What Are Backlinks in SEO & How Do I Get Them?

What Are Backlinks?

Backlinks are links to your website from other websites, and they’re important because they can send traffic to your site and influence its organic (unpaid) visibility in search engines. 

That means they play a role in search engine optimization (SEO).

Backlinks are also called inbound links and incoming links. But from the perspective of the sites that are linking elsewhere, they’re external/outbound/outgoing links.

It’s possible to acquire backlinks naturally. Or proactively build them.

To see your site’s backlinks, go to the “Links” report in Google Search Console (GSC). And explore the reports in the “External links” section (in GSC, this refers to your backlinks). Or export your data to a spreadsheet.

The page that’s linking elsewhere is the source page or referring page.

The destination of a backlink is the target page.

Before we dive deeper, let’s explore the role of backlinks in SEO.

Why Are Backlinks Important in SEO?

Backlinks are important in SEO because they can signal to search engines that your content is reputable.

Basically, Google looks at the quantity and quality of backlinks to help gauge a site/page’s authoritativeness. And considers authoritativeness when ranking search results.

For example, the top-ranking pages for “iphone reviews” in Google have thousands of backlinks:

And the corresponding domains have millions of backlinks:

This way of gaining authority through links is partly due to Google’s PageRank algorithm.

PageRank is a measure of page authority. And pages pass authority (also known as link equity) to each other through links.

The higher a page’s PageRank, the more equity it can pass to the pages it links to. And this does not affect the linking page’s own score.

There are lots of other factors that influence your search visibility.

But of the 20 factors that most strongly correlate with high rankings, eight are backlink-related.

It’s also important to note that Google has link spam policies to discourage unfair link building practices. And if you violate these policies, you may receive a Google penalty that harms your SEO.

In the following sections, you’ll learn how to build the right kinds of backlinks.

What Affects the Value of a Backlink in SEO?

Some backlinks are more beneficial for SEO than others, some have the potential to harm your rankings, and some probably have no impact. 

Let’s explore the main factors that affect the value of a backlink in SEO:

Follow Status

When Google passes link equity through a link, it’s said to “follow” the link.

Publishers can suggest that Google doesn’t follow a link by adding one of these attributes to the link’s HTML code:

• rel=“nofollow”: This tells Google that the linking site doesn’t want to endorse the target site
• rel=“sponsored”: This shows that the target site paid for the link to be placed
• rel=“ugc”: This indicates that the link appears within user-generated content (like forum comments)

Adding one of these attributes creates a nofollow link. Like this:

Follow links (sometimes called dofollow links) are links that don’t contain any of the above attributes. And while Google is more likely to follow these links, there’s no guarantee they will positively affect your SEO.

For example, Google may not follow backlinks that appear in blog comment sections. Even if the links don’t include nofollow attributes.

It’s smart to check that your current and future backlinks have the correct follow status. Otherwise, you could be missing out on valuable link equity—or breaking Google’s guidelines.

You can check the HTML manually. But it’s quicker to check your links with the Backlink Audit tool.

If you find a link with the incorrect follow status, consider reaching out to the relevant contact and asking them to fix it.

Domain and Page Authority

The more authoritative the referring domain and page, the more valuable a backlink can be for your SEO.

For instance, a backlink from a highly reputable site like the World Health Organization is likely to carry more weight than one from a small, little-known health blog.

It’s normal to accrue backlinks from sites/pages of varying authority. But it’s helpful to focus on high-authority sites when you’re building links to your site.

While Google doesn’t provide any metric to gauge authority, Semrush’s Authority Score (AS) metric can be used as an approximation. 

It measures the authoritativeness of pages and domains based on:

• Link power: The quality and quantity of backlinks
• Organic traffic: The estimated number of monthly unpaid visits from search engines
• Natural profile: How natural (rather than spammy) their backlink profile seems to be

That means you can use the Authority Score metric to gauge the value of your existing backlinks and ones you’re considering pursuing. 

And to track your own progress in building SEO authority.

Topical Relevance

Topical relevance refers to how closely related the referring page/site and the target page/site are.

Highly relevant backlinks are better because they seem more natural. And are more likely to be placed by subject matter experts, whose endorsements are more trustworthy.

For example, Healthline has backlinks from reputable healthcare sites like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov):

These are likely to provide more value than backlinks from similarly authoritative sports sites:

The Likelihood of the Link Being Clicked

Links that are likelier to be clicked may pass more SEO value, because this signals that the link is more important to users.

Google has a reasonable surfer model patent that discusses the likelihood of a link being clicked. It considers factors like:

• The positioning of the backlink: Backlinks that appear high in the main content are more likely to be clicked than footer links, for example
• Content quality: The higher the quality of the content and the backlink, the more likely the link is to be clicked
• Link density: The fewer the number of links on the page, the more likely your link is to be clicked

Google may use this model as part of its link assessment.

For instance, it might be better for your product to be the top recommendation in a gift guide rather than the last entry in a list of 100.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the clickable text that a link is attached to, and it can play a role in a backlink’s value.

Basically, search engines use anchor text to better understand what the linked page is about. So, some marketers build lots of backlinks with keyword-rich anchor text in the hopes of improving the page’s rankings for those keywords.

For example, they might use unnatural anchor text like “buy men’s wedding shoes and wedding shoes for men online.” Or build dozens of backlinks with the anchor text “men’s wedding shoes.”

