The term backlink refers to a link which originates from one domain and leads to another.
In search engine optimization, the purpose of a backlink is to provide Google with a ranking indicator based on its quality. The more high-quality backlinks a website has, the more popular it seems to be on the Internet, which means that websites with more backlinks tend to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This is because Google sees backlinks as proof of trust – the more backlinks the respective website has, the more popular it must be and the more likely it is to rank high in the SERPs.
Backlinks and quality: factors at a glance
Although all backlinks are technically “votes” for the respective website, not all backlinks are weighted equally in this way. Google places a lot of importance on the quality of backlinks, not the quantity. This means that it is better to have a few high-quality backlinks than many low-quality ones. However, for a balanced backlink profile, there should be a balance and both low-quality and high-quality backlinks should be present.
A few factors play a role in the evaluation of backlinks. The PageRank of the linking page is one of them. Here the popularity of the linking website plays a role – the higher the PageRank the more popular the website. From this it follows that a backlink from a popular website, receives a higher weighting.
Another factor is the relevance of the website and the anchor text of the link. The anchor text should give an indication of what users expect to find on the website. The last point, describes the traceability or crawlability of the link – a “dofollow” link allows to pass on the PageRank of the website.
Thematically relevant sub-pages:
