What Makes a Backlink Valuable? 8 Factors That Matter

Two links can both point to the same page while contributing very different
levels of context, visibility, trust, and SEO value.

This is why evaluating backlinks only by counting them can be misleading.

A website with 500 links is not automatically stronger than a website with
50 links. The quality, relevance, placement, context, and source of those links
can matter far more than the raw total.

The same problem appears when people rely entirely on a single third-party
metric such as Domain Rating, Domain Authority, or Trust Flow.

Those metrics can be useful for comparison, but they are estimates created by
SEO tools. They are not direct Google ranking scores.

A better way to evaluate a backlink is to look at several characteristics
together.

What Is a Backlink?

A backlink is a hyperlink from one website to another.

If Website A links to a page on Website B, Website B has received a backlink
from Website A.

Backlinks can serve several purposes.

• Help users discover additional information
• Help search engines discover webpages
• Connect related information across the web
• Provide context about the linked page
• Send referral traffic
• Contribute to signals associated with reputation and prominence

But the fact that a link exists does not automatically make it valuable.

Backlink Quality Is Multi-Dimensional

There is no single publicly available score that tells you exactly how valuable
a backlink is.

A practical evaluation usually considers several dimensions.

None of these factors should always be viewed in isolation.

1. Topical Relevance

Relevance is one of the first things worth examining.

A link tends to make more contextual sense when the linking page discusses a
subject related to the destination page.

For example, imagine a page about technical SEO receiving links from two
different articles.

Link A

An article about diagnosing crawling and indexing problems links to the
technical SEO guide.

Link B

An unrelated article about kitchen appliances contains the same link in the
middle of a paragraph.

The first relationship is much easier to understand.

A reader encountering the link can reasonably predict why the destination
might be useful.

That contextual relationship matters independently of any numerical authority
metric.

Relevance Can Exist at Several Levels

Do not evaluate relevance only at the domain level.

A broad site can still provide a highly relevant link if the individual page
and surrounding context are closely related to the destination.

2. The Quality of the Linking Page

A strong domain does not guarantee that every page on that domain is equally
valuable.

The individual linking page matters.

Ask questions such as:

• Is the page indexed?
• Does it contain substantial original content?
• Does the page appear to have a real purpose?
• Is the topic clearly defined?
• Does the page receive internal links?
• Is the page likely to be discovered by users or crawlers?

A forgotten page buried several levels deep with almost no internal
connections is different from an important article prominently linked
throughout the site.

3. The Overall Quality of the Website

The broader website also provides context.

A useful backlink source generally looks like a real website created for a
recognizable audience or purpose.

Things worth examining include:

• Whether the site has a consistent subject or editorial identity
• Whether articles appear to provide useful information
• Whether navigation and site structure make sense
• Whether the site contains excessive spam or unrelated topics
• Whether large numbers of pages exist primarily to host external links
• Whether the site appears actively maintained

No website needs to be perfect.

The point is to distinguish genuine publishing environments from pages that
appear to exist primarily to manufacture links.

4. Link Placement

Where a backlink appears can affect how meaningful it is to readers.

A contextual link inside the main body of a relevant article serves a clear
purpose.

A link hidden in a large footer containing hundreds of unrelated destinations
serves a very different purpose.

Common locations include:

• Main article content
• Author biography
• Navigation
• Sidebar
• Footer
• Comments
• Resource lists

Contextual Editorial Links

Links placed naturally inside useful editorial content are often easier to
justify because the surrounding text explains why the destination is relevant.

For example:

“Before diagnosing ranking issues, it helps to understand the difference
between crawling and indexing.”

A link on crawling and indexing has an obvious relationship
with that sentence.

Sitewide Links

A link appearing in a footer or sidebar across hundreds of pages may generate
many backlink records while representing only one underlying relationship.

This is one reason backlink counts should not always be interpreted literally.

5. Anchor Text

Anchor text is the clickable text of a hyperlink.

It can provide context about the destination.

Common anchor types include:

Descriptive anchor text can help readers understand what they are about to
visit.

However, an unnatural backlink profile where large numbers of unrelated sites
use exactly the same commercial keyword anchor can look very different from
naturally occurring web references.

Variation is normal because different people link in different ways.

