# What is Backlinks?

What is Backlinks? Links from external sites — a 'vote of confidence' in Google's eyes. Quality links (from authoritative sites) impact ranking.

## How it works in practice

10 links from authoritative sites (a major newspaper, Wikipedia) beat 500 spammy links. One backlink from a major outlet outweighs 1,000 from spam sites — and comes without the penalty risk.

## Related metrics

- Domain Authority — built on backlinks
- SEO — off-page SEO
- Content Marketing — good content earns backlinks naturally
- PR — public relations generates backlinks

## Common misconception

'Buying backlinks works.' Buying 1,000 links on Fiverr triggers a Google penalty. Google has identified link networks and penalizes them.

## How to fix it

Lacking backlinks? (1) PR — press releases about interesting research, (2) guest posting, (3) broken link building, (4) supplier links — suppliers often link to stores they work with.

## Real-world example

A beauty store had 0 backlinks. They published research titled '10 Healthy Morning Habits.' Four journalists published it with a link. Domain authority rose from 8 to 24, organic traffic 4x within 6 months.

## Where to start

Build backlinks after on-page SEO. Order: technical → on-page → content → links.

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Category: SEO · From the [Jimmy OS KPI Glossary](https://jimmy-os.com/glossary/kpi.md) · Source page: https://jimmy-os.com/glossary/kpi/backlinks