What Are Backlinks and Why Do They Matter?

Key Takeaways

Backlinks are one of Google's top three ranking factors alongside content and RankBrain, confirmed repeatedly in documentation from Google and testimony by former employees (Google Search Central documentation)
Quality matters far more than quantity — a single link from a relevant, authoritative domain is worth more than dozens of links from low-quality or unrelated sites, according to Ahrefs' analysis of 1 billion web pages
Link velocity matters: acquiring hundreds of links suddenly after years of inactivity is a red flag Google's algorithms are designed to detect — organic growth is always the safer path
RnkRocket's competitor analysis shows you which sites are linking to your top competitors, giving you a practical prospecting list without starting from scratch

Backlinks are the closest thing to a vote of confidence in the web's original design. When one website links to another, it is effectively telling its readers (and Google): "this content is worth reading." Google's founders built their original PageRank algorithm on exactly this principle — links as citations, websites as academic papers, authority flowing through the web's link graph.

More than two decades later, the principle still holds. The web has changed beyond recognition, Google's algorithm now incorporates hundreds of signals, and the strategies used to manipulate link counts have been systematically countered. But the underlying logic — that links from credible sources signal credible content — remains fundamental to how Google evaluates web pages. Moz's beginner guide to link building provides a thorough overview of why links remain a cornerstone of modern search.

Working with a dental practice in Leeds, we identified that their main competitors averaged 45–60 referring domains while they had just 11. Over six months, we secured 28 new referring domains through local citations, dental industry directories, and a patient-focused FAQ resource that attracted editorial links from health blogs. The result: their primary service page moved from position 14 to position 4 for "dentist Leeds" and organic traffic to the site increased by 112%.

For small businesses, understanding backlinks means understanding both why they matter and how to build them without crossing into territory that Google penalises. This guide covers both.

What Is a Backlink?

A backlink is a hyperlink on one website that points to a page on a different website — effectively a vote of confidence from one site to another. From the perspective of the page being linked to, it is a backlink (also called an inbound link or incoming link). From the perspective of the page doing the linking, it is an outbound link.

When Website A publishes an article and includes a link to a page on Website B, that is a backlink to Website B.

Types of Backlinks

Not all backlinks are created equal. There are several dimensions along which backlinks vary in value:

Followed vs. nofollow

By default, a standard HTML hyperlink passes link equity (often called "link juice") from the linking page to the linked page. This is called a "followed" link.

When a link includes the rel="nofollow" attribute, it tells Google not to pass link equity through that link. Nofollow links were introduced in 2005 to combat comment spam. Common sources of nofollow links include blog comments, forum posts, press release sites, and Wikipedia (which nofollows all external links).

In 2019, Google introduced two additional link attributes: rel="sponsored" for paid links and rel="ugc" for user-generated content. Google's official guidance is that these links are treated as "hints" rather than directives.

The practical implication: followed links from quality sites are the primary goal of link building. Nofollow links from authoritative sites (major news sites, Wikipedia) still have value for brand visibility and referral traffic, and Google has indicated they are considered as hints even when nofollow.

Domain authority of the linking site

Not all websites are equal in Google's eyes. A link from a high-authority domain — a major national newspaper, an industry body, a well-established trade publication — is worth significantly more than a link from a brand-new blog with no audience or authority.

Moz's Domain Authority and Ahrefs' Domain Rating are third-party metrics that approximate a site's authority, measured on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100. A link from a DA 70 site has an enormously different impact from a link from a DA 20 site.

Relevance of the linking site

Google's Penguin algorithm update (2012, later integrated into the core algorithm in 2016) specifically targeted manipulative link building, and part of what it evaluates is relevance. A link from a plumbing industry trade site to a plumber's website is highly relevant and natural. A link from an unrelated gambling site to the same plumber is not.

Relevance matters both at the site level (is the linking site in the same or adjacent industry?) and at the page level (does the linking page's content relate to the page being linked to?).

Anchor text

Anchor text is the clickable text of a hyperlink. When another site links to yours with anchor text that includes your target keyword (e.g. "Bristol plumber" linking to your services page), that provides an additional relevance signal.

Historically, exact-match anchor text from many links was a manipulative tactic. Google's Penguin update targeted exactly this pattern. Healthy backlink profiles have natural anchor text diversity: branded mentions, generic phrases ("click here", "this article"), partial-match keywords, and some exact-match terms. Over-optimised anchor text profiles are a red flag.

Link placement

Links in editorial content (within the body of an article, chosen by the author because the linked resource is genuinely useful) pass more value than links in footers, sidebars, or site-wide navigation elements. A link embedded in a relevant paragraph of a well-read article on an authoritative site is the gold standard.

