Backlink

A link from an external website pointing to your site, one of the most powerful ranking signals in Google's algorithm.

Backlinks (also called inbound links or external links) are the primary currency of Google's PageRank algorithm. When high-authority, relevant sites link to your page, they pass link equity (a portion of their PageRank), which raises your page's authority and ranking potential. The quality, relevance, and diversity of backlinks matter far more than quantity.

A backlink from a high-DR (Domain Rating) site in your industry is worth more than hundreds of links from low-authority directories. Key backlink quality signals: domain authority of the linking site, relevance of the linking page to your content, placement in body content vs footer/sidebar, dofollow vs nofollow status, anchor text used, and uniqueness of the referring domain.

Link building strategies (white-hat): creating link-worthy assets (original research, tools, infographics), digital PR (earning links from press coverage), guest posting on relevant industry publications, resource page link building, broken link building (finding dead links on authoritative pages and offering your page as a replacement), and HARO (Help A Reporter Out) for journalist-linked mentions.