What are Backlinks & How to Build Your Backlink Profile

What are Backlinks?

Backlinks—also known as inbound links or external links—refer to links on one website pointing to another website.

Search engines, like Google or Bing, view backlinks as indicators of quality content that has the support of other websites. Pages with more backlinks can rank higher on SERPs (search engine results pages).

The Importance of Backlinks in Your SEO Strategy

Do backlinks have a big impact on your SEO?

Absolutely.

Backlinks are a critical component of SEO. Earning authoritative backlinks is one of the most important signals that Google considers for ranking content.

But what makes a high-quality backlink? 

Trust is a huge factor. If a quality website with an excellent reputation links to your site, that's a fantastic vote of confidence.

If you only have sites that Google considers spammy linking to your website, it's not likely to help you much.

Popularity is another consideration. Because Google views external links as votes of popularity for a website or webpage, there is a strong correlation between sites with lots of (quality) backlinks and higher rankings.

Let's take this Maserati Grecale review from CNET for example.

This article includes a variety of backlinks right off the bat. It links to a news article referencing production delays, the Maserati website, the Grecale SUV landing page, and so on.

Below is another example of backlinks on the Oculus "Where to Buy" page. The buttons link to Microsoft, Walmart, etc.

Here's yet another example in a news article about Semrush:

Any link from someone else’s website to yours is a backlink, but, as we’ve mentioned, not all links are created equal. 

Think about it—you would probably trust a recommendation from someone you respect over someone you've never met. Google essentially does the same with links.

This trust comes in the form of PageRank, one of Google’s algorithms that evaluates the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to a page. This evaluation determines the overall importance and authority of a page.

If your site receives backlinks from quality websites relevant to your industry, it's likely sending strong signals to Google that your site is viewed as an authority in your industry. 

Types of Backlinks

As mentioned, not all backlinks are the same. Let's learn about the different types of backlinks your site can acquire:

Nofollow Links

We have already shared that links are like votes for trusted resources, but what if you don’t want to vouch for a website but still need to link to it?

Nofollow links use the rel=”nofollow” attribute to inform Google and other search engines that they shouldn’t pass trust (PageRank). A nofollow backlink looks like this:

Given that nofollow links don’t pass PageRank, they won’t necessarily help you rank higher on the SERPs. However, Google announced in September 2019 that they were evolving the nofollow attribute. 

When nofollow was introduced, Google would not count any link marked this way as a signal to use within our search algorithms.

But not anymore.

All the link attributes are treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within search.

Some believe that this change to nofollow links being treated as a hint means that Google will pass trust through nofollow links in some instances, such as when an authority news platform adds the attribute site-wide.

Follow Links

A followed link does pass trust (PageRank) and does not add the nofollow attribute. 

Note: there is no "follow" attribute as any link is considered "dofollow" unless an attribute is added. 

A follow backlink looks like this:

Sponsored or Paid Links

Sometimes, you might pay an affiliate or an influencer to promote a piece of your content or to post a review of one of your products. 

If money, or a product or service, has changed hands in return for a link, a rel=”sponsored" attribute should be added to inform Google. 

The rel=”sponsored" attribute stops your site from being negatively impacted by these links. So, if you’re working with an affiliate, you should use the sponsored attribute for this backlink.

A sponsored backlink looks like this:

UGC Links

Another of the new link attributes rolled out in 2019 were UGC (user-generated content) links.

UGC links come from the likes of forums and blog comments. The attribute informs Google that the link has been placed by a user and not the webmaster.

A UGC backlink looks like this:

High Authority Links

Now that we've discussed the different types of backlinks let's find out how to determine the quality of a backlink.

Using the Backlink Audit tool, you can view how many backlinks your site has, the referring domains of those backlinks, the toxicity of those sites, and more.

The overview page gives you a summary of the essential information.

You can dive deeper into the reports in this tool to view your top referring domains and view metrics related to your backlinks, like Authority Score and Toxicity Score.

You can also integrate Google Search Console to ensure you don't miss any backlinks pointing to your site.

