# Backlink

> What a backlink is, why the count matters far less than the number of distinct linking domains, and what the rel attribute changes.

Source: https://netweft.com/glossary/backlink
Updated: 2026-03-05

**A link from one website to a page on another. Search engines treat backlinks as a signal of relevance and trust, weighted heavily by the linking domain rather than by the raw number of links.**

A backlink is one page linking to another. The count of backlinks is the least
useful way to look at them.

**Domains beat links.** Five thousand links from one site are worth a fraction
of fifty links from fifty sites. This is why every serious link report leads
with referring domains rather than with a link total, and why a five-figure
backlink count in a sales deck should be read as a five-figure count of
footers.

**The attribute matters.** A link marked `rel="nofollow"`, `rel="sponsored"` or
`rel="ugc"` tells search engines not to pass the usual signal, or to treat it as
paid or user-generated. A link report that does not separate them is
overstating.

**Placement matters.** A link inside the body of a relevant article is a
different object from a link in a site-wide footer, even though both are one
row in a table.

[netweft's backlink reporting](/features/backlinks) covers the link summary, the
individual links, the [referring domains](/glossary/referring-domain) and the
pages a domain links out to, [priced per request](/pricing) rather than per
link.