6. Outbound Links and the Surrounding Link Environment

The number and nature of other external links on the same page can provide
important context.

Suppose two articles are otherwise similar.

Page A

Contains several carefully chosen references to relevant resources.

Page B

Contains dozens or hundreds of links to unrelated commercial websites.

The environments are clearly different.

This is where the concept of outbound links, sometimes
abbreviated as OBL, becomes useful during manual link review.

A high number of outbound links does not automatically make a page bad.

Directories, research pages, citations, and resource collections can naturally
contain many links.

The more useful question is:

Why do these links exist?

7. Referral Traffic and Real Visibility

A backlink can have value even before considering search rankings.

If real users encounter the link and visit the destination, it is functioning
as an actual web referral.

That makes questions about visibility useful.

• Does the linking page receive traffic?
• Is the link placed where people can see it?
• Would readers have a reason to click?
• Does the linking audience overlap with the destination audience?

A link that sends qualified visitors can be useful regardless of whether an
SEO tool assigns the domain an impressive score.

8. Third-Party Authority Metrics

SEO platforms frequently provide metrics designed to estimate the relative
strength of websites and link profiles.

Examples include:

• Domain Rating
• Domain Authority
• Trust Flow
• Citation Flow
• Page-level authority metrics

These metrics can help when comparing large numbers of potential links.

But they must be interpreted correctly.

They Are Tool-Specific

Different providers use different crawlers, databases, link graphs, formulas,
and update frequencies.

Therefore:

DR 50 is not the same measurement as DA 50 or TF 50.

They are separate metrics from separate systems.

They Are Not Google Scores

Third-party authority metrics should not be described as values assigned by
Google.

They are external estimates intended to help with SEO analysis.

Metrics Need Context

A domain may show a strong authority score while containing:

• Irrelevant content
• Large amounts of spam
• Weak individual pages
• Unusual link patterns
• Very little real audience activity

The score can still be useful, but it should not replace manual evaluation.

Domain-Level Metrics vs Page-Level Strength

A backlink originates from a specific page, not from a floating domain score.

This distinction matters.

Consider two possible backlinks:

Looking only at the domain metric would ignore important differences between
the actual linking pages.

Dofollow and Nofollow Links

SEO discussions often divide links into “dofollow” and “nofollow.”

Technically, a normal link does not require a
rel="dofollow" attribute.

A standard link is simply a link unless another relationship attribute is
specified.

Common attributes include:

• rel="nofollow"
• rel="sponsored"
• rel="ugc"

These attributes provide additional information about the relationship between
the pages.

Do Nofollow Links Have No Value?

That is too simplistic.

A nofollow link may still:

• Send referral traffic
• Expose a brand to a relevant audience
• Help users discover useful information
• Contribute to a natural variety of web mentions

A link’s usefulness should not always be reduced to one HTML attribute.

New Links vs Existing Links

A backlink does not become valuable simply because it is newly created.

Existing links on established pages can remain useful for years if the source
page continues to be accessible and relevant.

When reviewing an older link, check whether:

• The linking page still exists
• The page remains indexed
• The link is still present
• The destination still works
• The context remains relevant

Homepage Links vs Deep Page Links

Homepage links can be prominent, but they are not automatically better than
links from internal pages.

A highly relevant article may provide much stronger contextual alignment with a
specific destination than a generic homepage link.

For example:

A detailed article about local SEO linking to a local search guide has an
obvious topical relationship.

A homepage containing a small unrelated link may not provide the same context.

Link Relevance vs Authority: Which Matters More?

This question creates a false choice.

The strongest backlink opportunities often combine several good properties.

Authority and relevance provide different information.

You do not need to force every backlink into a single score.

Can a Low-Authority Website Provide a Good Backlink?

Yes.

A new or specialized website may have relatively modest third-party authority
metrics while still providing:

• Excellent topical relevance
• Original expert content
• A highly relevant audience
• Strong editorial placement
• Real referral traffic

A metric is one piece of evidence, not the complete identity of the website.

Can a High-Authority Website Provide a Weak Backlink?

Also yes.

