What Is a Backlink and How to Build Strong Backlinks?
A backlink (also known as an “inbound link,” “incoming link,” or “one-way link”) is a link from one website to a page on another website.
A backlink is a link containing specific anchor text that points to a website or webpage. Generally, the higher the authority and importance of the website providing the link, the more valuable the backlink can be to search engines.
Backlinks are one of the elements of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that can contribute to improving a website’s rankings in search results. Google and other major search engines use links as signals that can help determine the relevance, authority, and value of a webpage.
Pages with a strong and relevant backlink profile may perform better in search engine results. However, it is important to understand that the quality of backlinks matters more than simply the number of backlinks. Therefore, you should focus on building high-quality backlinks.
What Is the Importance of Backlinks for Your Website?
Backlinks are essentially references or recommendations from other websites. A relevant and editorially placed link can signal to search engines that the linked content may be valuable, trustworthy, and useful.
In other words, earning high-quality backlinks from reputable and relevant websites can contribute to your website’s authority and visibility in search engines.
The use of links in search engine algorithms is not new. In fact, links were a fundamental part of Google’s original ranking algorithm, known as PageRank. Although Google has made thousands of changes to its search algorithms over the years, links remain an important part of how search engines discover and evaluate web pages.
The Importance of Backlinks Today
Backlinks were originally important as a way for users to navigate between websites before the widespread development of modern search engines. Today, their importance is strongly associated with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
The number of backlinks pointing to a website or webpage can be one signal of its importance, although search engines evaluate many other factors as well.
Backlinks can also have value beyond SEO. They may provide referral traffic, connect related resources, and help users discover useful information.
The concept of a backlink varies depending on how website owners and content creators publish links and connect their webpages. This practice is often associated with off-page SEO or off-site SEO.
Building links from relevant, reputable websites can help improve a website’s visibility, reputation, referral traffic, and discoverability by search engines.
For example, industry studies have found a strong relationship between backlinks and search engine rankings, although correlation does not necessarily mean that backlinks alone determine rankings.
Characteristics of High-Quality Backlinks
The value of a backlink generally increases when it comes from a reputable website and is relevant to the content being linked to.
A backlink from a trusted and authoritative website can be similar to a recommendation from a trusted source. However, not all backlinks are created equal.
If you want to improve your rankings in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), you should focus on acquiring relevant, natural, and high-quality backlinks rather than simply trying to increase the total number of links.
In many cases, one highly relevant and authoritative backlink can be more valuable than hundreds or thousands of low-quality links.
High-quality backlinks often share several important characteristics.
1 – Backlinks From Authoritative Websites
Would you rather receive a backlink from Harvard University or from an unknown website with little authority?
Search engines similarly consider the reputation and authority of the websites providing links.
This concept is often discussed in terms of website authority or Domain Authority (DA). Domain Authority is a third-party SEO metric developed by Moz and should not be confused with an official Google ranking metric.
Generally, links from reputable and authoritative websites can be more valuable than links from low-quality or unrelated websites.
2 – Including the Target Keyword in the Anchor Text
As a reminder, anchor text is the visible text that users click to follow a hyperlink.
In some cases, it can be useful for anchor text to naturally describe the destination page and include relevant keywords.
However, you should avoid excessively optimizing your anchor text with exact-match keywords.
Overusing exact-match anchor text in an attempt to manipulate rankings can violate search engine spam policies. Google’s algorithms have historically targeted manipulative link-building practices, including unnatural link schemes and excessive keyword-rich anchor text.
Therefore, your backlink profile should contain natural and varied anchor text, including branded terms, URLs, descriptive phrases, and naturally occurring keywords.
3 – The Linking Website and Page Should Be Topically Relevant
When one website links to another, topical relevance can make the link more useful to users and search engines.
For example, if you have published an article about real estate prices in Turkey, a backlink from a reputable real-estate, property, finance, or travel-related website may be more contextually relevant than a link from an unrelated website about fishing, cooking, or bicycles.
The most important consideration is that the link should make sense in the context of the content and provide value to the reader.