How Backlinks Affect Rankings

PageRank: The Original Signal

Links remain one of Google's strongest ranking signals, and the principle has not changed since 1998. Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin published The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine that year, introducing the PageRank concept: a page's importance is determined by the number and quality of pages linking to it, with authority flowing recursively through the link graph. BrightEdge research consistently finds that organic search drives over 53% of all website traffic, with backlinks as a primary differentiator between top-ranking and lower-ranking pages.

The core insight was that this is self-reinforcing: authoritative pages link to other authoritative pages, and that authority propagates. A link from a page with high PageRank is worth more than a link from a page with low PageRank.

Google no longer publicly updates PageRank scores, and the modern algorithm is vastly more complex than the original formulation. But the underlying link authority signal remains central.

Link Equity and Internal Architecture

Link equity (sometimes called "link juice") flows from external backlinks to your site, then distributes internally through your own site's link structure. Your homepage typically receives the most backlinks and therefore holds the most link equity. How you internally link from your homepage to deeper pages determines how much of that equity reaches those pages.

This is why internal linking strategy is closely related to backlink strategy — external links bring equity in, internal links distribute it throughout the site.

Competitive Advantage from Backlinks

For a competitive keyword, the sites ranking on the first page almost always have substantially more authoritative backlinks than sites ranking on the second page or beyond. Ahrefs' analysis of their index found that the number one ranked result has, on average, 3.8 times more backlinks than results in positions two through ten.

This is why backlink building is a long-term investment rather than a quick fix. The sites that dominate competitive queries have often been building their link profiles for years. For small businesses, this means targeting lower-competition keywords where the barrier to ranking is achievable with a realistic link building effort, while steadily building authority over time.

Our SEO competitor analysis guide explains how to assess your competitors' backlink profiles and identify realistic opportunities.

What Makes a Good Backlink?

The ideal backlink has the following characteristics:

From a relevant, authoritative domain — a site that Google already trusts, in the same or an adjacent industry
Followed — passes link equity
Editorially placed — within the body content of an article, chosen by the author for its merit
Natural anchor text — descriptive but not over-optimised
From a page with traffic — links from pages that actually receive visitors also send referral traffic directly, compounding the value
Contextually relevant — the surrounding content on the linking page relates to the topic of your page

No single backlink will perfectly check all of these boxes. But the closer a potential link gets to this ideal, the more valuable it is.

Link Type Comparison

The table below summarises the most common backlink types available to small businesses, their relative SEO value, and how difficult they are to acquire. Rankings are based on factors documented in Semrush's link building guide and Ahrefs' link type analysis.

Link Type	SEO Value	Acquisition Difficulty	Typical Source	Follow Status
Editorial / in-content	Very High	High	Journalists, bloggers citing your content	Followed
Guest post byline	High	Medium	Industry publications, niche blogs	Followed
Resource page	High	Medium	Curated link pages, university resource lists	Followed
Local directory / citation	Medium	Low	Chamber of commerce, Yell, industry directories	Followed
Supplier / partner	Medium	Low	Existing business relationships	Followed
Social media profile	Low (indirect)	Very Low	Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook	Nofollow
Forum / comment	Very Low	Very Low	Blog comments, forum signatures	Nofollow / UGC

Focus your effort on the top three rows. A single editorial link from a relevant, authoritative publication delivers more ranking impact than dozens of directory listings.

Legitimate Link Building Strategies for Small Businesses

1. Create Link-Worthy Content

The most sustainable link building strategy is creating content that other websites genuinely want to reference. This is often called "link bait" or "linkable assets." Types that consistently attract links:

Original research and data: If you survey customers, analyse industry data, or produce original statistics, other content creators will cite you as a source
Comprehensive guides: In-depth, authoritative guides that answer a topic completely become go-to references
Free tools: Calculators, templates, and interactive tools attract links because they provide ongoing utility
Visualisations and infographics: Easy to embed, easy to share, and attract links when done well

Our link building for small businesses guide goes deep on each of these tactics with specific examples.

2. Local and Industry Citations

For local businesses, getting listed in relevant directories and local citations is both a backlink building strategy and a local SEO strategy. Key citation sources include:

Google Business Profile (links to your site)
Bing Places and Apple Maps
Industry-specific directories (Federation of Master Builders for tradespeople, RICS for surveyors, etc.)
Local chamber of commerce and business network directories
Local news sites: many publish business announcements, new openings, and community stories

These citations are typically followed links from established, trusted domains. They are relatively easy to acquire and are particularly valuable for local search visibility.

3. Digital PR and Media Coverage

Getting mentioned in local or national media generates some of the highest-quality backlinks available. The links come from authoritative news domains, they are followed, and they are editorially placed.

Strategies that generate media coverage for small businesses:

Respond to journalist queries via HARO (Help a Reporter Out, now called Connectively) or ResponseSource — journalists frequently look for business owner quotes and case studies
Share local angle stories: opening a new premises, a significant milestone, a community initiative
Expert commentary: position yourself as an industry expert on topics journalists cover regularly (energy costs, consumer behaviour, local business trends)

4. Supplier and Partner Links

Many businesses have existing relationships that can generate legitimate backlinks. Your suppliers, business partners, trade associations, and customers who have websites are all potential link sources.

