Backlink

A backlink is a link from another website pointing to yours, historically one of the strongest ranking signals in Google's algorithm.

Not all backlinks carry equal weight — a link from a relevant, trafficked, editorially-earned page passes far more value than a link from a low-quality directory or a paid link farm, and Google has spent two decades building systems specifically to devalue the latter. Quantity of backlinks matters far less than the quality and relevance of the sites linking to you.

The most durable way to earn backlinks is building something genuinely worth linking to — an original tool, dataset, or piece of research other sites reference because it saves their readers time, not because you asked for a link.