Learn what backlinks are and why they are important. Also learn how to build quality backlinks to your website with SEO-friendly tips and strategies.
Backlinks do still matter now in 2025, which should be clear to you if you're serious about SEO. That much must be obvious to you now. Since more quality websites link to your site, more search engines trust your content, so your pages can rank higher on Google.
In this blog, we will walk you through just why backlinks happen to be important, just how to build backlinks to your website, plus even how to get backlinks for a new website, in the event you use strategies that happen to be effective and ethical.
Backlinks are hyperlinks from another website to yours. In simple terms, they are links from one website to another that acts as a vote of confidence to search engines. They are also known as inbound links or incoming links or hyperlinks. It is an off-page SEO optimizaton strategy used to build website authority and trust in the eyes of search engines and humans.
Let’s break it down:
Another blogger reads your website blog post as they imagine that they might find it helpful. Their blog then references your article through their work. Is that link off their blog directed toward yours? That is a backlink to you.
If someone else’s website links to your blog or page, that’s a backlink for you. Think of it like a vote or a referral, or a recommendation from the web.
Backlinks do still matter even more than ever, despite all of Google’s algorithm updates. Backlinks are critical to search engines for evaluating your website. This assessment decides authority plus trustworthiness. More high-quality backlinks are apt to make your pages rank higher.
Figure: Why backlinks matters?
Backlinks are important since they are one of Google’s top three ranking factors. When high-authority sites link to content, it signals that the content is:
Valuable
Relevant
Trustworthy
Backlinks are crucial for website authoriy and online visibiliy. They help to,
Google considers backlinks as “votes of confidence.” A site that gets a lot of high-quality backlinks is assumed to provide good content and is more likely to rank higher.
Achieving backlinks from high-authority domains like news sites, .edu, or .gov signals the site's good reputation, which then helps to improve the domain authority score; this allows for higher rankings across several keywords.
Google uses crawlers (bots) to explore the web. If other websites are found linking to your website, it becomes easier for Google to find and index your pages faster.
Backlinks not only help with SEO, they also bring direct traffic from other websites. Someone reading a related blog might click on a link and become a customer.
Backlinks support Google’s E-E-A-T framework, i.e, Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, especially in niches like health, finance, and business.
As we all know, quality beats quantity. So, don’t rush for 1,000 spammy backlinks, but one should aim for 10 solid ones from reputable and relevant websites.
Some of the key principles of backlink building are:
White-hat link building refers to earning backlinks using Google-approved strategies along with an ethical approach. These methods focus upon content that is valuable, on relationships being built, and on links earned organically.
Google’s algorithm is becoming smarter with every update. If it catches that it buys links, that it uses link farms, or that it spams forums for links, each known as black-hat tactics, then that site can be penalized or what's worse, deindexed. White-hat ensures the achievement of long-term SEO success. Your rankings stay protected, too.
Guest posting occurs on some reputable blogs.
Content marketing earns links.
Use Help A Reporter Out (HARO).
Sourcing links by the use of reliable business directories.
Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink example, “SEO basics”. The anchor text used must be relevant to the page it’s linking to, but not overly stuffed with keywords.
Using keyword-rich anchor text like “best cheap shoes online” can often look spammy and unnatural. Google wants to see variety and context. Instead, you should use anchor texts that flow naturally within the content and mix things up like branded terms, long-tail keywords, or even generic phrases like “click here”.
Branded terms (e.g., “Abstract Infosys”)
Partial match keywords (e.g., “backlink strategies”)
Generic anchors (e.g., “read more,” “this article”)
Exact match keywords (sparingly and naturally)
A backlink is more valuable when it comes from a website that is related to your industry or niche. If you’re running a health blog and you get a backlink from a fitness or wellness site, it makes perfect sense to Google. But a backlink from a car repair blog? That won’t help and even look suspicious.
Backlinks get considered, and relevance gets evaluated by Google. Signals of trust as well as authority are stronger with relevant backlinks than unrelated or random ones.
Note: Your niche's influencer, in addition to local directories, forums, and industry blogs, is key. These are the kinds of links for SEO that authorize and improve.
About backlinks, placement is very important. Even the link itself is very important. Linking is something that should occur in a natural way in valuable informative content that is not forced into a low-quality article merely for the purpose of linking.
Google looks at all of the context that surrounds the link. A backlink, when placed inside a meaningful sentence within a helpful blog post, carries more SEO weight. A backlink that is in a footer, in a sidebar, or on a low-value page carries less SEO weight.
“To learn more about on-page optimization basics, check out this in-depth guide on on-page SEO to get yourself familiarize with the basics.”
