--- title: "What Is a Backlink? Examples, Types and How to Check Yours" description: "A backlink is a link on another website that points to yours. This guide shows what one looks like in a page's code, real examples from bklink's own audits, the kinds of backlinks you'll meet, what nofollow, sponsored and ugc change, and how to check the backlinks you have." canonical: "https://bklink.uk/blog/what-is-a-backlink" publishedAt: "2026-10-12T06:41:22.285Z" updatedAt: "2026-10-12T06:41:22.285Z" author: "Palash Bagchi" category: "audit-fundamentals" tags: ["audit-fundamentals","basics"] series: "Backlink Audit Fundamentals" image: null --- # What Is a Backlink? Examples, Types and How to Check Yours A backlink is a link on another website that points to yours. This guide shows what one looks like in a page's code, real examples from bklink's own audits, the kinds of backlinks you'll meet, what nofollow, sponsored and ugc change, and how to check the backlinks you have. ## What is a backlink? A backlink is a link on someone else's website that points to a page on yours. It's also called an inbound or incoming link, and some people write it as two words, back link. From the other site's side, the same link is an outbound link. Backlinks matter because Google uses links "as a signal when determining the relevancy of pages and to find new pages to crawl" ([Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable)). A link tells Google that a page exists, and gives it some context about what the page is. ## What a backlink looks like In the linking page's HTML, a backlink is an `` element with an `href`: ```html see their pricing ``` It has four parts worth knowing: - **The linking page.** This is the URL the link sits on, sometimes called the backlink page or backlink URL. If that page is gone or not indexed, search engines may never count the link. - **The target.** The page on your site that the `href` points to. - **The anchor text.** The clickable words: here, "see their pricing". - **The rel attribute.** Optional values such as `nofollow`, `sponsored` or `ugc` that tell search engines what kind of link it is. Google needs a real `` to extract a link reliably. A "link" that works only through a script's click handler may not be picked up ([Make your links crawlable](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable)). ## Backlink examples from real audits Two examples from bklink's own published data: - **Press-release copies.** bklink's [sample report](/bklink-sample-report-prweb.pdf) audits 173 links placed through a press-release distributor. - 161 of them were the same 2 articles republished across sites. - None of the links were followed. - 70% of the publications shared hosting with others on the list. That's a lot of backlinks for little value. - **Directory listings.** We [read 36 of our own launch-directory listings](/blog/saas-directories-link-back-study): - 21 linked back with a followed link; - 4 linked back with nofollow; - 3 named the product only in script-drawn content. ## Types of backlinks By where they come from: - **Editorial links.** A writer links to your page because it helps their readers. - **Guest posts.** An article you write for another site, usually with a link back. - **Directory and listing links.** A profile on a directory, marketplace or review site. - **Press-release copies.** The same release republished across news and syndication sites, often nofollow, as in the sample above. - **Forum, comment and profile links.** User-generated content, which sites are asked to mark `ugc`. - **Paid placements.** - Google's spam policies count "buying or selling links for ranking purposes" as link spam. - The same policies allow paid links that are "qualified with a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute value" ([Spam policies: link spam](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#link-spam)). By their rel attribute, as [Google defines them](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/qualify-outbound-links): - **Followed:** a normal link with no qualifying value. - **sponsored:** advertisements and paid placements. - **ugc:** user-generated content such as comments and forum posts. - **nofollow:** for when the other values don't apply and the site doesn't want to be associated with the linked page. Google says links with these values "will generally not be followed", though the target page can still be found other ways. Values can be combined, as in `rel="ugc nofollow"`. ## Anchor text Google describes good anchor text as "descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to the page that it's on and to the page it links to" ([Make your links crawlable](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable)). - **Too generic:** "click here" and "read more". - **Too stuffed:** cramming in every keyword. Google treats keyword stuffing as a spam-policy violation. You don't choose the anchor text on most backlinks. On the links you place yourself, write it the way the site's own editor would: your brand name, the page's title, or a plain description. Don't