Backlink
A link from another website to yours.
In plain English
Backlinks from relevant, trusted sites are a long-standing ranking signal in classic search, and pages that rank well are more likely to be read by AI tools. A link from your city’s business journal means more than dozens from unrelated sites.
In practice
A roofing company’s storm-prep guide gets linked by a local TV station’s weather page.
Related terms
Citations & visibilityStarter Third-party mentions What other sites say about you: reviews, news stories, directories, forums and industry lists. In practice, and related terms → Citations & visibilityPro Domain authority A rough sense of how trusted a whole website is, based mostly on who links to it. In practice, and related terms → AI search basicsStarter Search engine optimizationSEO Improving your site so it ranks higher in the classic list of links on Google and Bing. In practice, and related terms →