Backlinks
A backlink is a link from another website to yours. A referring domain is a website that links to you at least once; a site that links to you ten times is still one referring domain. Your Marketing Feed report counts both, and compares them with your competitors / peers. See Backlinks in Marketing Feed.
Why it matters
Section titled “Why it matters”Google treats a link from a relevant, trusted website as a vote that your page is worth showing. More referring domains from good sites generally means better rankings for competitive searches. Links from low-quality or spammy sites don’t help and can hurt.
What counts:
- Relevance: a link from a site in your industry or your area is worth more than a random directory.
- Trust: a link from a known publication, an industry body or a council site carries more weight than a brand-new blog.
- Variety: ten links from ten different sites beat ten links from one site.
- Follow links: some links carry a
nofolloworsponsoredtag telling Google not to count them. They still bring visitors.
How to earn them
Section titled “How to earn them”- Be listed where your industry is listed. Industry associations, supplier and partner pages, local business directories, chambers of commerce.
- Ask the people you already work with. Suppliers, clients, partners and sponsorships often have a page where they can link to you.
- Publish something worth citing. A useful guide, original data, a tool or a case study that other sites will reference.
- Local press and community. Sponsor an event, support a club, give a comment to a local journalist, and ask for a link in the write-up.
- Reclaim lost links. When the report shows a referring domain lost, check whether the page moved or your address changed, and ask for the link to be fixed. See 301 redirects.
- Fix what’s broken on your side. A link to a page that now 404s wastes the link. See 404 errors and broken pages.
What to avoid
Section titled “What to avoid”- Buying links or joining link schemes. Google penalises this.
- Mass directory submissions and comment spam.
- Swapping links with unrelated sites just for the link.
Check it worked
Section titled “Check it worked”The Backlinks section of your monthly report shows referring domains gained and lost each month. Search Console’s Links report, in the left menu, lists the top sites linking to you.
Google’s guide
Section titled “Google’s guide”Link spam policies (Google Search Central)