Key highlights
- Learn what are backlinks, how they work and how they influence your SEO strategy to improve your rankings and authority.
- Explore different backlink types like dofollow, nofollow, editorial and user-generated and their impact on your SEO efforts.
- Understand how to identify and remove toxic backlinks that can harm your site’s overall SEO performance.
- Discover how Bluehost hosting features, including speed, security and WordPress tools, can support your backlink-building strategy.
Introduction
Not sure why your amazing content still isn’t ranking on Google? It might not be your keywords; it’s your backlinks. Backlinks are one of Google’s top-ranking factors, yet most site owners struggle to build them the right way.
Whether you’re running a blog, business site or online store, understanding what backlinks in SEO are is crucial for growing your organic traffic. High-quality backlinks signal to search engines that your content is trustworthy and worth showing to users. However, some backlinks can actually hurt your SEO, particularly when they’re harmful.
In this blog, you’ll learn what backlinks are and why they’re important. We’ll also discuss how to build backlinks the right way and how Bluehost helps you create a fast, secure and SEO-ready site that’s worth linking to.
What is a backlink?
A backlink is a link from one website to another, also known as an incoming or external link. In SEO, backlinks are important because they signal to search engines that your site is trustworthy and relevant. The more high-quality backlinks you earn from authoritative and relevant links, the stronger your backlink profile becomes, helping improve your rankings.
Backlinks often appear on a specific page and they boost your SEO by directing more targeted traffic to your site. Through techniques like broken link building, you can replace existing backlinks with fresh links to your content, improving its visibility.
How do backlinks work in search engines?
Backlinks, often referred to as inbound links, are a critical factor in how search engines evaluate and rank websites. When another website links to your content, it signals search engines that your site is valuable and credible.
High-quality backlinks from authoritative websites can significantly boost your rankings. The more relevant, trustworthy sites that link to you, the better your chances of appearing higher in search results. That’s why understanding what backlinks are and how they impact SEO is essential for improving your search visibility and driving organic traffic.
However, not all backlinks are beneficial. Links from low-quality or spammy websites can hurt your rankings and damage your site’s authority. Focus on earning backlinks from reputable sources to strengthen your search performance and protect your SEO.
Also read: Website SEO Basics – How to Optimize your Content
Why are the different types of backlinks?
Backlinks are a key part of search engine optimization (SEO), signaling your website’s credibility and relevance to search engines. However, not all backlinks are equal. Their impact on your rankings, referral traffic and long-term SEO health can vary significantly.
In this section, we’ll explore the most common types of backlinks:
| Feature | Dofollow links | Nofollow links | Editorial links | Paid links | User-generated content links |
| Passes SEO value | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (if nofollow) | No |
| Brings referral traffic | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Easy to acquire | Moderate | Easy | Hard | Easy | Easy |
| Risk of penalty | Low | Low | Low | High | Medium |
| Longevity | Long-term | Short-term | Long-term | Short-term | Short-term |
| Boosts Domain Authority (DA) | High | Low | High | Low | Low |
While this table gives a quick overview, understanding what each backlink type means will help you make smarter SEO decisions. Let’s break them down.
1. What are dofollow backlinks?
Dofollow links are the most valuable backlinks for SEO. These links tell search engines to follow them and pass authority, also known as “link juice,” to the linked page. When a trusted website links to your content with a dofollow tag, it improves your site’s visibility and ranking potential in search results.
2. What are nofollow links?
Nofollow links don’t pass SEO value but can still bring referral traffic. Often used in blog comments, social media or paid advertisements, these links tell search engines not to follow them. While they don’t directly impact rankings, nofollow links can help increase brand awareness and user engagement, which are valuable for digital marketing.
3. What are editorial links?
Editorial links are backlinks you earn naturally when high-authority websites, such as reputable blogs, industry publications or news sites, link to your content because it’s helpful, unique or trustworthy.
These are among the best backlinks you can get; they’re trusted by search engines and improve your domain authority. Editorial links often bring more quality backlinks and boost your overall credibility.
