Backlinks
BAK-links
Links from other websites pointing to your site, which signal authority and trust to search engines.
Backlinks are links from other websites to yours. They are one of the most important ranking factors in search. When a reputable site links to your content, it signals to Google that your content is trustworthy and worth ranking.
Not all backlinks are equal. A link from the New York Times or a well-known industry blog carries far more weight than a link from a random directory or a spammy site. Quality matters more than quantity. Ten links from high-authority, relevant sites are worth more than 1,000 links from low-quality sources.
Building backlinks organically means creating content that people naturally want to reference. Original research, data studies, definitive guides, and tools generate backlinks because they provide value that other content creators cite. Paid link schemes and link exchanges violate Google's guidelines and can result in penalties.
Examples
A company publishes original survey data.
The annual 'State of Developer Experience' report surveys 5,000 developers. Other publications cite the findings and link to the report. The page earns 200 backlinks from unique domains in the first year.
A blog post gets picked up by a newsletter.
A developer marketing blog post gets featured in a popular industry newsletter. The newsletter has 50,000 subscribers and a website with DA 70. The link from the newsletter's web archive page boosts the post's ranking.
A content team audits their backlink profile.
Using Ahrefs, they find 500 referring domains. 450 are legitimate. 50 are spammy sites they do not recognize. They disavow the spammy links through Google Search Console to protect their site's reputation.
Frequently asked questions
How do you get backlinks naturally?
Create content worth citing: original research, comprehensive guides, useful tools, and unique data. Promote it to relevant audiences. Participate in industry discussions. Guest post on reputable sites. The best backlinks come from creating genuine value.
Can backlinks hurt your site?
Yes. Links from spammy, irrelevant, or penalized sites can harm your rankings. If you discover toxic backlinks in your profile, use Google Search Console's disavow tool to tell Google to ignore them.
Related terms
A score predicting how well a website will rank in search results, based on its backlink profile and overall site quality.
Writing and publishing content on another website to reach their audience and earn a backlink to your own site.
The page displayed by a search engine in response to a query, containing organic results, ads, and rich features.
Links between pages on the same website that help users navigate and help search engines understand site structure.
Want the complete playbook?
Picks and Shovels is the definitive guide to developer marketing. Amazon #1 bestseller with practical strategies from 30 years of marketing to developers.