Avoid:
Links in spammy comment sections
Blogrolls or unrelated directories
Mass link exchanges or link networks
Figure: Backlink Building Strategies
Write original articles of a high-quality for use by other blogs in your niche. Choose sites with strong authority along with an audience.
Tips: Do not write in order to get a link. Rather, develop content assisting the host site’s audience. That is the way that you get accepted for it. Backlinks result from that.
This is a smart SEO trick. Here's how it works:
Ahrefs or Screaming Frog can locate dead, broken links within blogs related to your niche.
Suggest your content as a replacement for the website owner and reach out to them.
Why it works: Because you are helping them fix a problem, you earn back a link in return.
HARO connects journalists with sources. Sign up as a source and respond to relevant queries. If your quote is selected, you could get a backlink from big media sites like Entrepreneur, Forbes, or TechCrunch.
This technique is about outperforming existing top-ranking content.
Find popular posts with lots of backlinks.
Create an even better version: longer, more current, better visuals.
Reach out to the sites linking to the old article and suggest yours instead. It’s competitive, but it works if your content truly adds value.
Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn, and Twitter are perfect for content promotion. You engage with communities as you share answers plus posts, so backlinks are attracted organically when people reference content.
Businesses have a need to pay some attention. Do not look past the basics.
List your business on the Google Business Profile and also on Yelp. Put it in specialized directories too.
These count as foundational backlinks that also help with local SEO.
Building backlinks for a brand-new site is quite hard, but not impossible. Here are some points that one can do:
Create profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter as well and Pinterest.
Submit to citation sites like Aboutme or into business directories such as Crunchbase. You can gain visibility as well as early signals from these.
Create a blog, then write guides and lists. Also include industry research.
People are, in fact, more likely they share and link to those visuals, infographics, or video embeds. These additions can improve content engagement.
In your field, you can partner with business owners, local influencers, or even bloggers. Suggest campaign teamwork or content collaboration.
Even if you’re just starting, connect your pages with smart internal links. It helps Google crawl your site and keeps visitors engaged.
Many people unintentionally sabotage their SEO efforts. Avoid these at all costs:
Buying Links: Paid links from spammy sites can get you penalized or deindexed.
Over-Optimized Anchors
If anchor text frequently says “buy cheap shoes online,” Google will catch on. Mix it up with brand names and natural phrases.
Ignoring Backlink Profile Health
Not all links are good. Bad or “toxic” backlinks can hurt your site. Regularly audit and disavow harmful links.
Once you start earning backlinks, it’s crucial to track and manage them.
Free and reliable for checking what links Google sees pointing to your site.
These give deeper insights: see who’s linking to you, lost links, anchor text usage, and spam scores.
If you spot harmful or suspicious links pointing to your site, use Google’s Disavow Tool to tell Google to ignore them.
Backlink building isn’t about gaming Google, though it’s about building relationships, creating valuable content, also being seen as a leader in your space.
Your backlink profile is going to grow if you stay consistent and also use ethical methods that focus on quality over quantity, plus your search traffic will likewise.
So, if you are having problem in generating backlinks for you website, we can help you in that. Our SEO professionals offer white-hat SEO backlink services by generating quality links from niche related sites. We use guest posting strategies, directory submissions, outreach tactics, social bookmarking sites to build quality backlinks for you.
1. What is the fasted way to get backlinks?
The quickest ways to earn backlinks involve strategies that combine speed with quality. Guest blogging/posting remains one of the fastest proven strategies. HARO, where journalists request expert input and reward you with backlinks from authority sites and niche business directories.
2. Can I rank without backlinks?
Websites can rank without backlinks when they aim for less competitive long-tail keywords within a niche or local markets. Backlinks for medium to high-competition keywords are necessary because they signal trust to Google, increase crawl frequency, and help to build domain authority.
3. Are backlinks still important in 2025?
Yes, backlinks are important more than ever in 2025, as Google’s evolving algorithms and AI-based search models, backlinks remain a core ranking factor. They’re still one of the top indicators of trust, authority, and relevance. Today, it’s more about where they come from, how relevant they are, and how naturally they’re placed. Google continues to use backlinks as a strong trust and authority signal.
4. How many backlinks do I need to rank?
The number of backlinks depends on the keyword’s competitiveness, the domain authority of linking sites, and how well on-page SEO is optimized. For low-competition terms, a handful of quality backlinks might be enough. But for competitive keywords like one might need dozens or even hundreds of powerful backlinks from relevant sites.
5. What is the difference bewteen nofollow and dofollow backlinks?
Dofollow backlinks allow search engines to follow the link and pass SEO value (link juice) to the target website. Nofollow backlinks, on the other hand, tell search engines not to follow the link or pass authority. While dofollow links help with search engine rankings, nofollow links are mainly for traffic and brand visibility.