Terminology

What are Backlinks?

A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Search engines use backlinks as votes of trust. More high-quality backlinks raise your Domain Rating.

Updated 2026-06-262 min read

A backlink is a link from one website to another. Search engines treat backlinks as votes of trust, the more high-quality sites link to yours, the more credible your site looks to Google.

  • They drive your Domain Rating up. Domain Rating is calculated almost entirely from backlinks.
  • They lift specific page rankings. A backlink pointing at one of your pages raises that page's authority for the keywords it targets.
  • They send referral traffic. Real visitors click backlinks too, not only search engines.
  • DR of the linking site. One link from a DR 80 site is worth more than fifty links from DR 5 sites.
  • Dofollow vs nofollow. Only dofollow links pass authority to your site. Nofollow links still send traffic but don't move DR.
  • Topical relevance. A link from a site in your niche carries more weight than one from a random domain.
  • Anchor text. The clickable text of the link signals what your page is about.

The fastest way for an indie builder is submitting to vetted directories. Each approved listing is one new backlink. We maintain a curated list of high-DR free directories and group them by stage so you submit in the right order. See directory strategies for the breakdown.