What is backlinks? Why backlinks are important?

What is backlinks ?
Today, you're going to learn what backlinks are, why

they're important, how you can check them for free,
Let's get started.

and how to get more backlinks to your site.


Backlinks are links from a page on one website
So what are backlinks?


to another.

to as incoming links or inbound links.
From the receiving end, these are often referred


Take your pick.
And from the linking side, they're called

external, outgoing or outbound links.


First, it's a factor that helps Google and
And there are three reasons why they're important.


other search engines determine which pages

And third, backlinks can help search engines
should rank the highest for a given query.

Second, links to your website can send you

more visitors through referral traffic.


When a page receives a backlink, it's essentially
discover your pages faster.

Now, the easiest way to conceptualize backlinks

are to think of them as votes.


But not all backlinks are created equal.
another website vouching for the content on the page.

And the more "votes" you get from credible

sources, the higher the trust.


Google talks about this in their "reasonable
At a basic level, there are two things that

separate "good quality backlinks"

from the not so great ones.

First is topical relevance.


If you were to label this topic with a category,
surfer" model which explains how the likeliness

of a link being clicked relates to its importance.

So let's say that you have a web page on

"How to make slime."


activity blog, the latter would hold more weight
it would likely fall under DIY, crafts,

or perhaps something for kids.

Now, assuming this page had two backlinks,

one from a tech blog and another from a kid's


from the referring websites and pages.
since there's higher topical relevance from

the page and domain.

Second is authority.

Now, when I'm talking about "authority," I'm

referring to the quality and quantity of backlinks


the overall strength of a website's link popularity,
Google places a score on this called "PageRank."

But since these numbers aren't publicly available,

third party tools like ours use our own proprietary

metrics like Domain Rating, which represents



and URL rating, which represents the overall

strength of a page's link popularity.

To put this into perspective, let's say your slime

article got a link from the Huffington Post.

This website is highly authoritative with a DR of 92.
And assuming topical relevance and everything
And let's say it got another link from a lesser known

site like KidsKingdom.ca, which has a DR of 17.

Based on the definition of Domain Rating,

it's fair to say that the Huffington Post

is a more "authoritative" domain.


else were equal, a link from Huff Post would

or maybe even zero backlinks.
hold more weight than the other one.

But let's throw a little twist in here.

Let's say that the page from the DR 17 site

linking to you had collected hundreds of links

from reputable sources, while the article

from Huffington Post had only collected a few


and authoritative pages to reap maximum benefits.
Then the page-level authority of the KidsKingdom

page measured by Ahrefs' URL rating score,

would likely be higher, potentially giving

it an edge over the Huffington Post link.

So as you're looking to get backlinks, you'd ideally

want to get them from both topically relevant


Here, you can see your pages that have gotten
So how can you check backlinks to your own site?

There are two places you can do this for free.

The first is Google Search Console

If you haven't already set up an account,

just go through the verification process

to prove that you own the site.

Then go to the Links report.


the most links,


the websites that have linked to your site the most,

as well as the link texts that are most frequently used, also known as anchor text.

To see the actual web pages linking to you,

click on the More button here.

Then click on a page you want to investigate, so I'll
Why they are important
click on our post on free keyword research tools.


You can then click on any of the linking websites

to see the exact pages where they're linking from.
to examine and you'll be able to see the top
The second way is to use Ahrefs' Free Backlink Checker.

Just enter the URL or domain that you want


you can use our tool, Ahrefs' Site Explorer,
100 backlinks pointing at your target.

And if you want the full backlink profile,


export the results or play around with the

But you can also use Ahrefs' Backlink Checker
filters to narrow in on data you want to see.

Now, looking at your own backlinks can only

do so much.


or Site Explorer to get actionable insights

on your competitors.

get an understanding of how they get backlinks.
Just enter the URL or domain of a competitor,

go to the Backlinks report, and you can see

where their backlinks come from, allowing you to


This brings us to the final part: how do you

get backlinks?

any medium like Google search, social media,
There are three methods to getting backlinks.

These are to earn them, create them, and build them.

Earning links refers to natural organic growth.

This is when people discover your pages through


or word of mouth, and choose to link to your page.
And this is usually done through strategies collectively

Creating backlinks is when you add a link

on another website that points to your site.

This might be through forums, directories,

blog comments, or some other method.

Finally are building links.


known as link building.

And when you're new to SEO, you'll want to focus
You can build links by reaching out to other

site owners, editors, or webmasters and ask

them to link to your page.

As a general rule of thumb, the easier it

is to get a link, the less valuable it will be.


on link building to really get traction for your site.

we call, "the vicious circle of SEO."
Since people search for something and often

read the number one result, that results in

some of them linking to that page from their

own website.

And because of the new links, that first-ranking

page often stays at the top, creating something


Now, we have a bunch of step-by-step tutorials

I'll see you in the next tutorial.
on various link building tactics, so I strongly

recommend watching them now.

And if you have any questions, leave one 

below in the comments.