The Backlink & Link Building Knowledge Hub
Plain-language guides on how backlinks work, what domain authority actually means, and how to build a link profile that holds up over time — written by the team behind LINK-BACK.com's backlink service.
What Is a Backlink?
A backlink is a hyperlink on one website that points to a page on a different website. If a blog post on one site includes a link to a page on link-back.com, that link is a backlink pointing to link-back.com. Search engines treat backlinks as votes of confidence: the more relevant, authoritative sites that link to a page, the more trustworthy that page appears in search results.
Not all backlinks carry equal weight. A link from a well-known, high-traffic site in your industry passes far more value than a link from an unrelated, low-authority page — which is why quality and relevance matter more than raw count.
How Do Backlinks Work?
Search engines discover backlinks by crawling the web and following hyperlinks from page to page. Each dofollow backlink passes a portion of the linking page's authority — often called "link equity" — to the page it points to. A page that accumulates link equity from many relevant, authoritative sources tends to rank higher for its target keywords.
Beyond authority, backlinks also help search engines discover new pages faster and understand what a page is about through the anchor text — the clickable words used in the link — surrounding each placement.
Why Are Backlinks Important for SEO?
Backlinks remain one of the strongest off-page ranking signals search engines use. Two pages can have identical on-page optimization, but the one with a stronger, more relevant backlink profile will typically outrank the other. That's because backlinks act as independent, third-party endorsements — something a website cannot simply claim about itself through its own content.
This is also why competitive keywords are hard to rank for without any link building strategy — the top results are almost always backed by a meaningfully larger and more authoritative link profile than the pages behind them.
How to Build Backlinks
There are several proven paths to build backlinks: publishing genuinely citable content that other sites want to reference, guest posting on respected blogs in your niche, broken link building (finding dead links and offering your content as a replacement), digital PR and journalist outreach, and resource page placements.
Most of these tactics require significant manual outreach time. Services like our off-page SEO service or a managed backlink package exist specifically to compress that timeline by using existing relationships with vetted, high-authority sites.
How Many Backlinks Does a Website Need?
There is no universal number. What matters far more than raw backlink count is the quality, relevance, and diversity of the sites linking to you. A page can outrank competitors with ten highly authoritative, topically relevant backlinks rather than hundreds of low-quality ones.
As a rough guide, low-competition local keywords may need only a handful of relevant links, while competitive national or international keywords typically require a much larger, higher-authority link profile built consistently over months, not acquired in a single burst.
Backlinks vs. Referring Domains
"Backlinks" counts every individual link pointing to your site — including multiple links from the same domain. "Referring domains" counts only the unique websites linking to you, regardless of how many links each one contains.
Ten backlinks from a single domain carries far less SEO value than ten backlinks spread across ten different domains. This is why referring domain count is usually the more meaningful metric when evaluating link profile strength — and why a diversified link building strategy outperforms repeatedly linking from the same handful of sites.
Dofollow vs. Nofollow Links
A dofollow link is the default type of hyperlink — it passes link equity from the linking page to your site, directly contributing to rankings. A nofollow link carries a rel="nofollow" attribute that tells search engines not to pass that authority, commonly used on comments, paid placements, and user-generated content.
A healthy, natural backlink profile includes mostly dofollow links from editorial placements, with a smaller share of nofollow links mixed in — a profile made up of 100% dofollow links from paid or repetitive sources can actually look suspicious to search engines.
Domain Authority & Domain Rating Explained
Domain Authority (DA) is a third-party metric from Moz that predicts how well a site is likely to rank in search results, scored 1–100 and calculated mainly from backlink quantity and quality. Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' equivalent metric, also scored 1–100, using its own backlink index and algorithm.
Neither DA nor DR is an official Google ranking factor — they're directional, third-party proxies for link authority. A site's DA and DR scores will rarely match exactly since each tool crawls and weighs backlinks differently, but both trend upward as a site earns more high-quality backlinks.
How to Check Your Backlinks
The free way to check your backlinks is Google Search Console's Links report, which shows top linking sites and pages directly from Google's own index. For deeper analysis — anchor text distribution, dofollow-to-nofollow ratio, and referring domain authority — paid tools like Ahrefs, Moz, and Semrush provide a fuller picture.
Regularly checking your backlink profile also helps catch toxic or spammy links early, so they can be disavowed before they drag down your rankings.
How to Get High-Quality Backlinks
High-quality backlinks share three traits: they come from sites with real organic traffic and topical relevance to your niche, they're placed editorially within genuine content rather than a footer or sidebar, and they pass dofollow authority. Chasing volume without these traits tends to produce a link profile that looks manipulative rather than earned.
The fastest way to build a link profile that meets this bar without months of manual outreach is partnering with a vetted backlink agency — see how our link building service works or view backlink packages.
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See Backlink PackagesBacklinks & SEO FAQs
The most common questions we get about backlinks, domain authority, and link building fundamentals.
What is a backlink?
A backlink is a hyperlink on one website that points to a page on a different website. Search engines treat backlinks as votes of confidence — the more relevant, high-authority sites that link to a page, the more trustworthy and authoritative that page appears in search rankings.
How many backlinks does a website need?
There is no fixed number — what matters more than backlink count is the quality and relevance of referring domains. A page can outrank competitors with ten highly authoritative, relevant backlinks rather than hundreds of low-quality ones. Competitive keywords generally require a larger, higher-authority link profile than low-competition niches.
What is the difference between backlinks and referring domains?
Backlinks count every individual link pointing to your site, even multiple links from the same domain. Referring domains count only the unique websites linking to you. Ten backlinks from one domain carries far less SEO value than ten backlinks from ten different domains, which is why referring domain count is usually the more meaningful metric.
What is the difference between dofollow and nofollow links?
A dofollow link passes SEO authority (link equity) from the linking page to your site, directly helping rankings. A nofollow link tells search engines not to pass that authority — commonly used for comments, paid content, and user-generated posts. A healthy backlink profile includes mostly dofollow links with some natural nofollow links mixed in.
What is domain authority?
Domain Authority (DA) is a third-party metric developed by Moz that predicts how well a website is likely to rank in search results, scored from 1 to 100. It is calculated primarily from the quantity and quality of backlinks pointing to a domain, and higher DA generally correlates with stronger ranking potential.
What is domain rating and how is it different from domain authority?
Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' equivalent metric to Moz's Domain Authority, also scored 1 to 100 based on backlink strength. They measure similar things using different data sets and algorithms, so a site's DA and DR scores will rarely match exactly — both are directional indicators, not official Google ranking factors.
How do I check my website's backlinks?
You can check your backlinks for free using Google Search Console's Links report, or use paid tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or Semrush for deeper data on referring domains, anchor text distribution, and dofollow versus nofollow ratios across your entire link profile.
How do I get high-quality backlinks?
High-quality backlinks come from relevant, high-authority sites with real organic traffic, placed editorially within genuine content rather than footers or sidebars. The most reliable paths are digital PR, guest posting, broken link building, and partnering with a backlink agency like LINK-BACK.com that already has vetted relationships in place.