The goal is to get backlinks from high-authority sites relevant to your website. Here are some factors that can help you determine if your site is receiving quality backlinks:

• A high number of referring domains
• Its placement on the page (the higher up on the page, the better)
• If they are contextual backlinks (links surrounded by related content on the page)
• If it contains relevant anchor text

As mentioned previously, Google assesses authority through their PageRank algorithm, but that’s no longer a public-facing metric since they stopped updating and subsequently retired their PageRank Toolbar in 2016.

When assessing whether a link is high quality or not, consider factors such as credibility and whether the site shares quality content of real value to users.

Toxic Links (Unnatural Links)

The wrong links can harm your website’s ability to rank or negatively impact any rankings you already have. “Bad” links are often referred to as toxic or unnatural links.

Toxic backlinks, which usually come from low-quality or suspicious websites, directly violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and exist solely to try and manipulate search engine rankings. 

This could mean paid links that aren’t marked with nofollow or sponsored attributes, those from low-quality directories or bookmark sites, or an unnatural number of links that use exact match anchor text.

You can also use the Backlink Audit tool to review your backlinks and identify potential toxic or unnatural links. 

Once the analysis is complete, you can choose from several actions, including generating a disavow list and submitting it to the Google Disavow Tool.

Leave links in your "remove" list if you want to contact a site manually to request removal or approve any links you know are safe.

You can do this directly through the Backlink Audit tool if you need to clean up toxic links and request removal.

Editorially Placed Links

Editorially placed links are essentially links that you didn't ask for. Instead, a website will naturally link to a site as a resource to back up their content.

Google highly values these links. This is because they are meant to enhance a user's experience rather than manipulate search engine algorithms.

Why Are Backlinks Important?

When it comes to search engine optimization, backlinks are talked about a lot and are the focus of site owners everywhere. But why are backlinks important? We'll dive into a few of the reasons why you should care about incoming links to your site.

Backlinks Can Improve Rankings

Without great backlinks pointing to your site, you miss out on one factor that goes into understanding a website — trustworthiness. Backlinks showcase that you are a trusted authority in your industry and deserve to rank at the top for key search terms.

Google Finds New Pages via Backlinks

Google’s spiders (Googlebot) uses links to find new pages on the web — this is one of the main ways content is discovered, crawled, and indexed. 

One way to think of links is how Google navigates the web. A link from a trusted source will help your content indexed faster by Google.

Backlinks Boost Your Trustworthiness and Credibility

Quality links from authoritative and trusted sources help you to rank higher as well as help boost your trustworthiness and credibility as a business.

Think about it this way: let’s say you are own a tech startup. There is a good chance not too many people know about your business (yet).

If you manage to land some press coverage and a link from TechCrunch, you will get a credibility boost from that.

If you then go on to gain links from the BBC, TechRadar, and Wired, those are some serious industry authority (and relevant contextual links) for your website.

Besides being good for your site's SEO, having journalists and editors at key publications in your industry who choose to link to you goes a long way to show people are talking about your business.

Backlinks Send Referral Traffic to Your Page

When the web first launched, links were solely navigational. In the most simplistic form, the purpose of links is to take web browsers from Page A to Page B, not just within one website but also between different sites. 

While links are now used within Google’s algorithm, the principle hasn’t changed: excellent links send valuable traffic to your page.

If we step back to the example above, relevant press coverage can send interested readers to your site—introducing your brand to new audiences who could turn into customers. 

How to Check Any Website’s Backlinks

Checking sites for backlinks is helpful whether you're planning a link building campaign or benchmarking your site against competitors' sites. 

You can get insights about your site's backlink profile from tools like Google Search Console, but you'll need more detailed information about other websites' backlink profiles—and you can do so using Semrush.

Using Google Search Console to Understand Your Link Profile

Google Search Console will give you an insight into what your link profile looks like, but it won’t provide any information about your competitors.

To start, head over to Google Search Console and log in. Using the left-hand menu, navigate toward the bottom of the menu and you'll find Links.

You should then see an overview of your website’s backlink profile under the "External links" heading.

You will be able to see insights into:

• External links: How many external links point to your site.

