear that links are not the whole story. Its SEO Starter Guide says PageRank, the system built on links, is one of many ranking signals.1 The same guide says that creating content people find compelling and useful will likely influence your search presence more than anything else it recommends.1
In practice: backlinks amplify good content. They rarely rescue weak content. Build the page first, then earn the links.
How PageRank Works, in Plain English
PageRank treats a link as a vote, and votes from important pages count for more. Google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, described it in their 1998 paper about the first version of Google.3
The idea has three parts:
- A link is a vote. When page A links to page B, it passes some of its standing to B.
- Not all votes are equal. A page that many important pages link to has more standing to pass on.
- Votes are shared. A page’s standing is split across the links it gives out, so a link from a page with hundreds of outbound links passes less to each one.
Google says PageRank has evolved a lot since launch and remains part of its core ranking systems.4 The exact formula Google uses today isn’t public, so treat any precise “link value” score you see online as an estimate.
What Makes a Backlink Valuable
A valuable backlink comes from a relevant, trusted page and was placed there because the content deserved it. Five qualities make the biggest difference:
- Relevance. A link from a personal finance site to a savings guide makes sense. A link from a car parts shop to the same guide looks random.
- Trust of the linking site. Links from sites that are themselves widely cited carry more weight than links from new or spammy sites.
- Editorial placement. A link inside the body of an article, chosen by the writer, is more meaningful than one in a footer or a sidebar list.
- Anchor text. The clickable words describe the destination. Google says link text tells users and Google something about the page being linked to.1
- Whether the link is qualified. Links marked as paid or user-generated are treated differently, as the next section explains.
| Signal | Strong backlink | Weak backlink |
|---|---|---|
| Topic | Same or closely related subject | Unrelated subject |
| Linking site | Established, often cited | Thin content, many outbound links |
| Placement | In the main article text | Footer, sidebar or link list |
| Anchor text | Natural description, e.g. “guide to compound interest” | Generic (“click here”) or keyword-stuffed |
| Why it exists | The writer chose to cite you | Paid, swapped or auto-generated |
Anchor Text, Explained
Anchor text is the visible, clickable part of a link, and it works like a label for the page on the other end. When another site links to you, the words it chooses help readers decide whether to click and help Google understand what your page covers.1
Most natural backlinks use a mix of anchor text. That mix is a sign that different people chose to link in their own words.
| Anchor type | Example for a compound interest guide | How it usually appears |
|---|---|---|
| Descriptive | “how compound interest works” | The most useful kind, chosen by a writer citing you |
| Branded | “WhyExplain” | Common when people mention the site by name |
| Bare address | “whyexplain.com” | Common in lists and social posts |
| Generic | “this guide”, “read more” | Natural, but tells Google little about the page |
| Exact keyword, repeated | “best compound interest calculator” on dozens of sites | A warning sign of manipulated links |
You usually can’t control the words other people use, and you shouldn’t try to. Google’s spam policies specifically name keyword-optimised anchor text in paid articles and widgets as a problem.6 Your job is to make the page so clearly about one topic that natural descriptions follow.
Start With the SEO Basics
Backlinks are one part of SEO. See how Google decides what to show, from crawling to ranking.
Read: What Is SEO? →A Worked Example: How One Guide Earns Links
Here’s how a single useful page can collect backlinks over time. This is an illustration of a typical pattern, not data from a real site.
- Week 1. A site publishes a plain-English guide to compound interest, with a free calculator and a table showing how $5,000 grows over 30 years at different rates.
- Month 1. A personal finance blogger writing about saving for retirement needs a simple explanation for her readers. She finds the guide and links to it with the words “how compound interest works”.
- Month 3. A teacher adds the calculator to a class resource page. A forum member shares the table in a discussion about savings, and the forum labels the link as user-generated.
- Month 6. A local newspaper writing about pensions cites the guide’s table as an easy example. That link comes from a site Google crawls often.
None of these links were bought or swapped. Each writer linked because the page saved them work and helped their readers. That is the pattern Google’s systems are designed to reward, and it’s the one worth copying.
Followed, Nofollow, Sponsored and UGC Links
Website owners can add a short label, called a rel attribute, that tells Google what kind of link it is. Google documents three values.5
| Label | What it means | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| No label (a regular link) | A normal editorial link | Citing a useful source |
| rel=”sponsored” | The link is an advert or a paid placement | Sponsored posts, affiliate links |
| rel=”ugc” | The link was added by users | Comments, forum posts |
| rel=”nofollow” | Don’t associate the sites or crawl through this link | When neither label above fits |
Google says links with these labels will generally not be followed.5 They still send readers to your site, which can matter more than search credit, especially for links from busy communities.
Backlinks That Can Hurt You
Links created mainly to manipulate rankings count as link spam under Google’s policies. Google lists these practices among them:6
- Buying or selling links that pass ranking credit, including paying for posts that contain links
- Exchanging goods or services for links
- Excessive link swaps (“you link to me and I’ll link to you”)
- Using automated programs or services to create links
- Sponsored articles, guest posts or press releases with links that aren’t qualified
- Links from low-quality directories or bookmark sites
- Keyword-rich links hidden in widgets or spread across site footers
- Forum comments stuffed with links
Paying for advertising isn’t the problem in itself. Google’s policy says buying and selling links is fine when the links are marked with rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow”.6
Don’t panic about spammy links you didn’t create. Every site picks some up. Google says most sites will never need its disavow tool, because it can usually work out which links to trust. The tool is meant for sites with many spammy links that have caused, or are likely to cause, a manual action.7
How to Earn Backlinks the Right Way
People link to pages that help their own readers. So the most reliable approach is to make pages worth citing, then make sure the right people know they exist.
