What Are Backlinks? A Plain-English Guide to Links and SEO

Backlinks are links on other websites that point to a page on your website. They’re also called inbound links. If a local news site writes about your bakery and links to your menu page, that’s a backlink. Google uses links to discover new pages, to understand what a page is about, and as one of many signals for deciding which pages deserve to rank.

That’s the whole definition. What trips people up is everything around it: which links count, which do nothing, and which can get you in trouble. I’ve spent eight years in SEO answering those questions for small businesses, so this page is the map I wish clients had before they bought their first “backlink package.”

One boundary before we start. This post covers what backlinks are and how Google treats them. If you want the methods for earning them, read my guide to link building strategies, which is the “how” half of this pair.

What Are Backlinks, Exactly?

So what are backlinks, compared with the other links on a page? A backlink is a link from someone else’s site to yours. A link from one page on your site to another page on your site is an internal link. A link from your site to someone else’s is an outbound link, and it’s a backlink for them.

So the same link has two names depending on where you stand. If I link from this post to Google’s documentation, that’s an outbound link for me and a backlink for Google. Simple, but it matters when you read reports.

There’s a second number you’ll see next to backlinks in every tool: referring domains. A referring domain is a unique website that links to you at least once. One blog linking to you from 40 posts gives you 40 backlinks and 1 referring domain. I explain why I watch the second number more closely in backlinks vs referring domains.

Where Did the Idea of Backlinks Come From?

It started with a patent. In January 1998, Larry Page filed US patent 6,285,999, titled “Method for node ranking in a linked database,” and it was granted in September 2001 (Google Patents, US6285999B1). Stanford was the original assignee. The patent has since expired.

The core idea was elegant. Treat every link as a kind of vote, but weight each vote by the importance of the page casting it. The patent describes a “random surfer” who clicks links forever, and a page’s rank is roughly the chance that surfer lands on it. That idea became PageRank.

Here’s my honest caveat. That patent describes how Google ranked pages in its early years, not how Google ranks them in October 2026. People still quote it as if it were today’s algorithm. Read it as history, and read Google’s current documentation for how links work now.

What Does Google Say Backlinks Do Today?

Google says it plainly in its ranking systems guide. It has “various systems that understand how pages link to each other as a way to determine what pages are about and which might be most helpful in response to a query.” The same page says PageRank “has evolved a lot since then, and it continues to be part of our core ranking systems.”

Links also help Google find pages in the first place. The SEO Starter Guide says the vast majority of new pages Google finds every day are found through links. For a brand-new site, that discovery role alone is worth something.

What links are not is the whole game. Google’s Gary Illyes said in 2023 that links aren’t a top-three ranking factor, and that a page can rank with no links at all. I unpack that quote, and what the evidence says since, in do backlinks still work. My short version: content decides whether a page deserves to rank, and links often decide which of several good pages wins.

The Anatomy of a Backlink

Every backlink is a few lines of HTML. Once you can read them, a lot of SEO advice either makes sense or falls apart. Here’s a typical link as it sits in another site’s code:

<a href="https://example.com/sourdough-guide/" rel="nofollow">beginner's sourdough guide</a>

Google’s link best practices say a crawlable link is an <a> element with an href attribute. Links built some other way, like a JavaScript click handler with no href, may never be picked up at all. Four parts of that one line decide what the link is worth.

Anchor Text

The anchor text is the clickable words, “beginner’s sourdough guide” in the example. Google reads those words to understand the page being linked to, and readers use them to decide whether to click. Google’s own standard is short: descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant.

The trouble starts when anchors get engineered. A profile full of exact-match keyword anchors on other people’s sites looks placed, not given. My post on anchor text SEO covers the types, the ratios people argue about, and what to use where.

The Rel Attribute

The rel value tells Google what kind of link it is. Per Google’s guide to qualifying outbound links, sponsored marks ads and paid placements, ugc marks user-generated content like comments and forum posts, and nofollow covers cases where a site doesn’t want to be associated with the linked page.

A normal link has no rel value at all. That’s what people call “dofollow,” though no such attribute exists in HTML. Since September 2019, Google has treated sponsored, ugc and nofollow as hints rather than strict commands. I go deeper in dofollow vs nofollow links.

Placement and Context

Where the link sits matters as much as what it says. A link inside a paragraph, written by an editor who chose to mention you, tells Google something real. The same link in a sitewide footer or a “partners” block repeated on 3,000 pages tells it much less.

Context is the text around the link and the topic of the page. A link to a plumbing company from a home-repair article fits. The same link from a page about crypto casinos is a red flag, whatever the site’s authority score says.

The Target Page

The href is where the link points. People forget this part. A link to a page that now returns a 404 is wasted until you redirect or restore that page, and in audits I find more value lost this way than through any “toxic” link.

Backlinks vs Mentions, Citations and Social Shares

Not everything that names you is a backlink. A brand mention is your business name on another site, with or without a link. Google has said it doesn’t treat an unlinked mention as a link, though mentions still build reputation with people and with AI answers. The full comparison sits in backlinks vs brand mentions.

Local citations, meaning listings of your business name, address and phone number, sometimes include a link and sometimes don’t. Social posts usually link out with nofollow. Both have real uses. Neither should be counted as if it were an editorial link from a relevant site.

Which Backlinks Help, Which Do Nothing, and Which Are a Risk?