4 – Links From Different Domains
Suppose you receive a backlink from Website A. Great!
Now imagine that Website A links to you again, and again, and again.
Additional links from the same website may provide diminishing value compared with earning links from a variety of independent, relevant websites.
For this reason, having backlinks from 100 different relevant websites can be more useful than having thousands of links from a single domain.
The goal should therefore be to build a diverse, natural, and relevant backlink profile rather than simply increasing the number of links.
Types of Backlinks
Backlinks are commonly discussed in terms of internal links and external backlinks.
1 – Internal Links
Internal links are links that connect pages within the same website.
For example, you can link from one article to another related article on your website. This helps visitors discover additional relevant content and helps search engines understand the structure and relationships between your pages.
Internal linking is an important SEO practice and can improve website navigation, content discoverability, and the distribution of internal link equity throughout a website.
2 – External Backlinks
There are many ways to acquire external backlinks because link-building strategies can vary depending on the industry, audience, and type of content.
Some common methods include:
Comments
Some websites allow users to comment on articles and include links.
However, links placed in comments generally provide limited SEO value, and many websites automatically add nofollow or other link attributes to user-generated links.
If you participate in discussions, your comments should be useful, relevant, and genuinely contribute to the conversation rather than being created primarily to obtain backlinks.
Articles and Posts on Other Websites
Publishing or earning links from other websites can be an important link-building strategy.
This can happen through legitimate guest posting, digital PR, expert contributions, partnerships, or by creating original and valuable content that other websites naturally want to reference.
When high-quality content is useful, informative, or unique, other publishers may choose to cite it and link to it as a source.
This can result in valuable and relevant backlinks.
Types of External Backlinks
External backlinks are commonly discussed in terms of dofollow and nofollow links.
Dofollow Links
A “dofollow link” is an informal SEO term for a normal link that does not contain a rel="nofollow" attribute or another qualifying link attribute.
For example:
<a href="https://example.com/">Example</a>
Search engines can crawl and follow normal links, and such links can contribute to the discovery and evaluation of webpages.
However, it is not accurate to say that a normal link automatically transfers a specific amount of “authority” or guarantees improved rankings.
The value of a link depends on many factors, including relevance, context, the linking page, the linking website, and whether the link is natural and editorially given.
Nofollow Links
A nofollow link is a link that includes the rel="nofollow" attribute.
For example:
<a href="https://example.com/" rel="nofollow">Example</a>
The nofollow attribute tells search engines that the website does not want the link to be treated as a typical endorsement.
However, this does not necessarily mean that search engines completely ignore the link. Nofollow links can still be useful for referral traffic, discovery, branding, and visibility.
Many websites use nofollow or other link attributes for user-generated content, comments, advertisements, or links where the publisher does not want to provide a traditional editorial endorsement.
Why Can Nofollow Backlinks Still Be Useful?
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They can generate referral traffic from other websites.
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They can increase brand exposure and visibility.
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They can help users discover your website and content.
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They can contribute to a natural and diverse backlink profile.
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They are commonly used for user-generated content and certain types of promotional links.
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They can help you build relationships and increase awareness of your website.
You can explore many other topics related to backlinks and SEO on the First Marketing blog.
Tips for Using Backlinks
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Do not use automated link-building software or services that promise thousands of backlinks.
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Avoid excessive or manipulative link exchanges between websites.
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Do not place your links randomly or in locations where they provide no value to users.
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Avoid creating large numbers of backlinks solely for the purpose of manipulating search rankings.
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Focus on creating useful, original, and link-worthy content.
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Build relationships with relevant websites and publishers in your industry.
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Use internal links to connect related pages throughout your website.
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Make sure your internal links provide genuine value to visitors and help them discover relevant content.
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Focus on quality, relevance, and natural link acquisition rather than simply trying to increase the number of backlinks.
How to Check Whether a Backlink Is Nofollow or Dofollow
There are several ways to check whether a link is nofollow or a normal link.
One method is to right-click on the webpage and select “View Page Source.”
Then press Ctrl + F and search for your website URL or the relevant anchor text.
Look for the link’s HTML code
