What are Backlinks?¶

Inbounds links or incoming links, or what is more commonly known as backlinks, are links that point to one website from another. Most search engines see these links as votes of confidence and trustworthiness.

Even today, backlinks are still the most important ranking factors and, because of that, have been heavily abused. It is not an exaggeration to say that fighting those fake backlink campaigns is the most crucial challenge a search engine faces. At the same time, it is also a challenge for a website to get the most out of the backlinks while avoiding potential negative actions by the search engines.

Not all backlinks are equal. A single "dofollow" backlink from an authority website could be more "juicy" and safer than millions of low-quality links. A backlink with the target keyword is more valuable than a backlink with a generic phrase¹

Another important factor is the relation between backlinks. If the majority of backlinks are from the same website or the same network of IPs, a search engine will not be able to trust the backlinks as much. This is where a properly designed SEO Hosting offering can come in handy.