Backlink
An inbound link from another site — still the strongest off-page SEO signal.
A backlink (inbound link) is a hyperlink from an external website to your site. Backlinks remain one of the strongest off-page SEO ranking signals, with referring domain count correlating 0.65+ with organic traffic in published studies.
Context
Not all backlinks are equal. A link from a high-authority, topically-relevant domain counts far more than a link from a low-quality or off-topic site. Link quality has been the primary axis of change in how Google treats backlinks over the last decade.
Link-building tactics that worked in the 2010s (PBNs, mass guest posting, comment links) are now at best ineffective and at worst penalty triggers. Modern link building centers on digital PR — earning coverage from press, industry publications, and original research.
A single backlink from a DR-85+ domain like techcrunch.com can be worth more in SEO value than 50 backlinks from DR-20 small-business blogs — and orders of magnitude more than bought or PBN links.
Google's tolerance for low-quality backlinks has decreased, but the risk isn't 'bad link hurts rankings' — it's 'enough bad links trigger a manual review.' Toxic link profiles still rarely cause penalties; they're more often just ignored.
Services that apply this
More SEO terms
CTR (Click-Through Rate)
The percentage of people who clicked after seeing your link, ad, or snippet.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page)
The page Google shows after a search — far more than just ten blue links.
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
How fast the main content becomes visible on a page.
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)
How much the page jumps around during load.