A link from one website to another website.
Relevant, trustworthy backlinks can support search visibility and referral traffic.
Short and sweet:
A link from one website to another website.
Relevant, trustworthy backlinks can support search visibility and referral traffic.
See also: Link Building, Domain Authority, Referral Traffic
A backlink is a single link from another website pointing to a specific page on your own site, and search engines treat each one as a small vote of confidence that factors into how much authority and trust that page has earned. Not every backlink carries equal weight, since a link from a well-established, relevant site typically counts for far more than dozens of links from low-quality or unrelated sources. Because they’re the core building block behind both off-page SEO and domain authority, earning strong, relevant backlinks tends to be one of the more resource-intensive but highest-leverage parts of an SEO strategy.
When The New York Times cites a small research firm’s study and links to its website, that single backlink can send more qualified traffic than months of paid advertising.
Wikipedia contains millions of outbound links like this pointing to other sites, though most carry a nofollow tag that limits their direct SEO value.
A local bakery getting a mention and link from the city’s tourism website, listed among “best places to eat downtown,” can meaningfully boost both referral traffic and local search rankings.