repeat the same keyword phrase on every placement. ## Backlinks vs internal links An internal link joins two pages on the same site. A backlink comes from a different site. Both help Google find pages. Google's advice for your own site is that "every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site." The difference is control. You decide your internal links today. A backlink sits on a page someone else owns, which they can edit, move or delete without telling you. ## How search engines find backlinks A search engine finds a backlink by crawling the page it's on and reading the `` elements in it. That has two consequences: - If Google hasn't crawled or indexed the linking page, it may not know the link exists. - SEO tools' link databases come from their own crawls, so each tool knows a different set of links. None of them is Google's view. ## How many backlinks do you need? There's no published number, and a count on its own says little. The 173-link sample above shows why: most of those links were republished copies on shared servers, none were followed, and bklink valued the whole list at $0. A few links from real, independent, relevant sites that keep them live are worth more than that. ## How to check your backlinks - **For your own site, free.** - Google Search Console's [Links report](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9049606) shows your most-linked pages, the sites that link to you most and the anchor text they use. - Google notes that it "isn't a comprehensive list of every link." - **With an SEO tool's link index.** - Tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz crawl the web and keep their own link databases. Each sees a different slice of the web, which is why their counts disagree. - Their site scores aren't interchangeable either: DR is Ahrefs' metric and DA is Moz's ([DR vs DA](/blog/dr-vs-da-difference)). - **For links you placed.** Check each one directly: - Is the page live, and is your link still on it? - What does its rel say? - Does it share hosting with the rest of the list? - Is the page indexed? A [bklink audit](/) reads each page and answers the first three. The [Google index checker](/google-index-checker) answers the last one. ## What makes a backlink good or bad No single score settles it. These are the questions worth asking of any link: - **Is the linking page live and indexed?** Google may never have seen a link on a page it hasn't indexed. - **Is the link followed?** And if it was paid for, is it marked sponsored, as Google asks? - **Is the site real?** It should have readers and a topic related to yours. - **Is it independent?** Some lists are many sites on the same server posing as different publications ([PBN spam detection](/blog/pbn-spam-detection)). - **Will it last?** Links quietly disappear ([link rot](/blog/link-rot-monitoring)). For the risk side, see [toxic backlinks and link quality](/blog/toxic-backlinks-link-quality). ## Key Takeaways - A backlink is a link on another site that points to yours; Google uses links as a relevancy signal and to find new pages. - Every backlink has four parts worth checking: the linking page, the target, the anchor text and the rel attribute. - nofollow, sponsored and ugc tell Google what kind of link it is, and Google says such links will generally not be followed. - Search Console's Links report is free but partial; for links you placed, check each page directly. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is a backlink in SEO? A link from a page on another website to a page on yours. Search engines use links to discover pages, and as one signal of what a page is about and how relevant it is. ### What is an example of a backlink? A news article linking to your pricing page, a directory listing linking to your homepage, or a guest post with a link in the author bio. In the page's HTML it's an pointing to your URL. ### What are the main types of backlinks? By source: editorial links, guest posts, directory listings, press-release copies, forum and comment links, and paid placements. By attribute: followed links, and links marked nofollow, sponsored or ugc. ### Is a nofollow backlink worthless? Not worthless: it can still send visitors. But Google says links marked nofollow will generally not be followed, so don't count on one to pass search credit. ### How do I find out who links to my site? For a site you own, Google Search Console's Links report lists your top linking sites for free, though it isn't a complete list. SEO tools with their own link indexes show more, each from its own crawl. ## Sources 1. [Google Search Central - Make your links crawlable](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable) 2. [Google Search Central - Qualify your outbound links to Google](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/qualify-outbound-links) 3. [Google Search Central - Spam policies for Google web search (link spam)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#link-spam) 4. [Search Console Help - Links report](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9049606)