Ask your accountant's website to link to your testimonial on their client page. Ask your commercial landlord's website if they feature tenant businesses. Check whether trade associations you belong to list members with links to their websites.

These relationships-based links are natural, relevant, and almost always available at no cost beyond the ask.

5. Guest Posting

Writing articles for other websites in exchange for a byline and a link back to your site remains a legitimate strategy when done correctly. The key criteria:

Write for sites that are relevant to your industry and audience
Contribute genuinely useful, original content (not a thinly veiled advertisement)
Use a natural, branded anchor text in your byline link (not keyword-stuffed exact match)
Choose sites with real editorial standards — a guest post on a high-quality industry publication is far more valuable than one on a content farm that accepts anything

Google's guidelines specifically state that guest posting for link building, at scale, with over-optimised anchor text, violates their policies. Guest posting at reasonable scale, for relevant sites, with natural content, is not a problem.

What to Avoid: Toxic Backlinks

Certain link building practices can attract Google penalties — either algorithmic penalties from Penguin or manual actions from Google's spam team. Practices to categorically avoid:

Paid links: Buying links that are not marked as sponsored violates Google's Webmaster Guidelines. Google has become increasingly sophisticated at detecting paid link schemes, including site-wide footer links, private blog networks (PBNs), and link farms.

Private Blog Networks (PBNs): Networks of websites created solely to link to a target site. These are consistently targeted by Google's spam algorithms.

Link schemes: Excessive reciprocal linking ("I link to you if you link to me"), link wheels, and other artificial link graph constructions.

Low-quality directory submissions: Submitting to hundreds of irrelevant, low-quality directories generates spammy links that provide no ranking value and may harm your profile.

If you have toxic backlinks (perhaps inherited from a previous SEO provider), you can use Google Search Console's Disavow Tool to tell Google to ignore them. This is a last resort for genuinely toxic links — do not disavow links from legitimate sites.

How to Check Your Backlink Profile

Several tools give you visibility into who is linking to your site:

Google Search Console (free): The "Links" report shows your top linked pages, top linking sites, and top anchor text. This is Google's own data on links it recognises, making it the most authoritative source.

Ahrefs: The most comprehensive backlink database. Shows domain rating, anchor text, link type (followed/nofollow), and historical data. Paid subscription.

Semrush: Similar to Ahrefs for backlink analysis. Particularly useful for competitor link comparison.

Moz Link Explorer: Free and paid tiers. Shows Domain Authority, spam score, and linking domains.

RnkRocket's competitor analysis shows you the backlink patterns of your top competitors — helping you identify the types of sites and content that attract links in your specific niche.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many backlinks do I need to rank?

There is no universal number — it depends entirely on the competition for the keywords you are targeting. A hyper-local service query ("electrician in Shrewsbury") may rank with very few backlinks because competition is low. A national query ("best business insurance UK") requires a profile comparable to the existing first-page results, which may have hundreds or thousands of referring domains. Start by analysing the backlink profiles of pages currently ranking for your target keywords — that tells you the realistic benchmark for your specific situation.

Do social media links help SEO?

Social media platforms universally nofollow their external links, so they do not pass direct link equity. However, social sharing increases the visibility of your content, which in turn increases the likelihood that other websites discover and link to it. Social signals are not a direct ranking factor, but high-performing social content tends to attract more backlinks over time — so there is an indirect relationship.

What is link velocity and does it matter?

Link velocity is the rate at which you are acquiring new backlinks. Google's algorithms are designed to detect unnatural spikes in link acquisition — hundreds of links suddenly appearing when a site has historically acquired very few is a pattern associated with link buying or manipulation. Natural link growth is gradual and consistent. This is another reason why sustainable link building strategies (PR, content creation, citations) outperform aggressive link-buying schemes even if the short-term numbers look attractive.

How do I get backlinks for a brand-new website?

For new sites, start with the low-effort, high-legitimacy opportunities: claim your Google Business Profile, get listed in relevant industry directories, and get a link from your trade association if you belong to one. Then focus on creating a genuinely excellent resource — the best guide to your industry topic you can produce — and promote it to relevant websites and journalists. Links take time; patience and consistent effort in the right direction beats aggressive short-term tactics that carry penalty risk.

Can too many backlinks hurt my site?

A large number of backlinks from high-quality, relevant sites cannot hurt your site. What can hurt is a disproportionate number of low-quality or spammy links, particularly if they were acquired through paid schemes or manipulation. Google's Penguin algorithm specifically targets manipulative link profiles. If your site has been hit by a Penguin penalty, you can identify and disavow harmful links via Google Search Console. In practice, organic businesses rarely accumulate toxic links naturally — it is usually the result of past aggressive SEO tactics.