What is a backlink? A plain explanation with examples
A backlink in plain words: what it looks like on a page, why Google cares, the difference between dofollow, nofollow and sponsored, and what makes one link better than another.
The definition in one sentence
A backlink is a link on another website that points to a page on yours. If a travel blog publishes an article about the best hotels in Dubai and links to your hotel’s website, that is a backlink to your site from that blog.
It is called a “back” link because, from your site’s point of view, it is an incoming link from outside, unlike the internal links you place between your own pages. Every link has three parts: the page that contains it, the page it points to, and the text you click.
What a link looks like in a page’s code
In a page’s code a link is a simple element such as: <a href="https://example.com/hotel">beachfront hotel in Dubai</a>. The href part is the address the link goes to, and the words between the tags are the anchor text the reader sees.
Google recommends anchor text that is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to the page it links to, because it helps readers and Google understand what they will find after clicking. “Click here” says nothing, and text stuffed with keywords looks manufactured; Google reminds writers that keyword stuffing breaks its spam policies.
Why Google cares about links
Google discovers many new pages when it finds a link to them on a page it already knows, then uses the links between pages to understand what each page is about and which may be most helpful. Its guide to ranking systems says PageRank is still part of its core systems.
A simple comparison: a link from a trusted site in your field is like a recommendation from someone who knows the market. One recommendation from a respected source outweighs dozens from strangers, and one from outside your field says little about your expertise.
Dofollow, nofollow, sponsored and UGC
An ordinary link without any attribute is what the SEO market calls dofollow. A page owner can add a rel attribute to describe their relationship with the link: sponsored for advertising and paid links, ugc for links written by users in comments and forums, and nofollow when neither applies and they would rather not associate their site with the linked page.
That doesn’t make a qualified link worthless: it still sends visitors and introduces new readers to your brand. But know a link’s type before you buy, and confirm it after publication with the backlink checker, which shows its type and where it sits on the page.
What makes one backlink better than another
Relevance first: a site that writes about your field and is read by your audience. Then context: a link inside a paragraph about your subject is stronger than one in a footer or a long list of links. Then a real audience: actual visits from the country and language you target, not bare numbers.
Metrics such as DR, DA and AS are published by outside tools to estimate a site’s strength. They are useful for quick comparisons but they are not Google measurements, so read them alongside traffic and content and don’t rely on them alone. We cover these criteria in the backlink quality checklist.
Where backlinks come from
Some arrive on their own when people write about useful content, original data or a tool they need. Some come from relationships: partners, suppliers, professional associations and local press. And some are arranged placements: a guest article on a site in your field, or a link inside an article that is already published.
Each route has its own cost and risk, which we lay out in types of backlinks and how to get strong backlinks. If you want to start with free steps, the free backlinks list gathers well-known platforms and directories that establish your brand’s presence.
Common beginner mistakes
Buying many links at once from sites unrelated to your field, repeating the same exact-match anchor text every time, pointing every link at the home page only, and forgetting to check months later that the link is still live.
The calmer and more effective route: a good page worth linking to, a reasonable number of links from suitable sites, natural and varied anchor text, and following results before scaling up. If you wonder whether it is worth the effort at all, read are backlinks still worth it?
Sources & further reading
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