SEO fundamentals
What are backlinks? Definition and why they move rankings
Backlinks are links from one website to another. Search engines read them as signals of trust: a page that credible, relevant sites point to is more likely to deserve a place in the results. Moz uses the plainer name for the same thing — inbound links.
Last reviewed August 29, 2026 · 5 min read
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They are the oldest ranking signal that still works. Google's original insight was that a link is a citation, and citations are hard to fake at scale. That is still roughly true, which is why the market for buying them exists — and why Google spends so much effort discounting the ones that were bought.
Why backlinks still move rankings
A search engine has two broad kinds of evidence about a page. On-page evidence is everything the publisher controls: the copy, the headings, the markup, the structure — covered under on-page SEO. Off-page evidence is what everyone else says, and links are the machine-readable part of that.
The distinction matters because on-page evidence is cheap to produce and off-page evidence is not. Anyone can write "the leading supplier in Austria" on their own site. Getting twenty independent industry sites to link to you as a source costs either good work or real money.
That does not make links a scoreboard. Google's own starter documentation is blunt that links are one of many signals, and a page with fewer, better links regularly outranks a page with more, worse ones. Treat link count as a diagnostic, never as a target.
What makes one backlink worth more than another
| Factor | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Relevance | A link from a site in your field carries topical context; a link from an unrelated directory carries almost none. |
| Independence | A link you did not place yourself — editorially given — is the only kind that really testifies. |
| Placement | A link inside the body text of an article is read differently from one in a sitewide footer. |
| Anchor text | The visible text tells search engines what the target page is about, which is exactly why over-optimised anchors look manipulated. |
| Traffic | A link that sends real visitors is worth having even if it moves no rankings at all. |
Moz makes the same point from the other side: not all backlinks are equal, and links from trusted, relevant sources carry more weight than random or low-quality ones. The practical version of that rule is uncomfortable — most link building that is easy to buy is worth close to nothing.
The link attributes you need to know
Google supports rel values that qualify what an outgoing link means, and knowing them is half of understanding backlinks:
rel="sponsored"marks advertisements and paid placements. Google says this is the preferred value for paid links;nofollowis still accepted for them but no longer the recommendation.rel="ugc"marks user-generated content such as comments and forum posts.rel="nofollow"is the catch-all for links you would rather Google not associate your site with.
Two consequences follow. First: a paid link that is correctly marked as sponsored will not pass ranking value, which is the entire reason paid-link sellers do not mark them. Second: the directory or forum link you spent an afternoon placing is very likely a ugc or nofollow link — fine for referral traffic, not a ranking play.
Where link building goes wrong
Google's spam policies define link spam as creating links to or from a site primarily to manipulate rankings, and the listed examples are exactly the tactics agencies still sell: buying or selling links for ranking purposes, exchanging goods or services for links, excessive link exchanges and "link to me and I'll link to you" partner pages, and automated link generation.
The risk is not only a manual penalty. The likelier outcome is that the links are simply ignored, which means the budget bought nothing at all — a slower failure that is much harder to notice in a report.
Links you can actually earn
The honest list is short, which is why it gets skipped:
- Be the source. Original data, a tool, a reference page, a real case study. Assets get cited; brochures do not.
- Be listed where your customers already look. Industry associations, chambers, local business registries, supplier directories. Unglamorous, relevant, and often the first links a new site gets.
- Be quoted. Press coverage, podcasts, guest contributions with a byline that means something.
- Fix what you already have. Broken inbound links, links to redirected URLs, and mentions of your brand without a link are the cheapest link work there is.
How Xerx does this
We do not buy links, and we do not sell link packages. What we do inside SEO and organic growth is the unglamorous half: making sure the site deserves the links it gets, claiming and correcting the profiles and directories a business is entitled to, fixing broken and redirected inbound links, and building the pages — data, references, explainers like this one — that give somebody a reason to cite you.
We are honest about the order of operations, too. For most small and mid-sized sites, links are not the first bottleneck. Pages that answer the wrong intent, a site an engine cannot crawl properly, and thin service pages usually cost more visibility than a thin link profile does. We say so when the diagnosis says so, even when "we'll get you links" would be the easier sale.
SEO Care starts at €790 per month with eight real, logged hours — you see what those hours went into. Link work competes for those hours against everything else on the list, and it wins the hour only when it is genuinely the next-best use of it.
FAQ
How many backlinks do I need to rank?
There is no number, and anyone quoting one is guessing. What matters is the gap between you and the pages currently ranking for your query: if they are ranking on a handful of ordinary industry links, links are not your bottleneck, and if they all have hundreds of editorial citations, no amount of on-page work alone will close it. Diagnose the specific query before buying anything.
Are nofollow links worthless?
No, they are just not a ranking shortcut. A nofollow, ugc, or sponsored link still sends real visitors, still puts your name in front of the right audience, and often sits on a page that other people go on to cite. A link profile made only of followed links from sites nobody reads is the worse outcome of the two.
Should I buy backlinks?
Not if you want to keep the rankings. Google's spam policies name buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam, and the usual result is that the links get discounted and the money is gone — with a manual action as the tail risk. Paying for placement is fine when it is advertising and marked as sponsored; the problem is paying for a ranking signal and hiding the payment.