Glossary

What is a backlink?

By Youssef Hodaigui, Mindflow Marketing · Last reviewed November 1, 2026

A backlink is a link on another website that points to yours, such as a supplier's dealer page, a chamber directory or a local news story. Google uses links to find pages and judge what they're about, and says how many websites link to a business is part of how well known it is locally.

Not every link counts the same way. A link that was paid for, swapped or automated can count as link spam under Google's policies, so the question for an owner is less "how many" and more "from whom, and why."

Why do backlinks matter to Google?

Google uses links in two ways. It says it "uses links as a signal when determining the relevancy of pages and to find new pages to crawl." Locally, its Business Profile help says prominence is "based on info like how many websites link to your business." Links are one input, not a score you can buy.

The words in a link matter too. Google says good link text is "descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant." A supplier linking with your business name tells people more than "click here." But don't ask for stuffed keywords in the link. Google lists links "with optimized anchor text in articles, guest posts, or press releases" as link spam.

Which links should a contractor say yes to?

Links that exist because of a real relationship, and that a customer might actually click. Most contractors are offered the same handful of link deals, and Google's spam policies name several of them. Here's how each lines up, read November 1, 2026:

Offer	What Google's policy says	How to treat it
Supplier or distributor dealer page	Not named as spam	Accept; check your name and site address are right
Chamber of commerce or trade association directory	Not named as spam	Accept if you'd join anyway
Local news story or community page	Not named as spam	Accept; it's earned
Sponsoring a team or event in return for a link	Paid links are fine only if marked "sponsored" or "nofollow"	Sponsor for the goodwill, and expect the link to be marked
"Link to me and I'll link to you" partner pages	"Excessive link exchanges" are link spam	Decline swaps made only for links
Bulk directory or link packages	"Low-quality directory or bookmark site links" and automated link building are link spam	Decline
Your web designer's credit link on every client site	"Widely distributed links in the footers or templates of various sites" are link spam	Ask your designer to mark it nofollow, or remove it; it does nothing for your rankings

How is a backlink different from a citation or a referring domain?

A local citation is any listing or mention of your business name, address and phone number, with or without a link. A backlink is the link itself. A referring domain is the website the link sits on: ten links from one site are ten backlinks but one referring domain.

That distinction is why a report showing "500 new backlinks" can mean very little. Sitewide links, such as one link repeated in a site's footer, show up as hundreds of backlinks from a single domain. When an agency reports links, ask for referring domains and a sample of the actual pages. Our guide to evaluating an SEO proposal covers what to ask before you sign.

Can you buy backlinks?

You can buy advertising that includes a link, but the link shouldn't pass ranking credit. Google's spam policies list "Exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links" as link spam, and say paid links are fine "as long as they are qualified with a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute value."

Google says sites that break its spam policies "may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all." So a package promising a set number of high-authority links each month is a risk you carry, not the seller. The safer work is the kind that earns links on its own: being listed where your suppliers and associations list members, and doing things locally that are worth a story.

Related terms: Prominence · Local citation · Scaled content abuse · All glossary terms

Where to go next: The home-service SEO handbook shows where links fit after your Business Profile and service pages. Our local SEO page explains how we approach the whole job.

Sources

All read November 1, 2026.

Google Search Central, SEO link best practices for Google (last updated December 10, 2025)
Google Search Central, Qualify your outbound links to Google (last updated December 10, 2025)
Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search (last updated August 28, 2026)
Google Business Profile Help, Tips to improve your local ranking on Google

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