4. What are paid links?
Paid links are placed on websites in exchange for payment, such as sponsored blog posts or advertising. If not marked correctly (usually with a nofollow or sponsored tag), they can violate Google’s guidelines and result in penalties. While they might drive short-term traffic, they carry a high risk of becoming toxic backlinks if misused.
5. What are user-generated content links?
User-generated content (UGC) links appear in forums, comment sections, reviews and social media posts. Since these links are created by users, they’re easy to acquire but often come from low-quality sites. While they may drive some traffic, UGC links can harm your SEO if they’re flagged as spam or appear in irrelevant or untrusted places.
Earning as many backlinks as possible isn’t always the goal, high-quality backlinks tend to offer far more value than low-quality ones. That’s why it’s essential to understand which backlinks help and which can hurt. Up next, we’ll cover why do backlinks matter for SEO.
Why do backlinks matter for SEO?
Backlinks remain one of the most important ranking signals for search engines in 2025. They serve as third-party validation, signaling to Google that your content is valuable and worth referencing.
Ever wondered what are backlinks in SEO? They are simply links from one website to another, each acting as a vote of confidence for your content. Understanding how backlinks affect search engine optimization (SEO) factors like rankings, authority and organic traffic is crucial for optimizing your site.
Let’s explore why backlinks are vital for SEO.
1. Google ranking power
Backlinks directly influence your Google ranking. Not all backlinks hold the same value; high-quality ones are far more impactful. The more valuable backlinks you earn, the better your chances of improving your rankings. These quality links signal to Google that your content is trustworthy, making them a powerful ranking factor.
2. Domain authority and trust
Backlinks or inbound links are crucial for building your site’s domain authority (DA). The more authoritative the sites linking to you, the stronger your DA becomes. High-quality backlinks from reputable websites signal to Google that your content is trustworthy.
As your domain authority grows, so does your ability to rank higher for competitive keywords. This reinforces the importance of knowing what are backlinks in SEO and how they contribute to building long-term authority.
3. Referral traffic potential
Backlinks also bring referral traffic. When a link appears on a site with an engaged audience, it can drive targeted traffic to your website. This traffic is often highly relevant, as users are already interested in the topic related to your content. Gaining more high-quality backlinks leads to more referral traffic, increased engagement and potentially higher conversions.
What are toxic backlinks and how can you remove them?
Toxic backlinks are low-quality links that can harm your website’s SEO performance and rankings. These backlinks often come from spammy, irrelevant or untrustworthy sources and can be seen as attempts to manipulate search engine rankings.
Knowing what are toxic backlinks and how they impact your site is essential to maintaining a clean and effective link profile. That’s why backlinks remain one of the most important ranking signals for search engines in 2025.
They serve as third-party validation, signaling to Google that your content is worth referencing. As a result, backlinks play a crucial role in SEO by influencing key factors like search rankings, domain authority and organic traffic, making them essential for optimizing your website.
What are the common sources of harmful links?
Toxic backlinks often come from the following sources:
- Spammy websites: Low-quality websites primarily created for link-building purposes, lacking valuable content.
- Link farms: Networks of websites designed solely for creating backlinks. They offer no real value to users and fail to support target keywords that can improve your rankings.
- Unrelated or irrelevant sites: Backlinks from sites that are irrelevant to your niche can signal a manipulation attempt to search engines.
- Paid links: Links purchased in violation of search engine guidelines are considered toxic, especially if not properly disclosed.
- Forum or blog comment spam: Links in irrelevant forum posts or low-quality blogs that focus on building backlinks rather than providing value.
How to remove toxic backlinks using Google’s Disavow tool?
To protect your website from toxic backlinks, it’s essential to monitor your backlink profile actively. If you discover harmful links, use the Disavow Tool in Google Search Console to tell Google not to consider these links when assessing your site.
Here’s how to use it:
- Find harmful backlinks: Use Google Search Console or SEO tools to identify spammy or unnatural links to your site.
- Request link removal: Contact the site owners and ask them to remove or nofollow those links.
- Prepare a disavow file:
- Use a plain text editor.
- List one URL or domain per line (e.g., domain:[example].com).
- Save the file as .txt using UTF-8 or ASCII encoding.
