What Is a Backlink? Earning Links Safely
Links you earn from other websites are a reference for your site in Google’s eyes. We explain which links are valuable, which are risky, and how to build them safely.
Aurora YazılımEditorial team
6 min read
The short answer to “what is a backlink”: a backlink is a link from another website to yours. Google treats links from relevant, trustworthy sites as a signal that your page is valuable. What matters is not the number of links but their relevance and quality; purchased or artificial links carry a penalty risk.
What Is a Backlink and Why Does It Matter?
A backlink is a link from a page on another site to a page on yours. A news site mentioning your business and linking to your website, an industry directory listing you, or a blogger citing your guide as a source are all backlinks.
The core idea Google has used since its early years is this: the more trustworthy pages link to a page, the more valuable that page can be. The algorithm is far more complex today, but links are still an important part of the trust and authority signals.
In low-competition searches, good content and a solid technical foundation may be enough on their own. As competition grows, links often decide the difference between pages of similar quality.
What Makes a Link Valuable
Not all links are equal. A single right link can be worth more than hundreds of irrelevant ones. When evaluating a link, ask yourself these questions:
- Relevance: Is the linking site related to your topic or industry?
- Trustworthiness: Does the site serve a real audience and publish content regularly?
- Context: Is the link placed naturally within the flow of the content, or in a list of links at the bottom of the page?
- Traffic: Is the link somewhere people will actually click it and visit?
- Diversity: Do the links come from different domains, or hundreds from the same site?
Dofollow vs Nofollow
The linking site can give Google a hint about a link by adding a rel attribute. Links without an attribute are commonly called “dofollow”; in fact there is no such tag, it is simply the default.
| Attribute | Meaning | Where is it used? |
|---|---|---|
| No attribute (dofollow) | Normal link | Editorial, natural links |
| rel=nofollow | I don’t vouch for this link | Untrusted or unverified sources |
| rel=sponsored | Paid or sponsored link | Ads, sponsorships, partnership posts |
| rel=ugc | User-generated content | Comments, forum posts |
What Should Anchor Text Look Like?
Anchor text is the clickable text you see on a link. Google uses it to understand what the target page is about.
In a natural link profile the anchor texts vary: brand names, domain names, generic phrases such as “this guide” and descriptive words all appear together. Using the same keyword in every link, on the other hand, signals an artificial pattern and creates risk.
For internal links on your own site, descriptive text helps both readers and Google. Instead of “click here”, write the topic the link leads to; deciding which pages will be linked with which words during keyword research makes the job easier.
How to Get Backlinks: Safe Methods
Safe link building is not about buying links; it is about creating something worth linking to and getting it in front of the right people. The methods below can be applied without penalty risk.
Create Content Worth Citing
Comprehensive guides, small studies based on your own data, checklists, calculators and original visuals are the kind of content other authors want to cite and link to. We treat how this content is planned as part of the content calendar in our digital marketing work.
Use Local and Industry Sources
Chambers of commerce and industry, trade associations, municipal and event sites, local news sites, and the “references” pages of your suppliers and business partners are natural link sources. For local businesses, these links also support the prominence signal of your Google Business Profile; details are in our Google Business Profile optimization article.
Offer Images and Press Material
Journalists and bloggers often look for quality images they can use. Product and venue photos that can be used with credit can earn links; product photography and a prepared press kit are a good investment for this.
Turn Mentions into Links
Find the articles that mention your brand name without linking to it, and politely ask the page owner whether they could add a link. This is one of the easiest and most natural ways to earn links.
Turn Broken Links into Opportunities
If resource pages in your industry contain links that no longer work, you can let the site owner know and suggest your own relevant content as a replacement.
Practices That Risk a Penalty
Google’s spam policies explicitly define links intended to manipulate rankings as a link scheme. Such links are either ignored or, in severe cases, lead to a manual action.
- Buying or selling links to influence rankings (without the sponsored attribute)
- Asking for links in exchange for products or services
- Excessive reciprocal link exchanges (“you link to me, I link to you”)
- Links generated by automated programs, and comment spam
- Site networks built solely to pass links
- Bulk submissions to low-quality directories and bookmarking sites
How to Check Your Links
The Links report in Search Console shows, for free, which sites link to you most, which of your pages receive the most links, and the anchor texts used most often. Checking this report once a month is enough to track changes in your profile.
Random links from spam sites show up on every site, and Google usually ignores them on its own. The disavow tool should only be used if you have received a manual action because of artificial links built in the past, or are seriously worried about receiving one; unnecessary use can also affect useful links.
Monitoring the link profile regularly and planning new sources is one of the monthly reporting items in our SEO and analytics work.
A Solid Site Before Links
A link carries visitors and trust to your site; your site has to be ready to receive them. A link that lands on a slow, mobile-broken or thin page uses only a fraction of its potential. That is why the technical foundation should be built on SEO-friendly web design principles before any link-building work begins.
Earning links is a long game, and results accumulate over months. When you need quick visibility, supporting it with ads makes sense; we explain the balance between the two channels in our SEO or Google Ads article. In the long run, the brand itself, meaning its recognition and reputation, is the strongest link source; so brand management and link building should not be thought of separately.
Frequently Asked Questions
01How many backlinks do you need?
There is no such number. The amount of links you need depends on the link profile of the competitors in your target search. Looking at the pages on the first page and aiming for links of similar quality from relevant sources is the right approach.
02Are nofollow links completely useless?
Google treats the nofollow attribute as a hint, so it may not ignore it entirely. Beyond that, nofollow links also bring visitors, brand awareness and visibility that can turn into natural links later.
03Do social media links count as backlinks?
Links on social media platforms are usually nofollow and have limited direct ranking value. However, they put your content in front of more people and increase the chance of earning natural links.
04What happens if a competitor sends bad links to my site?
Google says it automatically ignores most spam links. In most cases you don’t need to do anything; if you see an unusual spike and a manual action notice, you can consider the disavow tool.
A backlink is a vote of confidence from others, and the most valuable ones are earned, not bought. Creating content worth citing, turning local and industry relationships into links, and monitoring your profile regularly is the way to build strength without penalty risk. To plan your link strategy together with content and technical SEO, take a look at our SEO and analytics service.
