Backlinks are links from one website to another website. If another website links to a page on your site, that incoming link is a backlink for your website.

For example:

<a href="guide</a>

If the link appears on anotherwebsite.com and points to example.com, then example.com has received a backlink. In this example, anotherwebsite.com is the referring site, and example.com is the target site.

This guide also explains three common link attributes: nofollow, sponsored and ugc.

Term Meaning
Backlink A link from another website to your website
Inbound link Another name for a backlink
External link A link pointing to a different website
Internal link A link between pages on the same website
Anchor text The visible, clickable words in a link
Referring page The webpage containing the backlink
Target page The webpage receiving the backlink

Google says it uses links as a signal when determining page relevance and uses links to find new pages to crawl. Backlinks can also help Google understand the relationship between webpages.

Backlinks can also:

  • Send referral traffic from the linking website
  • Introduce your content to a new audience
  • Support the credibility of a useful page when the link is editorially relevant
  • Help Google find a new or updated URL

A backlink does not guarantee higher rankings, indexing or traffic. Google does not guarantee that it will crawl, index or show a page, even when a site follows its guidelines.

A backlink tends to be more useful when it has several of these characteristics:

  1. Relevance The linking page covers a topic related to your page.

  2. Editorial placement The website links to your content because it helps readers, rather than because the link was inserted automatically.

  3. Descriptive anchor text The clickable text describes the destination page. Google recommends anchor text that is concise, relevant and useful to readers.

  4. A real audience The linking page can send interested visitors to your website.

  5. A crawlable link Standard HTML links generally use an <a> element with an href attribute, which Google can crawl.

For example, this anchor text describes the destination:

<a href="technical SEO guide
</a>

This version provides less context:

<a href="click here
</a>

An editorial backlink appears within an article, study, news story or resource because the linked page supports the publisher's point.

For example, a marketing publication might link to original research about search behavior.

Guest Post Backlinks

A guest post backlink appears in an article contributed to another website. Guest posting can be legitimate when the article provides useful information. Producing articles mainly to obtain ranking credit, however, can violate Google's spam policies.

These links appear in business directories, professional profiles or industry listings. They can support referral traffic, local visibility or brand discovery. Large numbers of low-quality directory links provide little SEO value.

User-generated links appear in comments, forums or community posts. Google recommends using rel="ugc" for links created by users.

Paid placements and advertising links should use rel="sponsored". Google also accepts rel="nofollow" for qualifying paid links.

What Do nofollow, sponsored and ugc Mean?

These attributes describe the relationship between the linking website and the destination website.

Attribute Typical use
rel="sponsored" Paid advertisements, sponsorships and paid placements
rel="ugc" Comments, forums and other user-generated content
rel="nofollow" When the publisher does not want Google to associate the site with, or crawl the linked page from, that link

Example:

<a rel="sponsored" href="Visit Example
</a>

Google says links with these attributes are generally not followed. The linked page may still be found through other sources, including sitemaps or links from other websites.

Link spam is creating or obtaining links mainly to manipulate search rankings. Google lists these examples:

  • Buying or selling links for ranking purposes
  • Excessive reciprocal link exchanges
  • Automated link-building services
  • Low-quality directory or bookmark links
  • Keyword-rich links in forum comments
  • Widely distributed footer or template links
  • Paid articles containing links that pass ranking credit

Google says sites that violate its spam policies may rank lower or be removed from search results.

Buying advertising is not automatically a problem. The risk comes from paid links intended to manipulate rankings when they are not properly qualified with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".

Google recommends creating unique, useful content that people want to link to.

Practical methods include:

  • Publishing original research, surveys or data
  • Creating detailed tutorials and reference guides
  • Developing free tools, calculators or templates
  • Producing visual assets that other sites can cite
  • Promoting useful content to relevant journalists, publishers and industry websites
  • Reclaiming unlinked brand mentions
  • Earning links through partnerships, expert contributions and community participation

The aim is to earn relevant recommendations and citations, not to collect the largest possible number of links.

A backlink comes from another website:

anotherwebsite.com → yourwebsite.com

An internal link connects pages on the same website:

yourwebsite.com/page-a → yourwebsite.com/page-b

Internal links help users navigate your site and help Google understand the relationships between your pages. Google recommends ensuring that important pages can be reached through links from other findable pages.

A backlink is a link another website places on a page to point readers to your content. Its value depends on the topic, the placement and the reason for the link.

Focus on earning a small number of relevant, editorially useful backlinks instead of buying or generating large volumes of low-quality links.