- Open the Disavow tool: Go to Google’s Disavow Tool.
- Select your site: Choose your verified website property in Search Console.
- Upload your file: Click “Upload disavow file” and submit your .txt file.
- Wait for changes to take effect: Google will process the file gradually, results may take several weeks.
Also read: Top 7 Ways on How to Find Out Who Built a Website
Regularly audit your backlinks and focus on acquiring high-quality, relevant links to prevent toxic backlinks from damaging your site’s SEO. Avoid shady link-building tactics to ensure your website maintains a strong and healthy backlink profile.
How to build high-quality backlinks the right way?
Building high-quality backlinks is essential for improving your website’s authority and SEO performance. However, it’s important to focus on ethical and sustainable link-building strategies that align with search engine guidelines.
Here are some proven methods to help you build quality backlinks effectively.
1. Create content designed to attract organic backlink
Creating exceptional, high-quality content is one of the best ways to attract natural backlinks. When your content provides value, solves problems or answers common questions, others will naturally want to link to it. Here are some content formats that encourage link-building:
- In-depth guides and tutorials: Comprehensive content that provides a step-by-step process on a topic.
- Infographics and visual assets: Visuals that summarize complex information in an easy-to-understand way, often shared across websites and social media.
- Case studies and original research: Data-driven content offering unique insights, making it highly shareable.
Focusing on creating valuable, engaging content will attract backlinks and enhance your brand’s reputation as a trusted authority in your niche.
2. Use guest blogging and HARO outreach-based links
Guest blogging and using platforms like HARO (Help a Reporter Out) are effective ways to build quality backlinks and increase your exposure:
- Guest blogging: Write informative blog posts for reputable sites in your niche. In return, you can include a link back to your site. Make sure the blogs you contribute to are authoritative and relevant to your industry to maximize SEO benefits.
- HARO outreach: HARO connects journalists with experts for article quotes. Responding to HARO requests can earn you backlinks from reputable media outlets, boosting your visibility and SEO.
Both methods help you acquire backlinks from authoritative sources and improve your brand’s credibility.
3. Reclaim lost links and learn from your competitors
Link reclamation and competitor research are great strategies to discover new backlink opportunities:
- Link reclamation: Use tools like Google Alerts or backlink analysis tools to track brand mentions across the web. If a mention doesn’t link back to your site, contact the site owner and request a backlink.
- Competitor research: Analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles with tools like Ahrefs or Semrush. By identifying valuable links they’ve earned, you can target these sites for your own backlink-building efforts.
Both link reclamation and competitor research allow you to uncover valuable link-building opportunities and enhance your backlink profile.
How can Bluehost hosting help you build a site worth linking to?
To generate backlinks, including both dofollow and nofollow backlinks, you need more than just great content. Authoritative backlinks signal trust and boost relevance in Google’s eyes. To attract these valuable links, your web page needs to be fast, secure and well-optimized for SEO.
At Bluehost, we provide the tools, performance and support needed to build a site that ranks higher and attracts valuable incoming links. Here’s how we help you create a site worth linking to:
1. Start with hosting that drives link building
We provide a variety of hosting options, including WordPress hosting and Cloud hosting. Selecting the right hosting solution is crucial for building a site that attracts backlinks from authoritative sources, which is key to improving your search engine optimization and rankings.
Our WordPress hosting is tailored for bloggers, service providers and content creators looking for fast, secure and SEO-optimized websites. These websites are built to attract backlinks from other reputable sources, improving your site’s SEO and overall authority. Whether you are focusing on creating content or offering services, Bluehost WordPress hosting supports your strategy to earn more quality backlinks.
Need help building a backlink-ready website? Try Bluehost WordPress Hosting, optimized for SEO and trusted by 5M+ users
If you’re launching an online store, our WooCommerce-optimized eCommerce Essentials and eCommerce Premium solutions come with secure payment tools and SEO features, enabling your target pages to rank higher in search results. This optimization helps attract backlinks from product roundups, niche blogs and industry publications.