- Publish original data. A survey, a price comparison or a clear chart of official figures gives writers something to cite that they can’t get elsewhere.
- Write the clearest explanation of a topic. Teachers, journalists and other bloggers link to explanations that save them from writing their own.
- Build a useful free tool. Calculators and checklists attract links for years. WhyExplain’s free calculators are an example of this kind of page.
- Turn mentions into links. If a site mentions your brand without linking, a short, polite note asking them to add the link often works.
- Fix broken links that pointed to you. If other sites link to a page you moved, redirect the old address so those links keep working.
- Contribute expertise, not link requests. Answering a reporter’s question or writing a genuinely useful guest article can earn a link, as long as any paid arrangement is labelled.
Backlinks for a New Website: Where to Start
A new site has no links yet, so the first goal is to give Google and people a reason to notice it. Start with steps you control, then build outward.
- Get the basics indexed. Submit your sitemap in Search Console so Google can find your pages even before other sites link to them. Google says sitemaps are another way it discovers pages.5
- Link your own pages together. Internal links help readers and crawlers move from your best-known pages to newer ones.
- Claim your genuine listings. Your own social profiles and real business listings are fine places to link from. Avoid paid directories that exist only to sell links.
- Publish a few pages worth citing. One excellent guide, data table or calculator earns more links than twenty thin posts.
- Tell the people who’d care. Share new work with communities, newsletters and writers who cover your topic, without asking for a link in return.
Expect this to be slow. Links follow attention, and attention follows content that helps people. The sites that win long term treat link building as a result of good publishing, not a separate task.
How to Check Your Backlinks
Google Search Console shows which sites link to you, for free. Its Links report lists your most-linked pages, the sites that link to you most and the most common link text.8
The report shows a sample of links, not every one.8 Paid SEO tools offer larger link databases and their own authority scores. Those scores are estimates made by the tool companies. Google doesn’t publish an authority score for websites, so use these numbers to compare sites, not as a measure of how Google sees you.
Common Backlink Myths
| Myth | Reality |
|---|---|
| More backlinks always means higher rankings | Relevance and trust matter more than the count. Many low-quality links can be ignored or treated as spam. |
| Links are all that matter | Google calls PageRank one of many signals and says useful content matters most.1 |
| Nofollow links are worthless | They usually don’t pass ranking credit, but they can bring real visitors. |
| Third-party authority scores are Google’s numbers | They are estimates from SEO tool companies. Google doesn’t publish one. |
| Any bad link will hurt your site | Google usually works out which links to ignore. Most sites never need to disavow anything.7 |
Key Terms Explained
A handful of words come up again and again when people talk about links.
- Backlink: a link on another website that points to a page on yours.
- Anchor text: the clickable words of a link, which hint at what the linked page is about.
- Nofollow: a link attribute asking search engines not to pass ranking credit through the link.
- Referring domain: a separate website that links to you; ten links from one site count as one referring domain.
- Link building: the work of earning links from relevant, trustworthy sites.
The Bottom Line
Backlinks still matter because they help Google find your pages and judge whether others trust them. But they are one signal among many, and the quality of the linking page counts far more than the number of links. Spend your effort on pages that deserve to be cited, label any paid links honestly and check your links in Search Console now and then. To see where links fit in the bigger picture, read our guide to how SEO works or browse more SEO explainers.
For businesses serving nearby customers, local links matter most. Our explainer on local SEO covers them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Google says it finds most new pages through links and that PageRank, which is built on links, is still part of its core ranking systems. It also calls PageRank one of many signals, so links work best alongside genuinely useful content.
There’s no fixed number. It depends on how competitive the topic is and on the quality of the pages already ranking. A few relevant links from trusted sites usually do more than many links from unrelated ones.
Google says links marked nofollow, sponsored or ugc will generally not be followed, so they usually pass little or no ranking credit. They can still send visitors, and visitors who find your page useful may link to it themselves.
Only if the links are clearly labelled as paid with rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow”. Buying links that pass ranking credit breaks Google’s spam policies and can lead to those links being ignored or to action against the site.
Google first has to recrawl the page that links to you, and how often that happens varies from site to site. Any effect also depends on everything else about your page, so there’s no reliable timeline.
A backlink comes from a different website. An internal link connects two pages on the same website. Both help readers and search engines move around, but only backlinks show that other sites chose to reference you.
Sources
- 1Google Search Central: SEO Starter Guide
- 2Google: How Search Works, Ranking Results
- 3Brin and Page: The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine (Stanford, 1998)
- 4Google Search Central: A Guide to Google Search Ranking Systems
- 5Google Search Central: Qualify Your Outbound Links to Google
- 6Google Search Central: Spam Policies for Google Web Search
- 7Search Console Help: Disavow Links to Your Site
- 8Search Console Help: Links Report
Every figure in this article is checked against the sources above. How we research and fact-check →
Start With the SEO Basics
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