But:

Using unnatural anchor text is a form of link spam. And it can lead to a Google penalty.

We recommend that you use descriptive but natural-sounding anchor text for your links. And avoid purposefully building lots of links with the exact same anchor text.

Link Schemes

Link schemes are efforts to gain SEO advantages by building unhelpful or spammy backlinks.

If you participate in link schemes, Google is likely to identify and ignore the resulting links. And if you use them at scale, you may receive a penalty.

Here are some of the bad practices outlined in Google’s guidelines:

• Exchanging money, goods, or services for follow links
• Link exchanges (i.e., “link to me and I’ll link to you”)
• Using automated programs that create links to your site
• Placing links on low-quality directory sites
• Adding unnatural or unwanted links to forum comments
• Creating poor-quality content purely to get backlinks

If you’ve previously engaged in these practices, use Semrush’s Backlink Audit tool. It helps you identify potentially toxic backlinks. And remove them, if necessary.

After setting up, go to the “Audit” report. And review the flagged backlinks.

If you find any harmful backlinks, send them to the “Remove” tab.

From there, you can connect your mailbox. And email the relevant website admins, to ask them to remove your backlinks.

As a last resort, consider disavowing your links (i.e., formally asking Google to ignore them).

You should only do this if you have lots of potentially harmful links that you’re unable to remove and you have or are likely to receive a Google penalty.

5 Ways to Build Valuable Backlinks for SEO

There are many ways to build valuable backlinks for SEO.

Here, we’ve rounded up five of the simplest and most reliable link building tactics:

1. Create Useful Resources

Create useful resources that are hard for others to replicate or improve upon, so publishers have a good reason to cite your website—or send users to it.

For example, Healthline has a reliable, in-depth article about how much water you should drink.

It’s cited as a source in many related articles, like this one from HuffPost:

It’s crucial that your resources are highly relevant to your brand because:

• It makes your content more trustworthy and more likely to get linked to
• It means you’re more likely to attract links from topically relevant sites
• The content is more likely to generate other business benefits

If you need inspiration, see which of your competitors’ pages attract the most backlinks by analyzing their domains in Backlink Analytics and going to the “Indexed Pages” report.

Once you’ve created your content, contact any high-quality sites that link to something similar from one or more of your competitors. And see if they’re interested in linking to your (superior) version instead.

Send outreach emails to other publishers that might be interested, too. 

Effective promotion will help maximize the number of backlinks you get. And once you build some momentum, natural links might come more easily.

2. Try Broken Link Building

Broken link building is the process of finding backlinks that don’t work (e.g., because the target page was deleted) and suggesting a relevant backlink to your website as a replacement.

This method works well because publishers don’t want broken links on their site. And you’re offering them an easy solution.

For the highest success rate, look for links that were supposed to point to your site in the first place.

Go to the “Indexed Pages” report for your domain in Backlink Analytics. 

Then, apply the “Broken Pages” filter.

If you have a good replacement for any broken page you see here, click the corresponding number in the “Backlinks” column. 

Then, decide which broken backlinks are worth trying to recover (if any) based on the authority of the page, the context of the link, etc.

Finally, email the relevant contact(s) to let them know about your broken backlink and your suggested replacement.

3. Answer Relevant Media Requests

Finding and responding to relevant media requests can be an effective way to build website backlinks because creators often credit their contributors with a link.

For example, a creator might want suggestions for a gift guide. Or tips from experts on a particular topic.

Like this:

You can find media requests to respond to on websites like Connectively, Qwoted, and Featured:

Generally, you need to follow these steps:

1. Sign up to your chosen platform(s) and create a personal profile
2. Opt in to alerts about relevant requests and monitor your email inbox
3. Respond to relevant requests as quickly and helpfully as possible 

The best media request platform for you depends on your niche, location, etc.

4. Replicate Your Competitors’ Backlinks

Replicating competitor backlinks can be a highly effective tactic because it means using methods that have already worked.

This approach also helps you close competitive gaps. Which can be crucial to improving your SEO rankings.

To get started, add your domain and up to four rival domains to the Backlink Gap tool.

You’ll see the “Best” link building prospects by default. These are domains that link to all analyzed competitors but not to you.

Click the arrows in the corresponding rows and columns to learn more about your competitors’ backlinks. And determine if they’re possible (and worthwhile) to replicate.

For example: 

If your competitor has a backlink because their CEO gave an interview to the site, you might want to contact the publisher to see if they’re interested in interviewing your CEO, too.

5. Capitalize on Business Relationships

Capitalize on any business relationships to try to get backlinks placed on external websites.

For example, you can get backlinks by:

• Supplying case studies to service providers
• Providing testimonials to freelancers
• Getting featured as a preferred vendor on distributors' websites
• Announcing joint projects on partners' blogs
• Getting listed on trade association websites

To get started, list all the website owners that your business has an affiliation with. Then, explore their sites to look for link building opportunities.

Once you have an idea, consider who at your business has the strongest relationship with the partner. Ask them to review the idea and propose it to their contact if appropriate.

This should increase your chance of success.

Keep Track of Your Link Building Efforts

When you’re building backlinks for SEO, there’s a lot to keep track of.

But Semrush’s Link Building Tool makes things easier. 

It allows you to:

• View all your link building prospects (and associated metrics) in one place
• Track the status of your outreach emails and responses
• Record and monitor the backlinks you acquire 

If you haven’t already, sign up free to try this tool and some of the other backlink tools described in this guide.