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The Madison Avenue Field GuideA field guide to marketing & advertising, by Brandon Mina

GlossaryBrand & Performance MarketingBacklink

Brand & Performance Marketing

Backlink

A link from another site to yours, a key signal of authority for search engines.

By Brandon MinaCEO, BrandPilot AIUpdated November 2026

Short answer

A backlink is a link from one website to a page on another website. Search engines treat backlinks as signals of authority and trust, so links from relevant, reputable sites can improve rankings. Quality matters more than quantity, and manipulative link schemes such as buying links violate Google's spam policies.