• Top linked pages: The pages on your site with the most backlinks pointing to them.

• Top linking sites: The website which links to yours the most times.

• Top linking text: The most common link anchor text used for external links.

You can also export your site’s external links as a CSV file in the top right corner.

How to Analyze Backlinks

You can start by using a tool like Backlink Analytics to gain insights into a whole host of metrics and data points to help you develop a better strategy.

Backlink Analytics can dive a bit deeper than GSC by getting insights on your competitors' backlink profiles that can help you build your link building strategy.

The primary metrics Backlinks Analytics provides are: 

• Authority Score
• Referring domains
• Backlinks
• Monthly visits
• Keywords
• Overall toxicity score

You can click each number for a more detailed corresponding report.

The Overview tab will show highlights from up to five websites at a time. Click through any widget to access the more detailed report.

You can also export data to a PDF, whether you need to analyze yourself or send competitor research to a client.

Using Backlink Analytics, you're able to find the following information about a site's backlinks:

• Overall number of backlinks
• Pages with the most backlinks
• TLD (top-level domain) distribution
• The categories of their referring domains
• Referring domains by Authority Score
• Top anchor text for backlinks
• Link attributes (i.e., follow, nofollow, sponsored, or UGC)
• Similar profiles (domains with similar link profiles that could be useful for link building opportunities)

Whether you'd like to analyze your backlinks or see how your competitors are doing, this tool is a great place to start.

How to Get Backlinks to Your Site

From the skyscraper technique to building a strong digital PR campaign, there are many ways to maximize your link building efforts.

For a full overview of how to build backlinks, read our guide to link building. For now, let's review a few impactful link building strategies:

Ask Your Suppliers or Partners to Link to You

While you should avoid link building schemes, you can reach out to a partner you actively work with without worry.

For example, if they already mention you on your website, it can be an easy win.

And because you already have a relationship with the site, it's less random and likely more fruitful than reaching out to site owners you don't know.

Use HARO to Respond to Requests from Journalists

Many major media outlets use HARO to find quotes and information about different niches. This can be a relatively low-effort way to acquire backlinks, as the sources are actively looking for someone to cite.

Write (Strategic) Guest Posts

Guest posting can be beneficial, but ensure that the partnership makes sense and your content is useful. Otherwise, it can come across as spammy and distrustful.

Some examples of good guest posts may include joint research or case studies.

Here are some do's and don'ts to follow if you want to try out this strategy:

Use Niche-Specific Directories

Submitting your businesses to niche-specific directories—or citation building— is a helpful local SEO strategy that can also build links.

You can use the Listing Management Tool to automate this process. Semrush will send your business information to various directories and ensure that the details are uniform.

Turn Brand Mentions Into Links

If a site already willingly mentions your site, they may be willing to link to you as well. 

You can use the Brand Monitoring tool to find unlinked brand mentions and even get notifications when sites mention you moving forward.

Create Informational Content 

If you publish ebooks, case studies, or original research, there's a chance that others in your field may link to your content as a reference.

Be sure to back up your findings with data so that your content is a reputable source.

Publish Research and Pitch it to the Press

This step is similar to the above, but you'll want to take the next step and pitch to specific publications. You can use a tool like HARO, or a PR software like Prowly.

Prowly's Media Pitching Tool will suggest options based on your press release, provide contacts within its database, and allow you to import your own contact list.

Analyze Your Competitiors' Backlink Profiles

A quick way to analyze potential ways to build links is to look at your competitors' backlinks. You can see how your competitors are doing with the Backlink Gap tool.

Enter your domain alongside your main competitors to get started:

Here, you can identify gaps in your competitors’ link building strategies and prioritize opportunities.

Have your competitions earned backlinks from domains your site hasn't? That's a great place for you to start.

Get Started Creating a Link Building Strategy

Backlinks are a key aspect of Google's algorithm when ranking content. You'll need to earn backlinks from relevant and authoritative sites to build your website's profile.

Now that you know more about backlinks, you're ready to start working on building an excellent backlink portfolio for your site. Be sure to keep an eye out for what your competitors are doing and jump onto fresh opportunities as quickly as possible.