A link from a strong domain may be less attractive if:

• The page is unrelated
• The link is buried among hundreds of unrelated links
• The page itself has almost no visibility
• The destination is inserted unnaturally
• The linking page is low quality or automatically generated

This is why manual inspection still matters.

What About Traffic Metrics?

Estimated organic traffic can provide additional context when reviewing a
website.

A site with substantial search visibility may indicate that many of its pages
are actively participating in search.

But estimated traffic has limitations.

SEO tools usually calculate these figures using:

• Keyword databases
• Estimated rankings
• Search volume estimates
• Estimated click-through rates

The result is an estimate, not direct analytics data.

Traffic estimates can therefore be useful for comparison without being treated
as exact visitor counts.

Language and Geographic Relevance

The audience of the linking site can also matter.

If a website primarily targets one country or language while the destination
serves a completely different audience, the link may provide less practical
referral value.

However, geographic differences are not automatically a problem.

International publications routinely link across countries when the information
is relevant.

Again, context matters more than a simple rule.

Editorial Links vs User-Generated Links

Links can originate through very different processes.

These links serve different purposes and should not automatically be evaluated
using exactly the same expectations.

Link Diversity Is More Than Domain Count

A backlink profile can be diverse in several ways.

• Different referring domains
• Different page types
• Different anchor text
• Different industries or related subtopics
• Different geographical sources
• Different link attributes

Simply increasing the number of referring domains does not automatically create
a healthy or useful link profile if all of those domains look essentially the
same.

What Is a Referring Domain?

A referring domain is a website that links to another website.

If one website links to you from 100 different pages, that may appear as:

• 100 backlinks
• 1 referring domain

This distinction helps explain why backlink totals can become very large.

The number of unique referring domains can sometimes provide more useful context
than total links, but it still does not measure quality by itself.

Beware of Easy Patterns

Weak link profiles often become easier to recognize when you stop looking at
individual links and look at the pattern.

Examples might include:

• Hundreds of unrelated domains using identical anchor text
• Large numbers of new links appearing in a very short period
• Links placed on pages containing unrelated commercial destinations
• Identical article templates across many sites
• Sites with no clear audience beyond hosting links

No single pattern proves that every link is problematic.

But unusual repetition should encourage deeper inspection.

A Practical Backlink Evaluation Framework

When reviewing an individual backlink, work through it in order.

Step 1: Check the Page

• Does the page load normally?
• Does it have a clear topic?
• Does the content appear useful?
• Is the link still present?

Step 2: Check Relevance

• Does the article relate to the destination?
• Does the surrounding paragraph make sense?
• Would a reader reasonably benefit from clicking?

Step 3: Check Placement

• Is the link in the main content?
• Is it visible?
• Is it buried among unrelated links?

Step 4: Check the Website

• Does the site have a coherent identity?
• Does it publish useful content?
• Does it appear actively maintained?
• Is the site dominated by unrelated outbound links?

Step 5: Review Metrics

Then look at third-party information such as:

• Authority metrics
• Estimated traffic
• Referring domains
• Link growth
• Page-level metrics

Metrics are more useful after the actual page and website have been inspected.

A Simple Backlink Quality Checklist

Do Not Reduce Backlink Quality to One Number

Backlink analysis becomes much less useful when every link is reduced to one
metric.

A domain score cannot tell you:

• Whether the article is relevant
• Whether the link is editorially sensible
• Whether the page contains 100 unrelated outbound links
• Whether the source sends real visitors
• Whether the anchor text looks natural
• Whether the site itself has a coherent purpose

Metrics help with scale.

Context helps with judgment.

The strongest backlink evaluations use both.

The Best Backlink Usually Makes Sense Without SEO

One useful test is to temporarily forget about ranking.

Ask:

Would this link still make sense if search engines did not exist?

Would a reader benefit from it?

Does it support the surrounding article?

Does the destination provide useful additional information?

Could it send relevant visitors?

When the answer is yes, the link already has a genuine function on the web.

That does not mean every valuable backlink must generate large amounts of
traffic or come from a famous publication.

It means the link has a reason to exist beyond simply increasing a number in an
SEO report.

That is usually a much stronger foundation for evaluating backlink quality.

For definitions of anchor text, backlink, authority, nofollow, and other
link-related terms, visit the
AF Search SEO Glossary.