What are backlinks? Easily explained

If you want your homepage to appear at the top of the search results, backlinks play an important role. But what are backlinks anyway? We will answer this question in this practical tip.

What are backlinks?

The German term for "backlink" is "back reference". From the translation it can almost be deduced what a backlink is.

• If your website is linked to another website, this is a link that leads back to your homepage. So it's a backlink.
• These backlinks are, for example, tips from internet users who recommend your site.
• In the best case, your website is the only source for the information or the article and is therefore linked by everyone else.

Why are backlinks important?

What a backlink is is quickly explained. But why you should make sure that you have as many backlinks as possible is a little more difficult to explain.

• Many search engines note how often and from where a website was linked.
• The reason for this is that the content of the website appears to be good when linked from other sites.
• However, it is not about the pure number of backlinks, but above all about their quality.
• If a large website that appears far ahead in the search results links to yours, it is worth a lot. Possibly even more than if 20 unknown pages do the same.
• However, the search engines cannot be influenced exactly.
• Generally speaking, the more backlinks you have on other well-known websites and domains, the higher the rank of your own page will increase.

In another practical tip, we explain how you can display backlinks in the browser.