What are backlinks?
A backlink, also called an inbound or external link, is a link on another website that points to your site. If a coffee magazine links to your brewing guide, that is a backlink to your guide.
Backlinks have been central to search since Google's PageRank algorithm, which treated each link as a vote. Links are still an important ranking signal in 2026, although Google has said their weight has declined relative to other signals. What counts is quality and relevance, not raw numbers: one link from a respected site in your field can matter more than hundreds from unrelated directories.
How it works
Signals that make a backlink more useful:
- Relevance: the linking page is about a related topic.
- Authority: the linking site is trusted and itself well linked.
- Placement: an editorial link in the body of an article, not a footer or sidebar list.
- Anchor text that describes your page. See anchor text.
- Followed: links marked
nofollow,sponsored, orugcare treated as hints and usually pass less. See nofollow.
Metrics such as Domain Authority (Moz), Domain Rating (Ahrefs), and Authority Score (Semrush) are third-party estimates. Google does not use them. They are useful for comparing sites, not as a measure of what Google thinks.
Google's spam policies prohibit link schemes: buying or selling links that pass ranking credit, excessive link exchanges, private blog networks, and automated link building. Its SpamBrain system is designed to neutralize such links, which often means they simply stop counting.
Example
A roaster publishes original research: brew-temperature tests across 12 coffees, with charts and raw data. Coffee blogs and a trade publication cite it with links. Those are editorially given, relevant backlinks that grow on their own.
Compare a package of "500 high-DA backlinks" for a fee. Those links come from unrelated sites built to sell links, and they are exactly what Google's link spam updates target.
In WordPress
Nothing in WordPress builds backlinks; they come from content and outreach. WordPress does send and receive pingbacks and trackbacks, which are not meaningful for SEO and are often disabled to reduce spam. Watch backlinks in Google Search Console's Links report. When a page with backlinks moves, keep those links working with a 301 in Hydrogen SEO's Redirection Manager.
Common mistakes
- Buying links or joining link networks.
- Using the disavow tool routinely. Google says most sites never need it.
- Letting pages with backlinks return 404 after a redesign.
Common questions
Are backlinks still a ranking factor?
Yes. Google still uses links as a signal, though it has said they matter less than in the past and are one of many factors.
Is Domain Authority a Google metric?
No. Domain Authority is a Moz metric. Google does not use it or any similar third-party score.