3. Built-in SEO tools to attract more backlinks
All Bluehost hosting plans include built-in SEO features to help you rank higher and earn backlinks. Every website comes with the Yoast SEO plugin, which is essential for managing keywords, metadata and content readability. These are crucial elements for earning dofollow backlinks, which pass link equity and boost your site’s authority.
For online stores, Yoast WooCommerce SEO optimizes product pages for better visibility and backlink opportunities. With our eCommerce Premium plan, you also get additional features such as Yoast Video SEO and Yoast News SEO, which help expand your backlink opportunities by improving visibility in specialized search results.
Also read: The Best SEO Tools For Your Website in 2025
Pro tip: Use our Website SEO Checker to identify and resolve common issues like broken links or slow load times. If left unresolved, these issues can result in toxic backlinks — links from low-quality sites that can harm your rankings and SEO performance.
3. Uptime, speed and security for trust
Trust and authority in SEO are strongly tied to the performance and security of your website. This section explains how uptime, speed and security directly impact your SEO efforts and help you build trust with search engines and backlinking websites.
Uptime and performance:
Trust in your site’s authority is partially determined by its performance. Bluehost Cloud hosting guarantees 100% uptime reliability, ensuring your site remains accessible even during peak traffic times.
With SSD-powered servers and Cloudflare CDN integration, we deliver fast, consistent load speeds, a crucial factor for backlink acquisition. Faster websites perform better in search engine results and provide a superior user experience, which encourages other websites to link to your content.
Security and backup protection:
Security is vital for maintaining SEO health and building backlinks. All Bluehost plans include a free SSL certificate to protect user data, helping you establish trust with both users and search engines.
Additionally, our partnership with SiteLock provides DDoS protection, advanced firewalls and daily malware scans. With CodeGuard for automated daily backups, your site is safeguarded from data loss or corruption, ensuring it remains trustworthy and free from toxic backlinks.
Also read: How to Enable Cloudflare CDN
4. Get 24/7 WordPress expert support
Whether you are a beginner or an advanced user, our WordPress-trained experts are available 24/7 to assist with plugin issues, SEO settings and site speed concerns. By maintaining a well-optimized site, you can ensure a strong backlink profile over time — one that is free from toxic backlinks and designed to attract as many backlinks as possible from reputable sources.
By utilizing Bluehost’s hosting solutions and integrated SEO tools, you can greatly enhance your ability to earn high-quality backlinks from authoritative, relevant websites. Our hosting services empower you to build a fast, secure and SEO-optimized site, positioning you for long-term success in search engine rankings.
Final thoughts
Backlinks are one of the most powerful tools in your SEO strategy. They signal to search engines that your content is valuable, trustworthy and deserving of higher rankings. By understanding what backlinks are and why they matter, you can focus on acquiring high-quality links from authoritative, relevant sources. These valuable backlinks improve your site’s domain authority and boost rankings in Google search results.
Building a strong backlink profile starts with a solid, SEO-friendly website foundation. Your site must be fast, secure and optimized for search engines to attract quality backlinks.
Ready to enhance your backlink strategy? Start with Bluehost WordPress hosting to build a high-performing website that earns valuable backlinks and drives real SEO results.
FAQs
A backlink is a link from another website that points to your site, whereas a hyperlink is any link that connects one webpage to another, whether internal or external. Backlinks are essential for SEO as they signal to search engines that your content is trusted and authoritative.
Yes, backlinks remain crucial for SEO in 2025. They help improve your website’s authority, rankings and visibility, primarily when sourced from high-quality, relevant content or dofollow backlinks on reputable sites.
A high-quality backlink comes from authoritative, relevant websites, with keyword-rich anchor text pointing to your content. Websites related to your niche or resource pages that offer valuable content tend to provide the best backlinks.
To check who links to your website, you can use tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz Link Explorer or Majestic. These tools provide detailed information about your backlinks, including the domains linking to your site, anchor text and link quality. Simply enter your website URL into one of these tools to see who is linking to you and gain insights into your link profile. This data is essential for evaluating and improving your SEO strategy.
Yes, spammy or toxic backlinks can harm your SEO by causing search engine penalties. It’s essential to focus on building relevant backlinks from trusted sites and avoid dead links or low-quality, unrelated sites.
