How Many Backlinks Do I Need To Rank?

The quantity of backlinks needed to rank on Google depends on the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) competition for the keywords you want to rank. And your industry competitors. And your domain authority.

But if you want a stable ranking, building backlinks to pages has to be regular.

Before we talk about how many backlinks you need, or why you even need backlinks, let’s talk about what backlinks are.

What Are Backlinks?

Known also as ‘inbound links’, backlinks are incoming hyperlinks from a webpage. That means the link is from one website to a different website, rather than a different page of the same website.

Site A has an external link to Site B. This is a backlink on Site B from Site A.

Why Are Backlinks Important?

Search engines consider backlinks similarly to votes. For example, when you vote you are actively choosing one option over another. Backlinks work in a similar manner. It tells Google that the information your site offers is valuable and credible.

Websites with a higher number of backlinks will rank higher on the results pages.

Are All Backlinks Valuable?

It’s true that more backlinks is better, but quality also matters. If you have ten backlinks, good. That’s great. But are they all high-quality?

What do we mean by high-quality backlinks? ‘High-quality’ refers to links that come from credible, reputable websites. They have high domain authority and are well-trusted by both search engines and searchers. Backlinks from these websites are more advantageous to your own site.

Because these links are high-quality, it also means that one is worth more for your SEO. A few backlinks from a website with a lower domain authority of 40, for example, are worth less than just one backlink from a website with a domain authority of 80.

Therefore, high-quality backlinks are beneficial to your site and a solid foundation for link-building.

How Many Backlinks Do I Need?

Short answer? A lot.

But that also depends on different factors.

The difficulty of a keyword will reveal a rough estimate of backlinks necessary. The more difficult a keyword is to rank (typically because of high competition or the community of the word), the more backlinks you’ll need.

Your competition can also determine the amount of backlinks you need. Other organisations within your sector will probably be following the same rules for SEO. Seeing the amount of backlinks your competitors have provides you with a basic guide on how many to aim for. Why? To rank higher than them.

Building your domain authority will help tremendously. The higher your domain authority, the more credible your site is to searchers and other websites. That means that backlinks will come more naturally to your site. And you’ll also need less backlinks to rank high on the results page.

Consistency

You may think that once you have hundreds of backlinks, you’re done. But you’re not. Even when your site has a higher domain authority, you still need to create backlinks.

You may not need as many, but you still need new ones. Google doesn’t stop indexing the second you complete your main goal. It needs to see backlinks coming in naturally, and that they never stop. Otherwise it will affect your rankings.

Get In Touch

GrowTraffic is a multi-award-winning agency, specialising in SEO and digital marketing.

If you’re interested in starting or improving SEO on your website, then contact us!

You can call on 0161 706 0012, email [email protected] or fill out our contact form.