Backlink
A backlink is a link from one website to another. Search engines use backlinks as a key ranking signal, treating each link as a vote of confidence in the linked content.
A backlink (also called an inbound link or incoming link) is created when one website links to another. If a food blog writes an article and includes a link to your restaurant's website, that's a backlink for your site. Search engines, particularly Google, use backlinks as one of their primary ranking signals.
This concept is at the heart of Google's original PageRank algorithm. Backlinks are evaluated on several quality factors. The authority of the linking domain matters most: a link from The New York Times is worth far more than a link from a newly created blog.
In practice
- A cybersecurity firm earned a backlink from a major news outlet after being quoted as an expert source, which increased their organic traffic by 15% within a month
- A small e-commerce brand got a backlink from an influencer's "favorite products" blog post, driving $12,000 in sales from referral traffic alone
- A nonprofit's research report was cited by 50 educational institutions, earning .edu backlinks that significantly boosted their domain authority
- A startup's founder wrote a guest article for Forbes, earning a high-authority backlink that helped their homepage rank for their primary keyword
Not sure how this applies to you?
A senior engineer walks your site, your search presence and the way enquiries reach you, then writes down the three things worth fixing first. You keep the document either way.