This is the part beginners most need. A link can help you, do nothing, or put you at risk. Four questions decide which, and I ask them in this order:

1. Who placed it? A link an independent editor chose to add is different from one you placed yourself or paid someone to place.
2. Was anything exchanged? Money, free products, a reciprocal link or a service in return all count as exchange in Google’s eyes.
3. Is it labeled honestly? A paid or sponsored link should carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".
4. Is it relevant? Does the linking page have a real audience and a real reason to mention you?

Google draws the line in its spam policies: “Link spam is the practice of creating links to or from a site primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings.” Buying or selling links that pass ranking credit, excessive link exchanges, automated link programs and low-quality directory links are all on its list of examples. The same page says paid links are fine for advertising, as long as they’re qualified with nofollow or sponsored.

Now the logic. If an independent site chose to link to you and the page is relevant, then it’s the kind of link Google’s systems are built to reward. If you paid for it and it’s labeled sponsored, then it’s allowed advertising that sends visitors but shouldn’t be expected to pass ranking credit. If you paid for it and it’s unlabeled, then it’s link spam, whether the seller calls it a guest post, a niche edit or a “sponsored article.”

What happens to that last group? Mostly, nothing good. In its December 2022 link spam update, Google said its SpamBrain system can detect both sites buying links and sites used to pass outgoing links, and that credit passed by unnatural links is lost. Larger patterns can also lead to a manual action. So the realistic outcome of a bought link is usually money spent on something Google ignores.

The second row deserves a word. Brand profiles, business listings and a few niche directories won’t rank a competitive page, but every real business should have them. I explain which ones still work in foundation backlinks. When I judge an individual link more closely, I use the eight checks in how to evaluate backlink quality.

Are Toxic Backlinks Something to Worry About?

Probably not. “Toxic” is a label from backlink tools, not from Google. Google’s disavow help page says “most sites will not need to use this tool,” because Google can usually work out which links to trust on its own.

Where it does matter is when you, or an agency before you, bought or built links to manipulate rankings, or when you’ve received a manual action. That’s the situation my posts on toxic backlinks and how to disavow backlinks are written for. If neither applies, spend that energy on earning good links instead.

How Do You Check Your Own Backlinks?

Start with the free source that comes straight from Google. Open Search Console, choose your property and click Links in the left menu. The external links section shows your top linked pages, top linking sites and top linking text.

Know the limits before you trust it. Google’s Links report documentation says the data is a sample, not a full list, and that the report doesn’t show whether a link is marked nofollow. Tables cap at 1,000 rows, while the “Latest links” and “More sample links” exports go up to 100,000 rows each.

Commercial tools like Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz run their own crawlers. They find links Google’s sample skips, and they track new and lost links over time. Their authority scores are their own metrics, though, not anything Google uses.

Here’s what I look for on a first pass:

• Top linked pages: are your best links pointing at pages that still exist and still matter?
• Top linking sites: do you recognize them, and do they make sense for your business?
• Top linking text: is it mostly your brand and natural phrases, or a wall of exact keywords?
• Broken targets: any linked URL that now returns a 404 is an easy win with a 301 redirect.

If that pass turns up anything odd, run the full process in my backlink audit guide.

Edge Cases That Confuse Beginners

A few situations come up again and again in client calls. Each one changes the answer a little.

• A huge backlink count from one site. If one directory accounts for most of your backlinks, it’s almost always a sitewide link. Look at referring domains instead.
• Nofollow links from big publications. Don’t turn them down. They send visitors, they build your name, and since 2019 Google may still use them as hints.
• Links to pages you deleted. Redirect each one to the closest matching live page, not to your homepage by default.
• Links you didn’t ask for from spammy sites. Usually ignore them. Act only if you built similar links yourself or you have a manual action.
• AI search. Being cited by AI answers depends on reputation and clear content as much as links, so mentions without links still have value there.

Where This Hub Points Next

Each part of the backlink topic has its own detailed post on Skyranko. Use this table to jump to the one you need.

When Should You Get Help?

Most site owners can learn the basics from this page and the Links report in an afternoon. I’d bring in help in three situations: you have a manual action for unnatural links, someone bought links for the site in the past and you don’t know what’s out there, or you’re starting from zero and want the foundation done properly.

For that last case, my team handles brand profiles, business listings and niche directories through our foundation link building service. We don’t sell social signals, blog comment blasts or fake edu links. If you’re not sure where your site stands, ask for a free SEO audit and I’ll tell you honestly whether links are your problem at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is a Backlink in Simple Words?

A backlink is a clickable link on someone else’s website that takes visitors to your website. Google treats links as one signal of what a page is about and whether other sites find it useful. A link from a page on your own site doesn’t count as a backlink. That one is an internal link.

Do Backlinks Still Matter for SEO in 2026?

Yes, but less than they did a decade ago. Google’s ranking systems guide still lists link analysis and PageRank among its core systems. Content quality decides more, and a page can rank with few or no links. On competitive queries, relevant links from real sites still often separate the winners.

Are Nofollow Backlinks Worthless?

No. Since 2019 Google treats nofollow as a hint, not a block, so it may still use some of those links. Even when it doesn’t, a nofollow link from a well-read site sends visitors and builds your name. I’d take a nofollow mention in a respected local paper over most paid links.

How Can I See Who Links to My Website for Free?

Use the Links report in Google Search Console. It lists your top linked pages, top linking sites and top linking text, and you can export samples of up to 100,000 rows. It’s a sample, though, and it doesn’t flag nofollow, so pair it with a commercial tool’s free tier if you want more.

Last updated: October 2026 by Mizanur Rahman