Backlink

Why links still matter

Links were the foundation of Google’s original ranking approach, and they remain part of it. Google says PageRank is one of several link analysis systems it uses to understand what pages are about and which might be most helpful, and that these are part of its core ranking systems (guide to Google’s ranking systems). Links also do something simpler: they let crawlers find pages in the first place.

What separates a useful link from a worthless one

Not all backlinks are equal, and counting them tells you little. The qualities that matter:

• Relevance: a link from a site about your topic means more than one from an unrelated directory.
• Editorial placement: a link inside an article, chosen by its author, is different from a footer or sidebar link repeated on every page.
• The linking page itself: whether it is indexed, gets traffic and is linked to by others.
• Link attributes: nofollow, sponsored and ugc tell Google not to treat the link as an endorsement.

Links bought or exchanged to manipulate rankings break Google’s link spam policy, whatever the vendor calls them.

Evaluating your own profile

1. Count referring domains, not total links. One site linking 500 times is still one site.
2. Look at who links to you, not only how many: are they relevant, real and read by people?
3. Compare against competitors who rank for the terms you want.
4. Use more than one source. Third-party tools each crawl a different slice of the web, so their counts never match. Search Console’s Links report shows a sample of Google’s own data.

Our view: a handful of relevant editorial links usually outweighs hundreds of directory listings. The backlink checker lists your referring domains, and the backlink analysis guide explains how to read them.